Murky Jiang
Murky Jiang (#42021A) is a deep magenta with a jewel character. It carries the deep, saturated richness of a gemstone. Authoritative and slightly formal, it works well for type and heavy UI elements. Its HSL profile (338°, 94%, 13%) places it in the highly saturated band at a dark lightness. Best used in small doses, like logos, CTAs, focus rings, or highlight text, where its saturation becomes a feature rather than noise. For a confident two-color system, pair it with its complementary teal. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.
Etymology
From Old Norse myrkr, darkness — sharing root with mirkwood. Murky implies low value combined with reduced clarity — the deep brown-greens of pond water, the dim interior of a smoke-blackened bar. Sits at the deep-and-dirtied end of the grid, where the color is both dark and slightly clouded.
A deep crimson historical Chinese color — used in the jiangcao (deep-crimson) silks of Tang-dynasty court robes and the lacquer of Han-period burial chambers. The color refers to a jiang-dyed silk in the Forbidden City collection: a deep, slightly cool dark red with the matte finish of multi-bath dyeing. Deeper than hong, cooler than karakurenai.
Closest matches
The nearest named color in three reference sources, ranked by perceptual distance (ΔE76 in CIELAB). ΔE < 1 is imperceptible to most viewers; ΔE > 10 is clearly different. When two sources point to the same hex they’re merged into one tile; click any to open that color’s page.
Variations
Click any swatch to exploreHarmonies
Accessibility
How this color appears to viewers with the four major color-vision-deficiency types. Computed via the Machado (2009) physiologically-based model. If a tile matches the original, the color reads the same to that viewer.
The color used as foreground text against pure white and pure black, with the contrast ratio and WCAG 2.1 grade. Aim for AA (4.5:1) for body text and AA Large (3:1) for 18 pt+ headlines; AAA (7:1) is the gold standard for long-form reading surfaces.