Hooded Orchid
Hooded Orchid (#471D79) is a deep indigo 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 (267°, 61%, 29%) places it in the balanced band at a dark lightness. It works well as a headline, icon, or deep background in an otherwise light layout, pairing cleanly with cream, bone, and warm neutrals. For a confident two-color system, pair it with its complementary lime. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.
Etymology
Old English hōd, hood — past-participle of hood, sharing root with German Hut (hat). As a color modifier, hooded implies the deep-and-veiled-and-fabric-shrouded quality of monk-and-friar enveloping-cowled-cloak silhouette in Cistercian-and-Benedictine monastic tradition. Sits at the deep-and-veiled end of the grid, parallel to cloaked and mantled with monastic register.
The Orchidaceae — the largest plant family, with over 28,000 named species across every continent except Antarctica. The color orchid refers specifically to the lip color of Cattleya labiata, the Brazilian orchid that drove Victorian collecting fervor: a saturated, slightly cool pink-purple with the velvet finish of high-density floral tissue. Lighter than violet, warmer than amethyst, with the floral-trade weight of a plant family that names the color.
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.