colors
Back to gallery

Sepulchral Bellflower

#472889
Notes

Sepulchral Bellflower (#472889) is a true indigo with an earthy character. It leans grounded and natural, the kind of color that plays well with wood, clay, linen, and warm neutrals. Its HSL profile (259°, 55%, 35%) places it in the balanced band at a mid lightness. It works across type, buttons, and borders, saturated enough to feel deliberate but balanced enough to not fight the rest of the palette. 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.

HEX
#472889
RGB
rgb(71, 40, 137)
HSL
hsl(259, 55%, 35%)
HWB
hwb(259 16% 46%)
OKLCH
oklch(37.7% 0.152 292.2)
P3
color(display-p3 0.2615 0.1625 0.5173)
HSV
hsv(259, 71%, 54%)
LAB
lab(25.75% 37.98 -49.07)
LCH
lch(25.75% 62.05 307.73)
CMYK
cmyk(48%, 71%, 0%, 46%)

Etymology

Sepulchral
adjective

Latin sepulcrālis, of the burial-place — adjectival form of sepulcrum. As a color modifier, sepulchral implies the deep funereal-and-formal darkness of Holy-Sepulchre-and-rock-cut royal-tomb interiors of medieval-and-Renaissance Christendom. Sits at the deep-and-funereal end of the grid, parallel to entombed and funereal in tone, both literary and architectural.

Bellflower
noun

The genus Campanula — Latin for little bell — small to mid-sized perennials whose bell-shaped blue or violet flowers fill rock gardens and herbaceous borders across temperate climates. The color refers to a fresh Campanula medium canterbury bell: a saturated, slightly violet-shifted blue with the matte finish of a single bell-form flower. Cooler than periwinkle, warmer than larkspur, with the cottage-garden weight of a plant that names an entire genus and 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 explore

Harmonies

Accessibility

Color-vision simulation

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.

#472889
Original
#003e8c
Protanopia
#003b87
Deuteranopia
#334055
Tritanopia
#363636
Achromatopsia
WCAG contrast

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.

The quick brown foxSample body text at normal size. The wcag minimum for body contrast is 4.5:1 (AA) or 7:1 (AAA).
AAAon White
10.87:1
The quick brown foxSample body text at normal size. The wcag minimum for body contrast is 4.5:1 (AA) or 7:1 (AAA).
Failon Black
1.93:1

Wide gamut

Display P3 representation

The CSS Color 4 wide-gamut form of this color. Both swatches render the same color on every display — the P3 form only diverges from sRGB when a designer pushes channels outside sRGB's reach.

sRGB hex
sRGB hex
##472889
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.2615 0.1625 0.5173)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.152

Moderately saturated colors gain a small bump in P3 — the difference is usually visible side-by-side on wide-gamut hardware but won't change the character of the color.

Related Colors

Canvas