Somber Plum
Somber Plum (#48288B) 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.
Etymology
From the French sombre, dark, gloomy — itself from the Latin sub umbra, under shadow. Used as a color word since the eighteenth century to imply restrained darkness — the deep grays and blue-blacks of mourning dress and Victorian parlor decoration. Sits in the deep-and-quiet end of the grid, closer to brooding than to charred.
Prunus domestica, the European plum cultivated since at least the time of Greek and Roman orchards. The color refers to the skin of a ripe Damson or Methley plum at peak ripeness: a deep, slightly red-shifted purple-blue with the slight bloom of waxy fruit surface. Cooler than mulberry, warmer than indigo, with the orchard weight of a fruit whose skin and flesh are different colors — and the skin is the namesake.
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.