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Punchy Glicine

#493a9f
Notes

Punchy Glicine (#493A9F) is a true blue 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 (249°, 47%, 43%) 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 yellow. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#493a9f
RGB
rgb(73, 58, 159)
HSL
hsl(249, 47%, 43%)
HWB
hwb(249 23% 38%)
OKLCH
oklch(42.6% 0.157 284.3)
HSV
hsv(249, 64%, 62%)
LAB
lab(31.68% 34.52 -52.92)
LCH
lch(31.68% 63.18 303.12)
CMYK
cmyk(54%, 64%, 0%, 38%)

Etymology

Punchy
adjective

A modern adjectival form of punch, to strike sharply. Used as a color word since the early twentieth century for hues that read as highly contrasting and visually loud. Punchy red, punchy yellow: the implication is full saturation combined with optical impact. Sits across the bold and bright buckets, near vivid and striking.

Glicine
noun

Italian for Wisteria sinensis, the cascading purple-violet flowering vine introduced from China to European gardens in 1816. Glicine color refers to a fully bloomed Glicine raceme on a Tuscan pergola: a saturated, slightly cool deep blue-violet with the velvet finish of dense pendulous wisteria racemes. Stocks as a fashion-color name in early-20th-century Italian millinery and Liberty-style enamels.

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.

#493a9f
Original
#004ea2
Protanopia
#00479d
Deuteranopia
#255267
Tritanopia
#444444
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
8.79:1
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
2.39:1

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