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Unblemished Toadflax

#4a517a
Notes

Unblemished Toadflax (#4A517A) 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 (231°, 24%, 38%) places it in the muted 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 amber. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#4a517a
RGB
rgb(74, 81, 122)
HSL
hsl(231, 24%, 38%)
HWB
hwb(231 29% 52%)
OKLCH
oklch(44.7% 0.068 275.9)
P3
color(display-p3 0.2953 0.3168 0.4665)
HSV
hsv(231, 39%, 48%)
LAB
lab(35.49% 8.28 -24.17)
LCH
lch(35.49% 25.55 288.92)
CMYK
cmyk(39%, 34%, 0%, 52%)

Etymology

Unblemished
adjective

Old French blesmir, to wound — negative-prefix un- plus past-participle of blemish. As a color modifier, unblemished implies a clear-and-flawless quality where the hue carries no defect or imperfection. Sits at the crisp-and-clean end of the grid, parallel to pristine and spotless in usage.

Toadflax
noun

Eurasian Linaria vulgaris and L. purpureasnapdragon cousins with hooded violet-and-yellow flowers naturalized across temperate roadsides and waste-ground. Toadflax color refers to a fully bloomed Linaria purpurea spike: a saturated, slightly cool deep blue-violet with the matte finish of dense small two-lipped snapdragon-form flowers. The Old English name refers to the linear flax-like foliage of the wild Linaria genus.

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.

#4a517a
Original
#44557c
Protanopia
#405279
Deuteranopia
#3c5960
Tritanopia
#525252
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
7.64:1
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
2.75:1

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
##4A517A
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.2953 0.3168 0.4665)
Inside sRGBOKLCH chroma 0.068

This color sits well within the sRGB cube. P3 and sRGB share the gray axis and most desaturated tones, so a P3 display renders this identically to an sRGB display.

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