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Reflective Bellflower

#4c4d69
Notes

Reflective Bellflower (#4C4D69) 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 (238°, 16%, 35%) 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 yellow. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#4c4d69
RGB
rgb(76, 77, 105)
HSL
hsl(238, 16%, 35%)
HWB
hwb(238 30% 59%)
OKLCH
oklch(43.1% 0.046 282.7)
P3
color(display-p3 0.2987 0.3018 0.4034)
HSV
hsv(238, 28%, 41%)
LAB
lab(33.70% 6.57 -16.33)
LCH
lch(33.70% 17.60 291.92)
CMYK
cmyk(28%, 27%, 0%, 59%)

Etymology

Reflective
adjective

Latin reflectere, to bend back — adjectival suffix -ive. As a color modifier, reflective implies a hushed-and-thoughtful-and-mirroring quality where the hue carries the visual register of Quaker-and-Friends-meeting-house still-and-meditative interior-architecture. Sits at the hushed-and-still end of the grid, parallel to meditative and contemplative in usage.

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.

#4c4d69
Original
#45506a
Protanopia
#444e68
Deuteranopia
#455257
Tritanopia
#4f4f4f
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
8.16:1
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
2.57:1

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
##4C4D69
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.2987 0.3018 0.4034)
Inside sRGBOKLCH chroma 0.046

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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