Sullen Carthage
Sullen Carthage (#4E0649) is a deep violet with a jewel character. It carries the deep, saturated richness of a gemstone. Authoritative and slightly formal, it works well for type and heavy UI elements. Its HSL profile (304°, 86%, 16%) places it in the highly saturated band at a dark lightness. Best used in small doses, like logos, CTAs, focus rings, or highlight text, where its saturation becomes a feature rather than noise. For a confident two-color system, pair it with its complementary green. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.
Etymology
Old French solain, solitary via Anglo-French solein. As a color modifier, sullen implies a deep-and-cool-and-withholding quality, the dark cool-gray of Norwegian-fjord mid-winter atmospheric-overcast and saturated-saltwater-cliff in late-November light. Sits at the deep-and-cool end of the grid, parallel to gloomy and saturnine in atmospheric tone.
Phoenician colonial capital on the Tunis coast (founded 814 BCE) — and a major secondary Tyrian purple production site supplying the western Mediterranean trade network. Carthage color refers to a Carthaginian trade-textile fragment from the Byrsa hill citadel: a saturated, slightly cool deep violet with the matte finish of multi-bath Bolinus brandaris shellfish dye on hand-loomed Punic wool.
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.