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Sovereign Fairywren

#4e59ea
Notes

Sovereign Fairywren (#4E59EA) is a true blue with a vibrant character. It holds its own as a focal accent, carrying visual weight without tipping into neon territory. Its HSL profile (236°, 79%, 61%) places it in the highly saturated band at a mid 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 yellow. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#4e59ea
RGB
rgb(78, 89, 234)
HSL
hsl(236, 79%, 61%)
HWB
hwb(236 31% 8%)
OKLCH
oklch(54.4% 0.215 273.5)
P3
color(display-p3 0.3141 0.3477 0.8848)
HSV
hsv(236, 67%, 92%)
LAB
lab(45.22% 41.04 -74.55)
LCH
lch(45.22% 85.10 298.83)
CMYK
cmyk(67%, 62%, 0%, 8%)

Etymology

Sovereign
adjective

Old French soverain, supreme — derived from Latin super (above). As a color modifier, sovereign implies a saturated-and-royal-supremacy quality where the hue carries imperial-ruling-class register. Sits at the bold-and-imperial end of the grid, parallel to regal and imperial in tone.

Fairywren
noun

Australian Splendid Fairywren (Malurus splendens) — a small Maluridae passerine of arid southern Australia, whose breeding-plumage males are a luminous all-over violet-blue. Fairywren color refers to a breeding-plumage male Malurus splendens in mulga scrub: a saturated, slightly cool deep blue-violet with the iridescent satin finish of structurally colored feather barbs over melanin substrate. Among the most saturated naturally occurring blue-violets in vertebrate plumage.

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.

#4e59ea
Original
#0072ef
Protanopia
#0064e7
Deuteranopia
#007e99
Tritanopia
#616161
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).
AAon White
5.33:1
The quick brown foxSample body text at normal size. The wcag minimum for body contrast is 4.5:1 (AA) or 7:1 (AAA).
AA Largeon Black
3.94:1

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
##4E59EA
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.3141 0.3477 0.8848)
P3 has visible headroomOKLCH chroma 0.215

This color is chromatic enough that authoring it as P3 native (instead of clamping to sRGB) gives a perceptibly more saturated render on wide-gamut displays — modern Macs, iPhones, iPads, and most recent OLED laptops.

Related Colors

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