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Heavy Monk Tanzanite

#5039ab
Notes

Heavy Monk Tanzanite (#5039AB) is a true indigo 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 (252°, 50%, 45%) 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
#5039ab
RGB
rgb(80, 57, 171)
HSL
hsl(252, 50%, 45%)
HWB
hwb(252 22% 33%)
OKLCH
oklch(44.0% 0.173 286.2)
HSV
hsv(252, 67%, 67%)
LAB
lab(33.07% 40.14 -57.84)
LCH
lch(33.07% 70.40 304.76)
CMYK
cmyk(53%, 67%, 0%, 33%)

Etymology

Heavy
adjective

Old English hefig, weighty — cognate with heave. Used as a color modifier since at least the seventeenth century to indicate weight in saturation as much as value: heavy with pigment, heavy-bodied. In the engine's adjective grid, heavy sits alongside deep and plush in the dark-and-saturated quadrant. Closer to a fabric description than a pure value word.

Monk
modifier

Latin monachus, solitary-religious-man. As a color modifier, monk implies a Cistercian-and-Benedictine-monastic quality, the visual register of Cistercian-and-Benedictine-Monk hand-spun robe-and-cowl-and-scapular Cistercian-and-Benedictine-and-Trappist-monastic surfaces under Cistercian-and-Benedictine-Trappist-monastic hand-spun-robe candlelit-cloister light. Sits at the modifier-and-cultural end of the grid, parallel to friar and nun in usage.

Tanzanite
noun

A blue-violet variety of zoisite — discovered in 1967 in a single small area of northern Tanzania near Mount Kilimanjaro and marketed by Tiffany & Co. shortly after. The color refers to a faceted tanzanite cut to maximize its strong pleochroism: a saturated, slightly violet-shifted deep blue-purple with the gem's signature internal life. Cooler than amethyst, warmer than iolite, with the gem-trade specificity of a stone that occurs in exactly one place on Earth.

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.

#5039ab
Original
#0051af
Protanopia
#004aa9
Deuteranopia
#2c556d
Tritanopia
#464646
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
8.35:1
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
2.51:1

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