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Rich Larkspur

#503cb5
Notes

Rich Larkspur (#503CB5) 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 (250°, 50%, 47%) 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
#503cb5
RGB
rgb(80, 60, 181)
HSL
hsl(250, 50%, 47%)
HWB
hwb(250 24% 29%)
OKLCH
oklch(45.3% 0.182 284.0)
HSV
hsv(250, 67%, 71%)
LAB
lab(34.54% 41.47 -61.39)
LCH
lch(34.54% 74.09 304.04)
CMYK
cmyk(56%, 67%, 0%, 29%)

Etymology

Rich
adjective

Old French riche, wealthy, abundant — applied to color since the medieval period for hues that read as plentiful in pigment. Rich red, rich brown: the implication is depth combined with saturation, a color that gives the eye more to absorb. Sits at the saturated mid-light corner of the engine's grid, slightly warmer than bold and deeper than vivid.

Larkspur
noun

Delphinium consolida and its garden cousins — the tall spired wildflower of European meadows whose name means little lark for the spurred shape of its blossoms. The color refers to a fresh larkspur stalk in cottage-garden bloom: a saturated, slightly violet-shifted blue with the matte finish of multi-petaled flowers stacked along a single stem. Cooler than cornflower, warmer than periwinkle, with the literary weight of a flower in Tennyson and Heaney alike.

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.

#503cb5
Original
#0055b9
Protanopia
#004db3
Deuteranopia
#205b73
Tritanopia
#494949
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
7.91:1
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
2.65:1

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