Shadowed Cattleya
Shadowed Cattleya (#52176A) 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 (283°, 64%, 25%) places it in the balanced band at a dark lightness. It works well as a headline, icon, or deep background in an otherwise light layout, pairing cleanly with cream, bone, and warm neutrals. 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
The past participle of shadow, used adjectivally for a color that reads as if partially in shadow rather than fully lit. Implies the slight darkening and cooling that any color undergoes when light is reduced — not the absence of color but the muting of it. Sits in the deep-and-cool end of the engine's grid, lighter than inky and warmer than somber.
South American corsage orchid (Cattleya labiata) — a Brazilian-native epiphytic orchid genus cultivated worldwide for its large frilled-lipped deep-violet flowers, the standard ornamental orchid of mid-20th-century corsage culture. Cattleya color refers to a fully bloomed Cattleya labiata labellum-and-petal: a saturated, slightly cool deep violet with the velvet finish of fresh frilled labellum. Named for William Cattley, an English orchid patron.
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.