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Saturated Ether Indigo

#5238c1
Notes

Saturated Ether Indigo (#5238C1) 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 (251°, 55%, 49%) 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
#5238c1
RGB
rgb(82, 56, 193)
HSL
hsl(251, 55%, 49%)
HWB
hwb(251 22% 24%)
OKLCH
oklch(46.0% 0.201 283.9)
P3
color(display-p3 0.3063 0.2239 0.7286)
HSV
hsv(251, 71%, 76%)
LAB
lab(34.95% 47.67 -67.80)
LCH
lch(34.95% 82.88 305.11)
CMYK
cmyk(58%, 71%, 0%, 24%)

Etymology

Saturated
adjective

From the Latin saturatus, past participle of saturare, to fill. A technical color term in modern usage — saturation is one of the three axes of HSL (with hue and lightness). As a modifier, saturated implies that the hue is at or near its maximum chromatic intensity. Sits at the bold-and-bright top of the grid.

Ether
modifier

Greek αἰθήρ, upper-air-or-quintessence. As a color modifier, ether implies a luminiferous-and-pure-upper-air quality, the visual register of Aristotelian-quintessence-and-luminiferous-ether hand-luminiferous-and-pure-upper-air Aristotelian-quintessence-and-luminiferous-and-Newtonian ether-and-luminiferous-and-pure-upper-air surfaces under Aristotelian-quintessence-and-luminiferous-and-Newtonian celestial-spheres-and-natural-philosophy upper-air-light. Sits at the modifier-and-cosmic end of the grid, parallel to plasma and nebula in usage.

Indigo
noun

Indigofera tinctoria, the South Asian legume whose leaves yield the deep blue dye that has clothed humanity for at least four thousand years — Egyptian linen, Mayan textile, the slave-grown plantations of Carolina. The color refers to a freshly indigo-dyed cotton thread: a saturated, slightly violet-shifted deep blue with the slight lustre of a fiber surface oxidized in air. Deeper than cobalt, cooler than royal.

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.

#5238c1
Original
#0056c5
Protanopia
#004ebe
Deuteranopia
#155d79
Tritanopia
#474747
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
7.79:1
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
2.69:1

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
##5238C1
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.3063 0.2239 0.7286)
P3 has visible headroomOKLCH chroma 0.201

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.

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