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Patrician Logwood

#5438a7
Notes

Patrician Logwood (#5438A7) 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 (255°, 50%, 44%) 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 lime. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#5438a7
RGB
rgb(84, 56, 167)
HSL
hsl(255, 50%, 44%)
HWB
hwb(255 22% 35%)
OKLCH
oklch(43.9% 0.169 289.1)
HSV
hsv(255, 66%, 65%)
LAB
lab(32.92% 40.25 -55.67)
LCH
lch(32.92% 68.70 305.87)
CMYK
cmyk(50%, 66%, 0%, 35%)

Etymology

Patrician
adjective

Latin patrīcius, of the noble class — derived from pater (father). As a color modifier, patrician implies a saturated-and-aristocratic-and-Roman-Republic quality, the deep-rich color of Roman-Patrician-class toga and senatorial-livery hereditary-aristocratic dress. Sits at the bold-and-aristocratic end of the grid, parallel to senatorial and imperial.

Logwood
noun

Central American Haematoxylum campechianum — a tropical legume tree native to Yucatán and Belize, whose heartwood was the colonial-era principal source of haematein and hematoxylin dyes (also used for histology staining). Logwood color refers to a freshly logwood-mordant-dyed wool: a saturated, slightly cool deep blue-violet with the matte finish of haematein-on-iron-mordanted woolen fiber. Also the campeche of European calligraphy ink.

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

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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.

#5438a7
Original
#0050aa
Protanopia
#004ba5
Deuteranopia
#38536a
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
8.40:1
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
2.50:1

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