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Tomblike Petunia

#551f7e
Notes

Tomblike Petunia (#551F7E) is a deep indigo 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 (274°, 61%, 31%) 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 lime. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#551f7e
RGB
rgb(85, 31, 126)
HSL
hsl(274, 61%, 31%)
HWB
hwb(274 12% 51%)
OKLCH
oklch(37.2% 0.152 306.2)
HSV
hsv(274, 75%, 49%)
LAB
lab(25.01% 42.38 -43.30)
LCH
lch(25.01% 60.59 314.38)
CMYK
cmyk(33%, 75%, 0%, 51%)

Etymology

Tomblike
adjective

Greek tymbos, tomb — adjectival suffix -like. As a color modifier, tomblike implies the deep-and-funereal-and-sepulchral quality of Etruscan-and-Egyptian rock-cut royal-tomb interiors, particularly the Valley-of-the-Kings and Cerveteri-necropolis hand-carved chamber-painting walls. Sits at the deep-and-funereal end of the grid, parallel to sepulchral and crypted.

Petunia
noun

Petunia × atkinsiana, the modern garden hybrid bred from South American Petunia species in the nineteenth century — now the most-planted annual bedding flower in North America. The color refers to a deep purple petunia in summer container bloom: a saturated, slightly red-shifted deep purple with the satiny finish of trumpet-shaped flowers. Cooler than orchid, warmer than violet, with the bedding-plant weight of a genus bred for nearly endless color and continuous bloom.

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.

#551f7e
Original
#003a81
Protanopia
#003c7c
Deuteranopia
#4e364d
Tritanopia
#313131
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
11.15:1
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
1.88:1

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