Tarry Spurrite
Tarry Spurrite (#570950) 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 (305°, 81%, 19%) places it in the highly saturated band at a dark lightness. Best used in small doses, like logos, CTAs, focus rings, or highlight text, where its saturation becomes a feature rather than noise. 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
Old English teru, tar — adjectival suffix -y. As a color modifier, tarry implies the deep-glossy-black quality of bitumen-and-petroleum-tar viscous-residue surfaces, particularly the La-Brea-and-Trinidad-Pitch-Lake natural-asphalt seeps. Sits at the deep-and-warm end of the grid, parallel to pitchy and bituminous in usage.
Rare calcium silicate-carbonate mineral first described from the Velardeña mine of Durango, Mexico, in 1909. The mineral is named for Josiah Edward Spurr, an American economic geologist of the early 20th century. Spurrite color refers to a deep-violet Velardeña spurrite massive specimen: a saturated, slightly cool deep violet with the matte finish of fine-grained calcium silicate-carbonate. The color comes from trace manganese substitution in the calcium sites.
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.