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Certain Aries Mulberry

#693c9a
Notes

Certain Aries Mulberry (#693C9A) 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 (269°, 44%, 42%) 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
#693c9a
RGB
rgb(105, 60, 154)
HSL
hsl(269, 44%, 42%)
HWB
hwb(269 24% 40%)
OKLCH
oklch(45.8% 0.149 303.0)
P3
color(display-p3 0.3874 0.2437 0.5838)
HSV
hsv(269, 61%, 60%)
LAB
lab(35.14% 38.98 -44.13)
LCH
lch(35.14% 58.88 311.45)
CMYK
cmyk(32%, 61%, 0%, 40%)

Etymology

Certain
adjective

Latin certus, fixed / sure — sharing root with English concern and certify. As a color modifier, certain implies a saturated-and-unambiguous quality where the hue declares its character without hesitation. Sits at the bold-and-confident end of the grid, parallel to assured and decisive in usage.

Aries
modifier

Latin aries, ram-of-the-fleece. As a color modifier, aries implies a ram-and-fire-sign-and-Mars-ruled-cardinal-fire quality, the visual register of Babylonian-ram-and-Greek-Aries hand-ram-and-fire-sign-and-Mars-ruled-cardinal-fire Babylonian-ram-and-Greek-Aries-and-Golden-Fleece aries-and-ram-and-fire-sign surfaces under Babylonian-ram-and-Greek-Aries-and-Golden-Fleece spring-equinox-and-March-and-April fire-sign-light. Sits at the modifier-and-zodiac end of the grid, parallel to taurus and gemini in usage.

Mulberry
noun

The genus Morus — the white mulberry (M. alba) feeds silkworms; the black mulberry (M. nigra) bears the deep purple fruit that stains everything it touches. The color refers to a ripe black mulberry: a saturated, slightly red-shifted very deep purple with the slight juiciness of a compound fruit. Cooler than wine, warmer than indigo, with the agricultural weight of a tree that supported the entire Chinese silk industry for two thousand years.

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.

#693c9a
Original
#09529d
Protanopia
#235298
Deuteranopia
#604f65
Tritanopia
#4c4c4c
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
7.74:1
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
2.71:1

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
##693C9A
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.3874 0.2437 0.5838)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.149

Moderately saturated colors gain a small bump in P3 — the difference is usually visible side-by-side on wide-gamut hardware but won't change the character of the color.

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