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Substantial Stole Indigo

#6d51b0
Notes

Substantial Stole Indigo (#6D51B0) 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 (258°, 38%, 50%) 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
#6d51b0
RGB
rgb(109, 81, 176)
HSL
hsl(258, 38%, 50%)
HWB
hwb(258 32% 31%)
OKLCH
oklch(51.1% 0.146 294.3)
P3
color(display-p3 0.4106 0.3220 0.6681)
HSV
hsv(258, 54%, 69%)
LAB
lab(41.64% 33.71 -46.82)
LCH
lch(41.64% 57.69 305.76)
CMYK
cmyk(38%, 54%, 0%, 31%)

Etymology

Substantial
adjective

Latin substantia, substance — adjectival suffix -al, derived from sub-stāre (to stand under). As a color modifier, substantial implies a saturated-and-weighty-and-material quality where the hue carries visual mass and presence. Sits at the bold-and-weighty end of the grid, parallel to weighty and hefty in usage.

Stole
modifier

Latin stola, Roman-women's-and-priestly-robe. As a color modifier, stole implies a Roman-women's-and-priestly-robe quality, the visual register of Roman-stola-and-Catholic-priestly-stole hand-Roman-women's-and-priestly-robe Roman-stola-and-Catholic-priestly-stole-and-Anglican-tippet stole-and-Roman-women's-and-priestly-robe surfaces under Roman-stola-and-Catholic-priestly-stole-and-Anglican-tippet Republican-Rome-and-Catholic-Mass-and-Anglican-Vespers Roman-and-Mass-light. Sits at the modifier-and-textile end of the grid, parallel to cope and robe 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.

#6d51b0
Original
#2863b3
Protanopia
#2f61ae
Deuteranopia
#5c6479
Tritanopia
#5e5e5e
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).
AAon White
6.08:1
The quick brown foxSample body text at normal size. The wcag minimum for body contrast is 4.5:1 (AA) or 7:1 (AAA).
AA Largeon Black
3.45:1

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
##6D51B0
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.4106 0.3220 0.6681)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.146

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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