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Sovereign Ciliegia

#851b76
Notes

Sovereign Ciliegia (#851B76) 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 (308°, 66%, 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 green. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#851b76
RGB
rgb(133, 27, 118)
HSL
hsl(308, 66%, 31%)
HWB
hwb(308 11% 48%)
OKLCH
oklch(43.6% 0.171 334.7)
P3
color(display-p3 0.4787 0.1446 0.4489)
HSV
hsv(308, 80%, 52%)
LAB
lab(31.99% 52.97 -26.62)
LCH
lch(31.99% 59.28 333.32)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 80%, 11%, 48%)

Etymology

Sovereign
adjective

Old French soverain, supreme — derived from Latin super (above). As a color modifier, sovereign implies a saturated-and-royal-supremacy quality where the hue carries imperial-ruling-class register. Sits at the bold-and-imperial end of the grid, parallel to regal and imperial in tone.

Ciliegia
noun

Italian for cherry (Prunus avium) — the deep-red-purple drupe of European sweet cherry, the iconic summer fruit of Tuscan and Apennine hill country. Ciliegia color refers to a freshly picked Prunus avium drupe-cluster from a Romagna orchard: a saturated, slightly cool deep magenta with the glossy finish of anthocyanin-rich cherry skin against pale flesh. Warmer than French cerise.

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.

#851b76
Original
#1a4178
Protanopia
#425174
Deuteranopia
#8c2547
Tritanopia
#383838
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
8.69:1
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
2.42:1

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
##851B76
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.4787 0.1446 0.4489)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.171

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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