Fathomless Porpora
Fathomless Porpora (#860118) is a deep red 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 (350°, 99%, 26%) 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 teal. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.
Etymology
Fathom (Old English fæthm, six-foot span used to measure water-depth) plus suffix -less. As a color modifier, fathomless implies a depth of saturation-and-darkness that resists the eye's attempt to gauge it. Sits at the deepest end of the deep-bucket grid, beyond ordinary measure of color-depth perception.
The Italian word for the imperial purple of Roman tradition — derived from murex shells but borrowed in modern Italian color vocabulary for a deep, slightly red-shifted purple-red. The color refers to porpora-dyed Venetian silk: a saturated, slightly cool deep red-purple with the satin finish of plant-and-shell dye. Cooler than crimson, warmer than burgundy.
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.