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Aged Iconography

#8a8ba3
Notes

Aged Iconography (#8A8BA3) is a true blue with a cool character. It leans cool, sitting on the blue, green, and violet side of the wheel. Quiet and dependable, a fit for product UI and data visualization. Its HSL profile (238°, 12%, 59%) places it in the muted 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 yellow. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#8a8ba3
RGB
rgb(138, 139, 163)
HSL
hsl(238, 12%, 59%)
HWB
hwb(238 54% 36%)
OKLCH
oklch(64.4% 0.036 283.5)
P3
color(display-p3 0.5419 0.5450 0.6315)
HSV
hsv(238, 15%, 64%)
LAB
lab(58.52% 4.71 -12.79)
LCH
lch(58.52% 13.63 290.20)
CMYK
cmyk(15%, 15%, 0%, 36%)

Etymology

Aged
adjective

The past participle of age — used as a color modifier since the seventeenth century for hues that have changed through time. Aged paper, aged copper: low-to-moderate saturation combined with the optical impression of patina. Sits at the hushed-bucket alongside weathered and antique.

Iconography
noun

Greek eikonographia, image-writing — adopted into Western art history as the technical term for image-symbolism, particularly the deep-violet-and-gold Russian-school and Greek-school religious panels of Theotokos (Mother of God) icons. Iconography color refers to a Russian-school Theotokos of Vladimir icon's deep-blue robe field: a saturated, slightly cool deep blue-violet with the matte finish of egg-tempera-bound ultramarine over gesso.

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.

#8a8ba3
Original
#858ea4
Protanopia
#848ca2
Deuteranopia
#858f93
Tritanopia
#8d8d8d
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).
AA Largeon White
3.33:1
The quick brown foxSample body text at normal size. The wcag minimum for body contrast is 4.5:1 (AA) or 7:1 (AAA).
AAon Black
6.30:1

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
##8A8BA3
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.5419 0.5450 0.6315)
Inside sRGBOKLCH chroma 0.036

This color sits well within the sRGB cube. P3 and sRGB share the gray axis and most desaturated tones, so a P3 display renders this identically to an sRGB display.

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