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Hemmed Browallia

#8cb5dd
Notes

Hemmed Browallia (#8CB5DD) is a soft azure 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 (210°, 54%, 71%) places it in the balanced band at a light lightness. It works as a background wash, large-area fill, or soft illustration tone. Add a darker ink of the same hue when you need type over it. For a confident two-color system, pair it with its complementary orange. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#8cb5dd
RGB
rgb(140, 181, 221)
HSL
hsl(210, 54%, 71%)
HWB
hwb(210 55% 13%)
OKLCH
oklch(75.8% 0.073 248.2)
HSV
hsv(210, 37%, 87%)
LAB
lab(72.12% -3.94 -24.48)
LCH
lch(72.12% 24.80 260.85)
CMYK
cmyk(37%, 18%, 0%, 13%)

Etymology

Hemmed
adjective

Old English hem, border — past-participle of hem. As a color modifier, hemmed implies a clear-and-finished-and-bordered quality where the hue carries the visual register of carefully-hemmed-and-finished textile-edge. Sits at the crisp-and-finished end of the grid, parallel to trim and finished in usage.

Browallia
noun

The genus Browalliaamethyst flower or bush violet, a tropical-American annual with deep blue-violet flowers used in summer bedding. The color refers to a fresh B. speciosa bloom: a saturated, slightly cool deep blue-violet with the satin finish of trumpet-shaped flower.

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.

#8cb5dd
Original
#a5b6df
Protanopia
#9baddc
Deuteranopia
#71bec2
Tritanopia
#afafaf
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).
Failon White
2.15:1
The quick brown foxSample body text at normal size. The wcag minimum for body contrast is 4.5:1 (AA) or 7:1 (AAA).
AAAon Black
9.77:1

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