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Spartan Term violet

#981b6a
Notes

Spartan Term violet (#981B6A) is a true magenta 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 (322°, 70%, 35%) 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 green. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#981b6a
RGB
rgb(152, 27, 106)
HSL
hsl(322, 70%, 35%)
HWB
hwb(322 11% 40%)
OKLCH
oklch(46.3% 0.175 347.8)
HSV
hsv(322, 82%, 60%)
LAB
lab(35.01% 55.89 -14.04)
LCH
lch(35.01% 57.63 345.90)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 82%, 30%, 40%)

Etymology

Spartan
adjective

Greek Spartiátēs, of Sparta — adjectival suffix referring to the Lacedaemonian warrior city. As a color modifier, spartan implies a saturated-and-disciplined-and-formal quality, the deep-rich color of Spartan-hoplite military-class crimson-and-bronze armor-and-cloak. Sits at the bold-and-formal end of the grid, parallel to austere and stern in tone.

Term
modifier

Latin terminus, boundary / period. As a color modifier, term implies a defined-period-and-boundary quality, the visual register of academic-and-court-term defined-and-bounded school-and-court-term scholarly-and-judicial period-marked surfaces under term-period bounded scholarly-and-judicial light. Sits at the modifier-and-time end of the grid, parallel to span and phase in usage.

violet
noun

Viola odorata, the European sweet violet — small, fragrant, and the original meaning of the color name in English (the Violet of the rainbow). The color refers to a fresh sweet violet blossom in late winter: a saturated, slightly red-shifted deep blue-purple with the matte finish of small five-petaled flower. Cooler than amethyst, warmer than indigo, with the perfumed weight of a flower used in Roman garlands and Victorian eau de toilette.

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

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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.

#981b6a
Original
#30456c
Protanopia
#555a67
Deuteranopia
#a31441
Tritanopia
#3b3b3b
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
7.78:1
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
2.70:1

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