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Sinewy Khorasani

#981c87
Notes

Sinewy Khorasani (#981C87) is a true 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°, 69%, 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
#981c87
RGB
rgb(152, 28, 135)
HSL
hsl(308, 69%, 35%)
HWB
hwb(308 11% 40%)
OKLCH
oklch(47.8% 0.192 334.7)
HSV
hsv(308, 82%, 60%)
LAB
lab(36.47% 59.55 -29.95)
LCH
lch(36.47% 66.66 333.30)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 82%, 11%, 40%)

Etymology

Sinewy
adjective

Old English sinu, sinew — adjectival suffix -y. As a color modifier, sinewy implies a saturated-and-muscular-and-firm quality where the hue carries the lean-and-strong visual presence of a Roman-statue athletic figure. Sits at the bold-and-firm end of the grid, parallel to stalwart and rugged in usage.

Khorasani
noun

Persian خراسانی, Khorasani-style — the long-historical Iranian region of Khorasan whose Safavid-period silk weavers produced the deep-purple imperial textiles for the Mughal courts of India. Khorasani color refers to a Safavid Khorasan-school silk qaba coat: a saturated, slightly cool deep violet with the silk luster of multi-bath gromwell-root-and-indigo overdye on woven Iranian silk.

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.

#981c87
Original
#1a4a8a
Protanopia
#4b5c84
Deuteranopia
#a02951
Tritanopia
#3e3e3e
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
7.37:1
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
2.85:1

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