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Pure Vela violet

#99045f
Notes

Pure Vela violet (#99045F) is a deep 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 (323°, 95%, 31%) 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 green. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#99045f
RGB
rgb(153, 4, 95)
HSL
hsl(323, 95%, 31%)
HWB
hwb(323 2% 40%)
OKLCH
oklch(45.0% 0.184 352.3)
HSV
hsv(323, 97%, 60%)
LAB
lab(33.32% 59.08 -9.51)
LCH
lch(33.32% 59.84 350.85)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 97%, 38%, 40%)

Etymology

Pure
adjective

Latin purus, clean, unmixed — applied to color since antiquity for hues that contain only one pigment without dilution by white, black, or another color. Pure red is the textbook ideal: high saturation, mid lightness, no shift. Sits at the bold-bucket center, parallel to true and strong.

Vela
modifier

Latin vela, sails-of-the-Argo. As a color modifier, vela implies a southern-hemisphere-and-Argo-sail-and-supernova-remnant quality, the visual register of Vela-supernova-remnant-and-Argo-sails hand-southern-hemisphere-and-Argo-sail-and-supernova-remnant Vela-supernova-remnant-and-Argo-sails-and-southern-Milky-Way vela-and-southern-hemisphere-and-Argo-sail surfaces under Vela-supernova-remnant-and-Argo-sails-and-southern-Milky-Way Southern-Cross-and-southern-zenith southern-stellar-light. Sits at the modifier-and-cosmic end of the grid, parallel to cygnus and draco 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.

#99045f
Original
#2d3e61
Protanopia
#56575c
Deuteranopia
#a60036
Tritanopia
#2a2a2a
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
8.28:1
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
2.54:1

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