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Forceful Ache violet

#a11971
Notes

Forceful Ache violet (#A11971) 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 (321°, 73%, 36%) 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
#a11971
RGB
rgb(161, 25, 113)
HSL
hsl(321, 73%, 36%)
HWB
hwb(321 10% 37%)
OKLCH
oklch(48.1% 0.186 347.3)
P3
color(display-p3 0.5792 0.1569 0.4330)
HSV
hsv(321, 84%, 63%)
LAB
lab(36.87% 59.40 -15.47)
LCH
lch(36.87% 61.38 345.40)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 84%, 30%, 37%)

Etymology

Forceful
adjective

Old French force, strength — adjectival suffix -ful. As a color modifier, forceful implies a saturated-and-vigorous quality where the hue exerts visual force on its substrate. Sits at the bold-and-saturated end of the grid, parallel to mighty and commanding in tone.

Ache
modifier

Old English acan, to-hurt-or-throb. As a color modifier, ache implies a dull-and-lingering-and-throbbing quality, the visual register of Romantic-poet-and-pining-lover-ache hand-dull-and-lingering-and-throbbing Romantic-poet-and-pining-lover-and-bedside-vigil ached-and-dull-and-lingering-and-throbbing surfaces under Romantic-poet-and-pining-lover-and-bedside-vigil long-night-and-melancholy-and-pining candle-and-rain-window-light. Sits at the modifier-and-mood end of the grid, parallel to pang and throb 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

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.

#a11971
Original
#314873
Protanopia
#5a5f6e
Deuteranopia
#ad1144
Tritanopia
#3c3c3c
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
7.26:1
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
2.89:1

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
##A11971
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.5792 0.1569 0.4330)
P3 has visible headroomOKLCH chroma 0.186

This color is chromatic enough that authoring it as P3 native (instead of clamping to sRGB) gives a perceptibly more saturated render on wide-gamut displays — modern Macs, iPhones, iPads, and most recent OLED laptops.

Related Colors

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