Gleaming Aubergine
Gleaming Aubergine (#A279E2) is a true indigo 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 (263°, 64%, 68%) 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 lime. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.
Etymology
The progressive participle of gleam, to shine intermittently. Used as a color word for hues with the slight optical motion of a polished or wet surface. Gleaming gold, gleaming red: the implication is luminance combined with the optical impression of specular highlight. Sits in the bright-and-glossy corner alongside lustrous.
The French and British name for the eggplant — borrowed from the Catalan albergínia and ultimately from the Sanskrit vātiṅgaṇa. Aubergine as a color name carries with it the slightly more aristocratic register of the European-language version of the word. The color refers to the same fruit as eggplant but shifted slightly redder in popular usage: a saturated, slightly red-shifted very deep purple with the polished finish of waxy fruit. Cooler than wine, warmer than indigo.
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 exploreHarmonies
Accessibility
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.
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.