colors
Back to gallery

Punchy Lythrum

#a31f7a
Notes

Punchy Lythrum (#A31F7A) 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 (319°, 68%, 38%) 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
#a31f7a
RGB
rgb(163, 31, 122)
HSL
hsl(319, 68%, 38%)
HWB
hwb(319 12% 36%)
OKLCH
oklch(49.2% 0.187 344.2)
HSV
hsv(319, 81%, 64%)
LAB
lab(38.15% 59.49 -19.11)
LCH
lch(38.15% 62.48 342.19)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 81%, 25%, 36%)

Etymology

Punchy
adjective

A modern adjectival form of punch, to strike sharply. Used as a color word since the early twentieth century for hues that read as highly contrasting and visually loud. Punchy red, punchy yellow: the implication is full saturation combined with optical impact. Sits across the bold and bright buckets, near vivid and striking.

Lythrum
noun

Lythrum salicaria, purple loosestrife — a Eurasian native wetland perennial whose deep-magenta vertical spikes carpet European marsh-and-fen habitats and have aggressively naturalized across North American wetlands. Lythrum color refers to a fully bloomed Lythrum salicaria terminal spike on a Norfolk Broads fen: a saturated, slightly cool deep magenta with the velvet finish of dense small six-petaled flowers. Greek lýthron (clotted blood).

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.

#a31f7a
Original
#314c7c
Protanopia
#5a6277
Deuteranopia
#ae1e4b
Tritanopia
#424242
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).
AAon White
6.92:1
The quick brown foxSample body text at normal size. The wcag minimum for body contrast is 4.5:1 (AA) or 7:1 (AAA).
AA Largeon Black
3.03:1

Related Colors

Canvas