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Fragile Conclave

#a38aa6
Notes

Fragile Conclave (#A38AA6) is a true violet 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 (294°, 14%, 60%) places it in the muted 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
#a38aa6
RGB
rgb(163, 138, 166)
HSL
hsl(294, 14%, 60%)
HWB
hwb(294 54% 35%)
OKLCH
oklch(66.5% 0.050 322.7)
P3
color(display-p3 0.6232 0.5448 0.6436)
HSV
hsv(294, 17%, 65%)
LAB
lab(60.53% 14.57 -11.26)
LCH
lch(60.53% 18.42 322.31)
CMYK
cmyk(2%, 17%, 0%, 35%)

Etymology

Fragile
adjective

Latin fragilis, easily-broken — sharing root with frangere (to break). As a color modifier, fragile implies a pale-and-easily-disturbed-and-delicate quality where the hue carries the visual register of Eggshell-and-Spider-Silk easily-disturbed-and-delicate object-and-textile surface. Sits at the pale-and-delicate end of the grid, parallel to delicate and fine in usage.

Conclave
noun

Latin cum clave, with key — the locked-room cardinal-selection ceremony of the Sistine Chapel (since 1492), where cardinals wear deep-violet choir cassocks during the daily voting sessions. Conclave color refers to a contemporary cardinal's conclave choir-cassock: a saturated, slightly cool deep violet with the matte finish of vat-dyed ecclesiastical wool. Distinct from the cardinal's day-to-day red cassock.

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.

#a38aa6
Original
#8890a7
Protanopia
#8d93a5
Deuteranopia
#a48c93
Tritanopia
#919191
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).
AA Largeon White
3.11:1
The quick brown foxSample body text at normal size. The wcag minimum for body contrast is 4.5:1 (AA) or 7:1 (AAA).
AAon Black
6.74:1

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
##A38AA6
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.6232 0.5448 0.6436)
Inside sRGBOKLCH chroma 0.050

This color sits well within the sRGB cube. P3 and sRGB share the gray axis and most desaturated tones, so a P3 display renders this identically to an sRGB display.

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