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Smoldering Berg Violet

#aa195d
Notes

Smoldering Berg Violet (#AA195D) 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 (332°, 74%, 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 teal. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#aa195d
RGB
rgb(170, 25, 93)
HSL
hsl(332, 74%, 38%)
HWB
hwb(332 10% 33%)
OKLCH
oklch(48.9% 0.183 359.4)
HSV
hsv(332, 85%, 67%)
LAB
lab(37.90% 59.51 -1.04)
LCH
lch(37.90% 59.52 359.00)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 85%, 45%, 33%)

Etymology

Smoldering
adjective

The progressive participle of smolder, to burn slowly without flame. Used as a color word since the late nineteenth century for the deep reds and oranges of barely-flame coal — the warm saturated darks where the heat is internal rather than emitted. Sits in the bold-and-warm corner, slightly less luminous than burning and slightly less calm than rich.

Berg
modifier

Norwegian isberg, mountain-of-ice. As a color modifier, berg implies an iceberg-and-Antarctic-tabular-ice quality, the visual register of Antarctic-and-Greenland-iceberg hand-iceberg-and-Antarctic-tabular-ice Antarctic-and-Greenland-iceberg-and-Larsen-Ice-Shelf berg-and-iceberg-and-Antarctic-tabular-ice surfaces under Antarctic-and-Greenland-iceberg-and-Larsen-Ice-Shelf Ross-Sea-and-Weddell-Sea-and-Disko-Bay tabular-iceberg-light. Sits at the modifier-and-weather end of the grid, parallel to floe and icicle 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.

#aa195d
Original
#3f485e
Protanopia
#65635a
Deuteranopia
#b9003a
Tritanopia
#3d3d3d
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
6.99:1
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
3.01:1

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