colors
Back to gallery

Firm Iconostasis

#aa3caf
Notes

Firm Iconostasis (#AA3CAF) is a true violet with an earthy character. It leans grounded and natural, the kind of color that plays well with wood, clay, linen, and warm neutrals. Its HSL profile (297°, 49%, 46%) 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
#aa3caf
RGB
rgb(170, 60, 175)
HSL
hsl(297, 49%, 46%)
HWB
hwb(297 24% 31%)
OKLCH
oklch(55.5% 0.197 326.0)
P3
color(display-p3 0.6169 0.2649 0.6655)
HSV
hsv(297, 66%, 69%)
LAB
lab(45.46% 59.36 -39.68)
LCH
lch(45.46% 71.41 326.24)
CMYK
cmyk(3%, 66%, 0%, 31%)

Etymology

Firm
adjective

Latin firmus, strong / stable — sharing root with English farm (originally a fixed-yearly-rental). As a color modifier, firm implies a saturated-and-resolute quality where the hue holds its visual position without wavering. Sits at the bold-and-firm end of the grid, parallel to steadfast and unwavering in usage.

Iconostasis
noun

Russian and Greek Orthodox icon screen — the multi-tier wall of religious icons that separates the naos (nave) from the bema (sanctuary) in an Orthodox church, traditionally rendered in deep-violet-and-gold-leaf. Iconostasis color refers to a 14th-century Novgorod-school iconostasis royal-doors panel: a saturated, slightly cool deep violet with the matte finish of egg-tempera ultramarine-and-cinnabar on gilt gesso ground.

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.

#aa3caf
Original
#2863b2
Protanopia
#5470ac
Deuteranopia
#ae4d70
Tritanopia
#5c5c5c
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
5.28:1
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
3.97:1

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
##AA3CAF
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.6169 0.2649 0.6655)
P3 has visible headroomOKLCH chroma 0.197

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

Canvas