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Punchy Khorasani

#aa51a6
Notes

Punchy Khorasani (#AA51A6) 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 (303°, 35%, 49%) 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
#aa51a6
RGB
rgb(170, 81, 166)
HSL
hsl(303, 35%, 49%)
HWB
hwb(303 32% 33%)
OKLCH
oklch(57.6% 0.158 329.1)
HSV
hsv(303, 52%, 67%)
LAB
lab(48.49% 48.25 -29.61)
LCH
lch(48.49% 56.62 328.46)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 52%, 2%, 33%)

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.

Khorasani
noun

Persian خراسانی, Khorasani-style — the long-historical Iranian region of Khorasan whose Safavid-period silk weavers produced the deep-purple imperial textiles for the Mughal courts of India. Khorasani color refers to a Safavid Khorasan-school silk qaba coat: a saturated, slightly cool deep violet with the silk luster of multi-bath gromwell-root-and-indigo overdye on woven Iranian silk.

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.

#aa51a6
Original
#4b6ca9
Protanopia
#6677a3
Deuteranopia
#af5a74
Tritanopia
#6a6a6a
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
4.73:1
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
4.44:1

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