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Assured Cowl Violet

#ab0659
Notes

Assured Cowl Violet (#AB0659) 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 (330°, 93%, 35%) places it in the highly saturated band at a mid lightness. Best used in small doses, like logos, CTAs, focus rings, or highlight text, where its saturation becomes a feature rather than noise. 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
#ab0659
RGB
rgb(171, 6, 89)
HSL
hsl(330, 93%, 35%)
HWB
hwb(330 2% 33%)
OKLCH
oklch(48.2% 0.192 0.3)
P3
color(display-p3 0.6141 0.1298 0.3459)
HSV
hsv(330, 96%, 67%)
LAB
lab(36.95% 62.38 0.16)
LCH
lch(36.95% 62.38 0.15)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 96%, 48%, 33%)

Etymology

Assured
adjective

Old French aseürer, to give assurance — past-participle of assure. As a color modifier, assured implies a saturated-and-confident quality where the hue carries unwavering certainty about its own visual identity. Sits at the bold-and-confident end of the grid, parallel to certain and poised.

Cowl
modifier

Latin cuculla, monk's-hood-or-hood-of-habit. As a color modifier, cowl implies a monk's-hood-and-deeply-folded-hood quality, the visual register of Benedictine-and-Cistercian-monk's-cowl hand-monk's-hood-and-deeply-folded-hood Benedictine-and-Cistercian-monk's-cowl-and-Cluny-Abbey cowl-and-monk's-hood surfaces under Benedictine-and-Cistercian-monk's-cowl-and-Cluny-Abbey Cluny-and-Cîteaux-Abbey monastic-cloister-light. Sits at the modifier-and-textile end of the grid, parallel to cloak and frock 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

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.

#ab0659
Original
#3b445a
Protanopia
#646156
Deuteranopia
#ba0033
Tritanopia
#2f2f2f
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).
AAAon White
7.24:1
The quick brown foxSample body text at normal size. The wcag minimum for body contrast is 4.5:1 (AA) or 7:1 (AAA).
Failon Black
2.90:1

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
##AB0659
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.6141 0.1298 0.3459)
P3 has visible headroomOKLCH chroma 0.192

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