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Noble Fall Violet

#ab5af2
Notes

Noble Fall Violet (#AB5AF2) is a true indigo with a neon character. It sits at the high-saturation edge of its family. Use it sparingly, as signage, accent, or highlight against darker surfaces. Its HSL profile (272°, 85%, 65%) 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 lime. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#ab5af2
RGB
rgb(171, 90, 242)
HSL
hsl(272, 85%, 65%)
HWB
hwb(272 35% 5%)
OKLCH
oklch(63.3% 0.222 305.5)
P3
color(display-p3 0.6287 0.3693 0.9177)
HSV
hsv(272, 63%, 95%)
LAB
lab(54.43% 59.77 -63.72)
LCH
lch(54.43% 87.37 313.17)
CMYK
cmyk(29%, 63%, 0%, 5%)

Etymology

Noble
adjective

Latin nōbilis, well-known / illustrious — sharing root with gnōscere (to know). As a color modifier, noble implies a saturated-and-dignified-and-aristocratic quality, the deep-rich color of pre-modern European noble-class hereditary-aristocratic livery-and-armorial bearings. Sits at the bold-and-aristocratic end of the grid, parallel to aristocratic and highborn in usage.

Fall
modifier

Old English feallan, to fall / autumn. As a color modifier, fall implies an autumn-leaf-and-harvest quality, the visual register of New-England-and-English-autumn deciduous-leaf-fall maple-and-oak-and-beech autumnal-orange-and-crimson surfaces under Northern-Hemisphere autumn raking light. Sits at the modifier-and-time end of the grid, parallel to yule and reap 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.

#ab5af2
Original
#0080f7
Protanopia
#3582ef
Deuteranopia
#9f7a9e
Tritanopia
#767676
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
3.83:1
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
5.48:1

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
##AB5AF2
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.6287 0.3693 0.9177)
P3 has visible headroomOKLCH chroma 0.222

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.

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