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Sonorous Brunfelsia

#ab5ce1
Notes

Sonorous Brunfelsia (#AB5CE1) is a true indigo with a vibrant character. It holds its own as a focal accent, carrying visual weight without tipping into neon territory. Its HSL profile (276°, 69%, 62%) 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 lime. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#ab5ce1
RGB
rgb(171, 92, 225)
HSL
hsl(276, 69%, 62%)
HWB
hwb(276 36% 12%)
OKLCH
oklch(62.5% 0.201 309.1)
HSV
hsv(276, 59%, 88%)
LAB
lab(53.76% 54.98 -55.26)
LCH
lch(53.76% 77.95 314.85)
CMYK
cmyk(24%, 59%, 0%, 12%)

Etymology

Sonorous
adjective

Latin sonōrus, resounding — derived from sonus (sound). As a color modifier, sonorous implies a saturated-and-richly-vibrating quality where the hue carries the deep-resonance visual register of a cathedral-organ-pipe low-note. Sits at the bold-and-resonant end of the grid, parallel to resonant and deep in usage.

Brunfelsia
noun

South American yesterday-today-tomorrow (Brunfelsia pauciflora) — a Brazilian Atlantic forest native shrub whose flowers open deep-violet on day one, fade to lavender on day two, and white on day three. Brunfelsia color refers to a freshly opened day-one Brunfelsia pauciflora flower: a saturated, slightly cool deep violet with the velvet finish of fresh five-petaled flat-corolla. Named for Otto Brunfels, German Renaissance botanist.

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.

#ab5ce1
Original
#277de5
Protanopia
#4b82de
Deuteranopia
#a37596
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
3.93:1
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
5.35:1

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