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Punchy Punch

#ac308b
Notes

Punchy Punch (#AC308B) is a true magenta with a cool character. It leans cool, sitting on the blue, green, and violet side of the wheel. Quiet and dependable, a fit for product UI and data visualization. Its HSL profile (316°, 56%, 43%) 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
#ac308b
RGB
rgb(172, 48, 139)
HSL
hsl(316, 56%, 43%)
HWB
hwb(316 19% 33%)
OKLCH
oklch(52.8% 0.186 340.6)
HSV
hsv(316, 72%, 67%)
LAB
lab(42.39% 58.70 -22.91)
LCH
lch(42.39% 63.01 338.68)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 72%, 19%, 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.

Punch
noun

A bright pink-red color named for the surface of a fruit punch — particularly the Tahitian-style punches of mid-century cocktail culture and the brand-name Hawaiian Punch whose color was a signature. The color refers to a saturated, slightly cool red-pink: brighter than fuchsia, warmer than rose, with the mid-century-tropical weight of a color tied to a specific decade of American cookout entertaining.

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.

#ac308b
Original
#39578e
Protanopia
#606b88
Deuteranopia
#b63359
Tritanopia
#515151
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
5.92:1
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
3.55:1

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