colors
Back to gallery

Knightly Column violet

#ad2173
Notes

Knightly Column violet (#AD2173) is a true magenta with a vibrant character. It holds its own as a focal accent, carrying visual weight without tipping into neon territory. Its HSL profile (325°, 68%, 40%) 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 teal. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#ad2173
RGB
rgb(173, 33, 115)
HSL
hsl(325, 68%, 40%)
HWB
hwb(325 13% 32%)
OKLCH
oklch(50.7% 0.188 350.6)
P3
color(display-p3 0.6233 0.1848 0.4421)
HSV
hsv(325, 81%, 68%)
LAB
lab(39.94% 60.56 -11.84)
LCH
lch(39.94% 61.71 348.93)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 81%, 34%, 32%)

Etymology

Knightly
adjective

Old English cniht, young man / knight — adjectival suffix -ly. As a color modifier, knightly implies a saturated-and-chivalrous-and-medieval quality, the deep-rich color of medieval-English-and-French knight-and-squire armorial-bearings-and-livery tradition. Sits at the bold-and-chivalrous end of the grid, parallel to gallant and cavalier.

Column
modifier

Latin columna, column. As a color modifier, column implies a vertical-Doric-and-Ionic-and-Corinthian quality, the visual register of Greek-and-Roman-Column hand-cut Doric-Ionic-Corinthian fluted-and-capital classical-column architectural surfaces under Greek-and-Roman classical-column architectural light. Sits at the modifier-and-architecture end of the grid, parallel to pillar and plinth 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.

#ad2173
Original
#3c4e75
Protanopia
#646770
Deuteranopia
#ba1348
Tritanopia
#454545
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
6.48:1
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
3.24:1

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
##AD2173
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.6233 0.1848 0.4421)
P3 has visible headroomOKLCH chroma 0.188

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