Praetorian Cancer Fuchsia
Praetorian Cancer Fuchsia (#B01CC5) is a true violet with a vibrant character. It holds its own as a focal accent, carrying visual weight without tipping into neon territory. Its HSL profile (293°, 75%, 44%) 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.
Etymology
Latin praetōriānus, of the praetor — adjectival suffix, referring to the Roman-Imperial elite guard-cohorts. As a color modifier, praetorian implies a saturated-and-elite-and-imperial-guard quality, the deep-rich color of Roman-Praetorian-Guard elite-imperial-bodyguard scarlet-tunic-and-bronze-armor military-formation. Sits at the bold-and-formal end of the grid, parallel to spartan and imperial.
Latin cancer, crab-of-the-zodiac. As a color modifier, cancer implies a crab-and-water-sign-and-Moon-ruled-cardinal-water quality, the visual register of Hellenic-Cancer-and-Hercules-Lerna-crab hand-crab-and-water-sign-and-Moon-ruled-cardinal-water Hellenic-Cancer-and-Hercules-Lerna-crab-and-Beehive-Cluster cancer-and-crab-and-water-sign surfaces under Hellenic-Cancer-and-Hercules-Lerna-crab-and-Beehive-Cluster summer-solstice-and-June-and-July cardinal-water-sign-light. Sits at the modifier-and-zodiac end of the grid, parallel to gemini and leo in usage.
The genus Fuchsia — South American shrubs named in 1703 for the German botanist Leonhart Fuchs. The color refers to the calyx and tube of a vibrant Fuchsia magellanica hybrid: a saturated, slightly cool deep pink-magenta with the satiny finish of a tubular hummingbird-pollinated flower. Brighter than rose, warmer than orchid, with the bedding-and-basket weight of a plant genus whose flowers gave English the most attention-demanding pink in the spectrum.
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 exploreHarmonies
Accessibility
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.
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.
Wide gamut
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.
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.