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Commanding Clematis

#b05aa3
Notes

Commanding Clematis (#B05AA3) is a true violet 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 (309°, 35%, 52%) 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
#b05aa3
RGB
rgb(176, 90, 163)
HSL
hsl(309, 35%, 52%)
HWB
hwb(309 35% 31%)
OKLCH
oklch(59.5% 0.144 333.2)
P3
color(display-p3 0.6463 0.3707 0.6248)
HSV
hsv(309, 49%, 69%)
LAB
lab(50.91% 44.98 -24.04)
LCH
lch(50.91% 51.00 331.88)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 49%, 7%, 31%)

Etymology

Commanding
adjective

Latin commendāre, to entrust / order — present-participle of command. As a color modifier, commanding implies a saturated-and-authoritative quality where the hue claims visual leadership of its surrounding palette. Sits at the bold-and-authoritative end of the grid, parallel to authoritative and imperial in usage.

Clematis
noun

Asian clematis (Clematis × jackmanii) — a deciduous twining-tendril vine cultivated worldwide as a garden plant, with deep-violet large four-tepalled flowers held above pinnately compound foliage. Clematis color refers to a fully bloomed Clematis × jackmanii tepalled-flower in a Cotswold cottage garden: a saturated, slightly cool deep violet with the velvet finish of fresh broad-tepalled flat-corolla. The genus name comes from the Greek klēmatís (climbing plant).

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.

#b05aa3
Original
#5871a5
Protanopia
#717ea1
Deuteranopia
#b75f77
Tritanopia
#727272
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
4.34:1
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
4.84:1

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
##B05AA3
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.6463 0.3707 0.6248)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.144

Moderately saturated colors gain a small bump in P3 — the difference is usually visible side-by-side on wide-gamut hardware but won't change the character of the color.

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