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Patrician Tart Violet

#b05af3
Notes

Patrician Tart Violet (#B05AF3) is a true indigo with a neon character. It sits at the high-saturation edge of its family. Use it sparingly, as signage, accent, or highlight against darker surfaces. Its HSL profile (274°, 86%, 65%) places it in the highly saturated band at a mid lightness. Best used in small doses, like logos, CTAs, focus rings, or highlight text, where its saturation becomes a feature rather than noise. 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
#b05af3
RGB
rgb(176, 90, 243)
HSL
hsl(274, 86%, 65%)
HWB
hwb(274 35% 5%)
OKLCH
oklch(63.9% 0.224 307.0)
P3
color(display-p3 0.6463 0.3707 0.9216)
HSV
hsv(274, 63%, 95%)
LAB
lab(55.09% 61.08 -63.19)
LCH
lch(55.09% 87.88 314.03)
CMYK
cmyk(28%, 63%, 0%, 5%)

Etymology

Patrician
adjective

Latin patrīcius, of the noble class — derived from pater (father). As a color modifier, patrician implies a saturated-and-aristocratic-and-Roman-Republic quality, the deep-rich color of Roman-Patrician-class toga and senatorial-livery hereditary-aristocratic dress. Sits at the bold-and-aristocratic end of the grid, parallel to senatorial and imperial.

Tart
modifier

Old English teart, sharp-or-acid-tasting. As a color modifier, tart implies a sharp-acid-and-fruit-puckered quality, the visual register of Bramley-apple-and-rhubarb-tart hand-sharp-acid-and-fruit-puckered Bramley-apple-and-rhubarb-tart-and-Yorkshire-orchard tart-and-sharp-acid-and-fruit-puckered surfaces under Bramley-apple-and-rhubarb-tart-and-Yorkshire-orchard Yorkshire-orchard-and-Kentish-Garden-of-England puckered-orchard-light. Sits at the modifier-and-flavor end of the grid, parallel to sour and tang 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.

#b05af3
Original
#0081f8
Protanopia
#3b85f0
Deuteranopia
#a57a9f
Tritanopia
#777777
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
3.75:1
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
5.60:1

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
##B05AF3
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.6463 0.3707 0.9216)
P3 has visible headroomOKLCH chroma 0.224

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.

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