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Dazzling Tulip

#b281f6
Notes

Dazzling Tulip (#B281F6) is a soft indigo 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 (265°, 87%, 74%) places it in the highly saturated band at a light 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
#b281f6
RGB
rgb(178, 129, 246)
HSL
hsl(265, 87%, 74%)
HWB
hwb(265 51% 4%)
OKLCH
oklch(70.0% 0.171 301.5)
HSV
hsv(265, 48%, 96%)
LAB
lab(63.19% 42.01 -51.89)
LCH
lch(63.19% 66.76 309.00)
CMYK
cmyk(28%, 48%, 0%, 4%)

Etymology

Dazzling
adjective

The progressive participle of dazzle, to overwhelm with brightness — used as a color word since the seventeenth century for hues that read as intense enough to be momentarily blinding. Dazzling white, dazzling pink: the implication is luminance pushed to the extreme. Sits at the bright-bucket extreme alongside electric.

Tulip
noun

The genus Tulipa — Central Asian bulbs cultivated in Ottoman gardens, brought to Europe in the sixteenth century, and famously the subject of tulipomania in the 1630s Dutch Republic. The color refers to a deep purple Tulipa hybrid in spring bloom: a saturated, slightly red-shifted deep purple with the satiny finish of a six-petaled goblet. Cooler than orchid, warmer than indigo, with the cultivation history of a flower that briefly cost more than houses.

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.

#b281f6
Original
#5d98fa
Protanopia
#6998f3
Deuteranopia
#a596b0
Tritanopia
#949494
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).
Failon White
2.85:1
The quick brown foxSample body text at normal size. The wcag minimum for body contrast is 4.5:1 (AA) or 7:1 (AAA).
AAAon Black
7.36:1

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