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Velvety Berry

#b33497
Notes

Velvety Berry (#B33497) is a true magenta with an earthy character. It leans grounded and natural, the kind of color that plays well with wood, clay, linen, and warm neutrals. Its HSL profile (313°, 55%, 45%) 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
#b33497
RGB
rgb(179, 52, 151)
HSL
hsl(313, 55%, 45%)
HWB
hwb(313 20% 30%)
OKLCH
oklch(54.8% 0.194 338.1)
HSV
hsv(313, 71%, 70%)
LAB
lab(44.63% 60.76 -26.60)
LCH
lch(44.63% 66.33 336.35)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 71%, 16%, 30%)

Etymology

Velvety
adjective

An adjectival form of velvet, used since the eighteenth century for colors that read as if they had the matte light-absorbing quality of velvet. Implies high saturation combined with a non-glossy surface — the matte richness of a deep wine in a fabric rather than in a glass. Sits in the bold-and-deep corner of the grid alongside plush and lush.

Berry
noun

A general-purpose color name for the deep blue-purple of Vaccinium blueberries, Sambucus elderberries, and the Aronia black-chokeberries that mark hedgerows in autumn. The color refers to a ripe wild blueberry's bloom-coated skin: a deep, slightly violet-shifted blue with the powdery finish of waxy fruit. Cooler than wine, warmer than indigo, with the foraged-fruit specificity of a word that covers half-a-dozen species.

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.

#b33497
Original
#395d9a
Protanopia
#637194
Deuteranopia
#bd3a61
Tritanopia
#565656
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
5.45:1
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
3.85:1

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