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Sovereign Cattleya

#b466d7
Notes

Sovereign Cattleya (#B466D7) 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 (281°, 59%, 62%) 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
#b466d7
RGB
rgb(180, 102, 215)
HSL
hsl(281, 59%, 62%)
HWB
hwb(281 40% 16%)
OKLCH
oklch(64.3% 0.178 314.3)
HSV
hsv(281, 53%, 84%)
LAB
lab(56.20% 50.01 -45.66)
LCH
lch(56.20% 67.72 317.60)
CMYK
cmyk(16%, 53%, 0%, 16%)

Etymology

Sovereign
adjective

Old French soverain, supreme — derived from Latin super (above). As a color modifier, sovereign implies a saturated-and-royal-supremacy quality where the hue carries imperial-ruling-class register. Sits at the bold-and-imperial end of the grid, parallel to regal and imperial in tone.

Cattleya
noun

South American corsage orchid (Cattleya labiata) — a Brazilian-native epiphytic orchid genus cultivated worldwide for its large frilled-lipped deep-violet flowers, the standard ornamental orchid of mid-20th-century corsage culture. Cattleya color refers to a fully bloomed Cattleya labiata labellum-and-petal: a saturated, slightly cool deep violet with the velvet finish of fresh frilled labellum. Named for William Cattley, an English orchid patron.

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.

#b466d7
Original
#4b82db
Protanopia
#6489d4
Deuteranopia
#b17895
Tritanopia
#7f7f7f
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
3.61:1
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
5.82:1

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