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Earnest Fei

#b51f79
Notes

Earnest Fei (#B51F79) is a true magenta with a vibrant character. It holds its own as a focal accent, carrying visual weight without tipping into neon territory. Its HSL profile (324°, 71%, 42%) 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
#b51f79
RGB
rgb(181, 31, 121)
HSL
hsl(324, 71%, 42%)
HWB
hwb(324 12% 29%)
OKLCH
oklch(52.2% 0.198 350.1)
HSV
hsv(324, 83%, 71%)
LAB
lab(41.51% 63.68 -13.05)
LCH
lch(41.51% 65.00 348.42)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 83%, 33%, 29%)

Etymology

Earnest
adjective

Old English eornost, seriousness, zeal. Used as a color modifier since the nineteenth century for hues that read as committed but unshowy — the working blues of denim, the deep greens of Quaker meetinghouses. Sits in the bold-and-quiet corner of the grid, slightly less luminous than resolute and slightly less institutional than imperial.

Fei
noun

A bright, slightly cool red used in Chinese textile tradition for the inner robes of Tang-dynasty court officials. The color refers to a fei-dyed silk: a saturated, slightly cool red with the satin finish of plant-dye-on-silk. Cooler than hong, brighter than jiang. The Chinese cousin of karakurenai.

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.

#b51f79
Original
#3c517b
Protanopia
#686b76
Deuteranopia
#c30f4b
Tritanopia
#454545
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
6.11:1
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
3.44:1

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