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Buttressed Pavlova

#b5227b
Notes

Buttressed Pavlova (#B5227B) 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°, 68%, 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
#b5227b
RGB
rgb(181, 34, 123)
HSL
hsl(324, 68%, 42%)
HWB
hwb(324 13% 29%)
OKLCH
oklch(52.5% 0.197 349.4)
P3
color(display-p3 0.6522 0.1925 0.4724)
HSV
hsv(324, 81%, 71%)
LAB
lab(41.85% 63.16 -13.78)
LCH
lch(41.85% 64.65 347.69)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 81%, 32%, 29%)

Etymology

Buttressed
adjective

Old French bouterez, thrusting-mass — past-participle of buttress, derived from bouter (to thrust). As a color modifier, buttressed implies a saturated-and-architecturally-supported quality, the deep-rich color of Gothic-Cathedral flying-buttress-and-rib-vault stone-architecture. Sits at the bold-and-fortified end of the grid, parallel to fortified and reinforced.

Pavlova
noun

Australian-and-New-Zealand meringue dessert — named after the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova (1881–1931), traditionally topped with deep-magenta passionfruit-and-strawberry coulis. Pavlova color refers to a freshly assembled Pavlova with passionfruit-and-strawberry coulis on white meringue: a saturated, slightly cool deep magenta with the matte finish of anthocyanin-rich fruit-coulis on baked egg-white meringue.

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.

#b5227b
Original
#3d527d
Protanopia
#686c78
Deuteranopia
#c3164d
Tritanopia
#484848
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
6.04:1
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
3.48:1

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
##B5227B
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.6522 0.1925 0.4724)
P3 has visible headroomOKLCH chroma 0.197

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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