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Untroubled Bellflower

#b5abe7
Notes

Untroubled Bellflower (#B5ABE7) is a soft indigo with a pastel character. It reads calm and airy, with enough chroma to feel intentional rather than washed out. Its HSL profile (250°, 56%, 79%) places it in the balanced band at a light lightness. It works as a background wash, large-area fill, or soft illustration tone. Add a darker ink of the same hue when you need type over it. For a confident two-color system, pair it with its complementary yellow. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#b5abe7
RGB
rgb(181, 171, 231)
HSL
hsl(250, 56%, 79%)
HWB
hwb(250 67% 9%)
OKLCH
oklch(77.1% 0.085 291.9)
P3
color(display-p3 0.7030 0.6719 0.8886)
HSV
hsv(250, 26%, 91%)
LAB
lab(72.71% 15.93 -28.79)
LCH
lch(72.71% 32.90 298.95)
CMYK
cmyk(22%, 26%, 0%, 9%)

Etymology

Untroubled
adjective

Latin turbāre, to disturb — negative-prefix un- plus past-participle of trouble. As a color modifier, untroubled implies a clear-and-calm-and-undisturbed quality where the hue carries no visual agitation. Sits at the crisp-and-calm end of the grid, parallel to serene and placid in usage.

Bellflower
noun

The genus Campanula — Latin for little bell — small to mid-sized perennials whose bell-shaped blue or violet flowers fill rock gardens and herbaceous borders across temperate climates. The color refers to a fresh Campanula medium canterbury bell: a saturated, slightly violet-shifted blue with the matte finish of a single bell-form flower. Cooler than periwinkle, warmer than larkspur, with the cottage-garden weight of a plant that names an entire genus and color.

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.

#b5abe7
Original
#9db3ea
Protanopia
#9db1e5
Deuteranopia
#abb5c0
Tritanopia
#b1b1b1
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
2.11:1
The quick brown foxSample body text at normal size. The wcag minimum for body contrast is 4.5:1 (AA) or 7:1 (AAA).
AAAon Black
9.94:1

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
##B5ABE7
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.7030 0.6719 0.8886)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.085

Moderately saturated colors gain a small bump in P3 — the difference is usually visible side-by-side on wide-gamut hardware but won't change the character of the color.

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