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Authoritative Pater Hibiscus

#b83858
Notes

Authoritative Pater Hibiscus (#B83858) is a true red 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 (345°, 53%, 47%) 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 teal. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#b83858
RGB
rgb(184, 56, 88)
HSL
hsl(345, 53%, 47%)
HWB
hwb(345 22% 28%)
OKLCH
oklch(53.7% 0.164 9.8)
P3
color(display-p3 0.6661 0.2580 0.3490)
HSV
hsv(345, 70%, 72%)
LAB
lab(43.84% 53.41 10.96)
LCH
lch(43.84% 54.52 11.59)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 70%, 52%, 28%)

Etymology

Authoritative
adjective

Latin auctōritāt-, authority — adjectival suffix -ive. As a color modifier, authoritative implies a saturated-and-formal-imperative quality where the hue carries decisional weight and institutional credibility. Sits at the bold-and-authoritative end of the grid, parallel to commanding and magisterial in usage.

Pater
modifier

Latin pater, father. As a color modifier, pater implies a Latin-father-and-paterfamilias-and-Pater-Noster quality, the visual register of Pater-Noster-and-Roman-paterfamilias hand-Latin-father-and-paterfamilias-and-Pater-Noster Pater-Noster-and-Roman-paterfamilias-and-Catholic-prayer pater-and-Latin-father surfaces under Pater-Noster-and-Roman-paterfamilias-and-Catholic-prayer Roman-Senate-and-Catholic-liturgy paterfamilias-light. Sits at the modifier-and-Latin end of the grid, parallel to mater and dux in usage.

Hibiscus
noun

Hibiscus rosa-sinensis — the showy mallow of Pacific gardens, the Hawaiian state flower, the source of the deep red sorrel tea sold across West Africa as bissap. The color refers to a fully open hibiscus petal at midday: a hot, slightly magenta red with the velvet texture of a single-day bloom. By evening the same flower has wilted; by morning it's gone.

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.

#b83858
Original
#575759
Protanopia
#787155
Deuteranopia
#c91f45
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
5.61:1
The quick brown foxSample body text at normal size. The wcag minimum for body contrast is 4.5:1 (AA) or 7:1 (AAA).
AA Largeon Black
3.74:1

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
##B83858
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.6661 0.2580 0.3490)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.164

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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