colors
Back to gallery

Earnest Akamurasaki

#bb36a3
Notes

Earnest Akamurasaki (#BB36A3) is a true magenta 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 (311°, 55%, 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 green. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#bb36a3
RGB
rgb(187, 54, 163)
HSL
hsl(311, 55%, 47%)
HWB
hwb(311 21% 27%)
OKLCH
oklch(56.8% 0.204 336.2)
HSV
hsv(311, 71%, 73%)
LAB
lab(46.78% 63.77 -30.32)
LCH
lch(46.78% 70.61 334.57)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 71%, 13%, 27%)

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.

Akamurasaki
noun

Japanese 赤紫, red-purple — the modern Japanese color name for the warm magenta-purple band that sits between aka (red) and murasaki (purple). Akamurasaki color refers to a Showa-period silk furisode obi: a saturated, slightly cool deep magenta with the silk luster of multi-bath beni-and-shikon overdye on patterned silk crepe. Slightly cooler than akane-iro.

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.

#bb36a3
Original
#3862a6
Protanopia
#6576a0
Deuteranopia
#c53f68
Tritanopia
#5a5a5a
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
5.04:1
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
4.17:1

Related Colors

Canvas