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Dominant Cowl Hibiscus

#bc4578
Notes

Dominant Cowl Hibiscus (#BC4578) 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 (334°, 47%, 50%) 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
#bc4578
RGB
rgb(188, 69, 120)
HSL
hsl(334, 47%, 50%)
HWB
hwb(334 27% 26%)
OKLCH
oklch(56.7% 0.161 356.9)
P3
color(display-p3 0.6830 0.3020 0.4660)
HSV
hsv(334, 63%, 74%)
LAB
lab(47.37% 52.48 -3.53)
LCH
lch(47.37% 52.60 356.16)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 63%, 36%, 26%)

Etymology

Dominant
adjective

Latin dominārī, to rule — present-participle of dominate. As a color modifier, dominant implies a saturated-and-leading quality where the hue claims visual precedence over neighboring colors in the surrounding palette. Sits at the bold-and-imperative end of the grid, parallel to commanding and authoritative.

Cowl
modifier

Latin cuculla, monk's-hood-or-hood-of-habit. As a color modifier, cowl implies a monk's-hood-and-deeply-folded-hood quality, the visual register of Benedictine-and-Cistercian-monk's-cowl hand-monk's-hood-and-deeply-folded-hood Benedictine-and-Cistercian-monk's-cowl-and-Cluny-Abbey cowl-and-monk's-hood surfaces under Benedictine-and-Cistercian-monk's-cowl-and-Cluny-Abbey Cluny-and-Cîteaux-Abbey monastic-cloister-light. Sits at the modifier-and-textile end of the grid, parallel to cloak and frock 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.

#bc4578
Original
#596279
Protanopia
#7a7975
Deuteranopia
#ca3b59
Tritanopia
#626262
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
4.93:1
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
4.26:1

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
##BC4578
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.6830 0.3020 0.4660)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.161

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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