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Certain Disocactus

#bc559d
Notes

Certain Disocactus (#BC559D) is a true magenta with a cool character. It leans cool, sitting on the blue, green, and violet side of the wheel. Quiet and dependable, a fit for product UI and data visualization. Its HSL profile (318°, 43%, 54%) 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
#bc559d
RGB
rgb(188, 85, 157)
HSL
hsl(318, 43%, 54%)
HWB
hwb(318 33% 26%)
OKLCH
oklch(60.2% 0.157 340.5)
P3
color(display-p3 0.6870 0.3567 0.6031)
HSV
hsv(318, 55%, 74%)
LAB
lab(51.41% 50.15 -19.59)
LCH
lch(51.41% 53.84 338.66)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 55%, 16%, 26%)

Etymology

Certain
adjective

Latin certus, fixed / sure — sharing root with English concern and certify. As a color modifier, certain implies a saturated-and-unambiguous quality where the hue declares its character without hesitation. Sits at the bold-and-confident end of the grid, parallel to assured and decisive in usage.

Disocactus
noun

Central American orchid cactus (Disocactus ackermannii) — a Cactaceae epiphytic cactus native to Mexican-and-Guatemalan cloud-forests, with deep-magenta funnel-shaped flowers held above flat strap-like stems. Disocactus color refers to a fully opened Disocactus ackermannii funnel-flower in a Veracruz cloud-forest understory: a saturated, slightly cool deep magenta with the velvet finish of fresh fused-petaled funnel-corolla.

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.

#bc559d
Original
#5a709f
Protanopia
#77819a
Deuteranopia
#c65772
Tritanopia
#707070
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).
AA Largeon White
4.26:1
The quick brown foxSample body text at normal size. The wcag minimum for body contrast is 4.5:1 (AA) or 7:1 (AAA).
AAon Black
4.92:1

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
##BC559D
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.6870 0.3567 0.6031)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.157

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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