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Utilitarian Gulābi

#bd7b9b
Notes

Utilitarian Gulābi (#BD7B9B) 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 (331°, 33%, 61%) 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
#bd7b9b
RGB
rgb(189, 123, 155)
HSL
hsl(331, 33%, 61%)
HWB
hwb(331 48% 26%)
OKLCH
oklch(66.1% 0.092 349.4)
P3
color(display-p3 0.7040 0.4938 0.6025)
HSV
hsv(331, 35%, 74%)
LAB
lab(59.30% 30.32 -6.51)
LCH
lch(59.30% 31.01 347.88)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 35%, 18%, 26%)

Etymology

Utilitarian
adjective

Latin ūtilitās, usefulness — adjectival suffix -ian. As a color modifier, utilitarian implies a clear-and-purpose-fit-and-stripped-down quality, the crisp color of Shaker-and-Quaker anti-ornamental functional-and-no-frills craft tradition. Sits at the crisp-and-functional end of the grid, parallel to functional and workmanlike in usage.

Gulābi
noun

Hindi/Urdu गुलाबी / گُلابی, rose-pink — derived from Persian gul (flower) via gulāb (rose-water), the Indian color tradition for the saturated pink-magenta of Damask rose petals and the iconic Jaipur Pink City stucco. Gulābi color refers to a Jaipur old-city stucco-painted façade in late-afternoon light: a saturated, slightly cool deep magenta with the matte finish of lime-and-iron-oxide stucco.

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.

#bd7b9b
Original
#81889c
Protanopia
#919399
Deuteranopia
#c67986
Tritanopia
#8b8b8b
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
3.25:1
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
6.47:1

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
##BD7B9B
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.7040 0.4938 0.6025)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.092

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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