Brilliant Thistle
Brilliant Thistle (#DE9AEC) is a soft violet 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 (290°, 68%, 76%) places it in the balanced band at a light lightness. It works as a background wash, large-area fill, or soft illustration tone. Add a darker ink of the same hue when you need type over it. 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.
Etymology
From the Italian brillante, sparkling — used as a color modifier since the seventeenth century for hues that read as optically active beyond their literal saturation. Brilliant green, brilliant blue: the implication is luminance combined with the slight sparkle of a high-refractive surface. Sits at the bright-bucket center alongside vivid and bright.
The thistles — Onopordum, Cirsium, Carduus — spiny composite-family perennials whose tufted purple flower heads adorn the Scottish national emblem and uncountable European pasture margins. The color refers to a fresh thistle flower at peak bloom: a soft, slightly red-shifted pale purple with the matte finish of tufted florets. Lighter than heather, warmer than lavender, with the heraldic weight of a flower that defends itself with thorns.
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 exploreHarmonies
Accessibility
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.
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.