Gleaming Akebia
Gleaming Akebia (#E78AE8) 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 (299°, 67%, 73%) 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
The progressive participle of gleam, to shine intermittently. Used as a color word for hues with the slight optical motion of a polished or wet surface. Gleaming gold, gleaming red: the implication is luminance combined with the optical impression of specular highlight. Sits in the bright-and-glossy corner alongside lustrous.
Asian chocolate vine (Akebia quinata) — a deciduous twining vine native to Japan, China, and Korea, with deep-violet five-petaled flowers that release a chocolate-like fragrance in late spring. Akebia color refers to a fully bloomed Akebia quinata female flower: a saturated, slightly cool deep violet with the velvet finish of fused-petaled cup-flower. The Japanese name akebi refers to the pendulous fruit pods.
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.