Rousing Erodium
Rousing Erodium (#EA9DEF) is a soft violet with a pastel character. It reads calm and airy, with enough chroma to feel intentional rather than washed out. Its HSL profile (296°, 72%, 78%) 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
Old English rūsan, to rush — present-participle of rouse. As a color modifier, rousing implies a saturated-and-wakening-and-active quality, the bright color of dawn-chorus-and-morning-bell atmospheric-and-aural stimulation. Sits at the bright-and-active end of the grid, parallel to awakening and invigorating in usage.
Eurasian storksbill (Erodium cicutarium) — a Geraniaceae annual with deep-violet five-petaled cup-flowers and the long-pointed seed-pod shaped like a stork's bill. Erodium color refers to a fully bloomed Erodium cicutarium cup-flower: a saturated, slightly cool deep violet with the velvet finish of fresh small five-petaled cup-corollas. The genus name comes from the Greek erōdios (heron), after the seed-pod shape.
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.