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Sharp Pomegranate

#f97cb9
Notes

Sharp Pomegranate (#F97CB9) is a soft 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°, 91%, 73%) places it in the highly saturated band at a light lightness. Best used in small doses, like logos, CTAs, focus rings, or highlight text, where its saturation becomes a feature rather than noise. 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
#f97cb9
RGB
rgb(249, 124, 185)
HSL
hsl(331, 91%, 73%)
HWB
hwb(331 49% 2%)
OKLCH
oklch(74.6% 0.166 351.3)
HSV
hsv(331, 50%, 98%)
LAB
lab(68.07% 54.38 -9.70)
LCH
lch(68.07% 55.24 349.88)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 50%, 26%, 2%)

Etymology

Sharp
adjective

Old English scearp, cutting, pointed — applied metaphorically to color since the seventeenth century for hues that read as definite and edge-defined. Sharp red, sharp green: the implication is saturation combined with high-contrast crispness. Sits in the bright-bucket center alongside crisp and clear, with a slightly more incisive edge.

Pomegranate
noun

Punica granatum, the seeded fruit of the eastern Mediterranean, sacred to Persephone and a recurring motif in Persian, Mughal, and Spanish ornament. The color refers to the inside of a ripe arils-cluster: a dense, jewel-like red with violet undertones, closer to garnet than to cherry. The pigment is fugitive in textile dye but durable in glaze and enamel.

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

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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.

#f97cb9
Original
#8b98bb
Protanopia
#acaeb6
Deuteranopia
#ff7793
Tritanopia
#9b9b9b
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).
Failon White
2.44:1
The quick brown foxSample body text at normal size. The wcag minimum for body contrast is 4.5:1 (AA) or 7:1 (AAA).
AAAon Black
8.61:1

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