Amethyst#9100FF, a vivid violet
Amethyst in RGB, HSL, OKLCH & more
Ready to ship: every line pastes straight into your codebase, and the whole file copies at once.
ART is Rhapsody's perceptual model. How ART works
Why is it called Amethyst?
Amethyst's meaning, origin, and pronunciation, with sources.
Anchor: A59 · one of the 72 anchor hues of ART
Origin: Greek: "not drunken"
Meaning: A-, "not" + methyskō, "to intoxicate." The stone believed to prevent drunkenness
AM-uh-thist · /ˈæməθɪst/
Greek a-, "not" + methyskō, "to intoxicate" → amethystos, "not drunken" → Latin amethystus → Old French ametiste → English amethyst, around 1300.
An old belief is fossilized inside the word. Greeks and Romans held that the stone prevented drunkenness, and carved wine goblets out of it. Drinking vessels made of sobriety.
Now the debunking, clearly labeled. The widely repeated myth of the nymph Amethyste, saved from Dionysus by Artemis and turned to crystal, has no ancient source at all. It was invented in the sixteenth century by the French poet Rémy Belleau. A Renaissance fiction wearing a toga.
The stone's real drama is economic. Amethyst ranked among the "cardinal" gems, as precious as ruby, until vast Brazilian deposits surfaced in the nineteenth century and the price collapsed. A gem demoted not by beauty but by supply.
LSJ s.v. ἀμέθυστος; Wikipedia s.v. Amethyst (the Belleau attribution). Etymological dictionaries + scholarly sources. Audio: Sylvanmoon, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Shades of Amethyst, lighter and darker
For hover states, washed backgrounds, and dark surfaces that still read as #9100FF. 13 steps, spaced evenly by eye, with the color itself sitting at its natural depth, amethyst-600.
Tints (light surfaces; dark text passes on every one)
Midtones (the color at full strength, for brand & accent work)
Shades (dark surfaces; light text passes on every one)
Most tools mix. Rhapsody measures.
Paste any color. The whole system comes back, contrast-checked before you see it.
The window on the right was generated from #9100FF, like this whole page.
Is Amethyst accessible? Contrast with white & black
Strong contrast makes your work readable by everyone, and meets the WCAG standard accessibility law points at. AA is the floor; AAA is the tier worth aiming for in body text. White text on #9100FF passes AA. For AAA, use its scale. Every strip below is one surface, and the marks are the steps that reach AAA on it.
Rows are text, columns are background · 68 of 210 pairings reach WCAG 2.2 AAA, shown here.
Ship the audit, not screenshots.
Run #9100FF against the colors you actually ship, every pairing and any target, and export it: exact ratios, the AA tier, APCA, in one file.
The audit on the right was calibrated from #9100FF, like this whole page.
Amethyst in CMYK: one value for files, one per press
This color shifts further than a press run can hold, so expect a visible difference. The pairs below show where each standard lands.
In CMYK, #9100FF is . That is the value design tools and file formats use when no press is involved.
On press (what each standard prints)
shifts ΔE00 23.1, 9.2× the 2.5 a run varies by
shifts ΔE00 20.3, 8.1× the 2.5 a run varies by
shifts ΔE00 17.8, 7.1× the 2.5 a run varies by
shifts ΔE00 16.9, 6.8× the 2.5 a run varies by
shifts ΔE00 16.8, 6.7× the 2.5 a run varies by
Press values computed through the ICC characterization data each standard proofs against. Each CMYK above is the closest that standard can get.
No surprises at the printer.
Run any color through the major press standards: FOGRA51, GRACoL, Japan Color, FOGRA39. It's coming soon. Create a free account and you'll get a note the moment it's live.
The strip shows this page's tints and shades on screen, then through a standard GRACoL 2013 conversion.
Colors similar to Amethyst
A-, "not" + methyskō, "to intoxicate." The stone believed to prevent drunkenness
Here are other colors similar to Amethyst along with accessible text pairings and whether or not they're print-safe. Explore The Violets
| Electric Violet | Electric Violet | #8B00FF | white text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Vivid Purple | Vivid Purple | #9900FA | white text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Sugilite | Sugilite | #8200FF | white text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Ube | Ube | #A000FF | white text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Blue Violet | Blue Violet | #8A2BE2 | white text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Electric Purple | Electric Purple | #AA23FF | white text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Bright Violet | Bright Violet | #AD0AFD | white text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Tyrian | Tyrian | #AF00FF | white text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Violet | Violet | #7200FF | white text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Bluish Purple | Bluish Purple | #703BE7 | white text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Purply Blue | Purply Blue | #661AEE | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Burple | Burple | #6832E3 | white text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Purpley | Purpley | #8756E4 | white text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Lightish Purple | Lightish Purple | #A552E6 | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Lighter Purple | Lighter Purple | #A55AF4 | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Purple/Blue | Purple/Blue | #5D21D0 | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Purple Heart | Purple Heart | #652DC1 | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Bluey Purple | Bluey Purple | #6241C7 | white text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Medium Slate Blue | Medium Slate Blue | #7B68EE | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Light Indigo | Light Indigo | #6D5ACF | white text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Slate Blue | Slate Blue | #6A5ACD | white text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Fuchsia Blue | Fuchsia Blue | #7A58C1 | white text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Studio | Studio | #714AB2 | white text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Iris | Iris | #6258C4 | white text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Blue Marguerite | Blue Marguerite | #7666C6 | white text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Medium Purple | Medium Purple | #9370DB | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Light Urple | Light Urple | #B36FF6 | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| True V | True V | #8A73D6 | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Rebecca Purple | Rebecca Purple | #663399 | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Periwinkle | Periwinkle | #8E82FE | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Lavender Blue | Lavender Blue | #8B88F8 | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Daisy Bush | Daisy Bush | #4F2398 | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Kingfisher Daisy | Kingfisher Daisy | #3E0480 | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Royal Purple | Royal Purple | #4B006E | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Windsor | Windsor | #3C0878 | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Blue Diamond | Blue Diamond | #380474 | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Christalle | Christalle | #33036B | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
Colors that go with Amethyst
The complementary color, straight across the wheel, is a brilliant lime #C2F576. Rhapsody's pick is the split complement, just to one side of it, a livelier pair.
The accent is for the moments that need attention, the harmony for the ones that need calm; the neutral carries the text and surfaces in between.
Take Amethyst with you
The work on this page doesn't stay here. Save a card and the color arrives in your file, your deck or your board already decided.
Your system is already built.
Rhapsody built it before you even asked: the scale, the neutrals, the utilities, every pairing calibrated.
This page's whole theme is built from one color. Palette does the same for yours: every step calibrated, every pairing checked, press included.
Every color on this page was calibrated, not mixed.
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