Ube#A000FF, a vivid violet

At a glanceUbe is #A000FF, oklch(56.8% 0.297 304.1), a vivid violet, fully saturated at the sRGB gamut edge for its hue. Its hue sits mid-wheel, neither warm nor cool. Partner it with a warm light lemon #EBDD71 as an accent, a cool vivid blue #2151CE for harmony, and a muted purple #7C7487 as a neutral. Try it as a screen-first brand or accent color, and it takes white text at AA contrast. It shifts further on press than a run can hold, though, so Rhapsody would keep it off print-led brand work.
Color codes

Ube in RGB, HSL, OKLCH & more

Ready to ship: every line pastes straight into your codebase, and the whole file copies at once.

a000ff.css
:root { /* how your code speaks it */ /* how your eyes measure it */ /* how the lab measures it, D65 2° */}/* tailwind v4 */

ART is Rhapsody's perceptual model. How ART works

The name

Why is it called Ube?

Ube's meaning, origin, and pronunciation, with sources.

Anchor: A60 · one of the 72 anchor hues of ART

Origin: Filipino (Tagalog); the root is Proto-Malayo-Polynesian

Meaning: The purple yam (Dioscorea alata). The food came first, like "orange"

Word: ube (Tagalog)

OO-beh · /ˈuːbɛ/ — never "yoob"

Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *qubi, "yam" → Tagalog ube → English ube. Spanish dictionary-makers first wrote it down in the Vocabulario de la lengua tagala of 1613, and it reached English by 1901.

That ancient root is one of the great travelers. Its descendants run from Malagasy ovy to Malay ubi to Hawaiian uhi to Māori uwhi: one word for yam, stretching from Madagascar to Hawaii, half the circumference of the planet. Which makes Ube and Kikorangi, on opposite sides of this wheel, relatives. Tagalog and Māori are Austronesian cousins.

The color is the violently violet flesh of the boiled yam, and the heart of ube halaya, yam jam. (Halaya is itself borrowed, from Spanish jalea, a bonus loanword hiding in the dessert.) The global ube boom made this one of the few Tagalog words most Americans have eaten. Now you can pronounce it, too.

OED s.v. ube; Wiktionary s.v. ube, citing Blust & Trussel, Austronesian Comparative Dictionary; Wikipedia s.v. Ube halaya. Dictionary + scholarly sources; no native-speaker review.

Tints & shades

Shades of Ube, lighter and darker

For hover states, washed backgrounds, and dark surfaces that still read as #A000FF. 13 steps, spaced evenly by eye, with the color itself sitting at its natural depth, ube-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)

Rhapsody Palette

Most tools mix. Rhapsody measures.

Paste any color. The whole system comes back, contrast-checked before you see it.

Build your palette free

The window on the right was generated from #A000FF, like this whole page.

Accessibility

Is Ube 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 #A000FF 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.

Rhapsody Palette

Ship the audit, not screenshots.

Run #A000FF against the colors you actually ship, every pairing and any target, and export it: exact ratios, the AA tier, APCA, in one file.

Get the full audit

The audit on the right was calibrated from #A000FF, like this whole page.

Print

Ube 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, #A000FF is . That is the value design tools and file formats use when no press is involved.

On press (what each standard prints)

CGATS21 CRPC1 (coldset news) shifts on press
on screenon press

shifts ΔE00 22.5, 9.0× the 2.5 a run varies by

GRACoL 2013 Uncoated (CRPC3) shifts on press
on screenon press

shifts ΔE00 19.9, 8.0× the 2.5 a run varies by

GRACoL 2013 (CRPC6) shifts on press
on screenon press

shifts ΔE00 17.4, 7.0× the 2.5 a run varies by

PSO Coated v3 (FOGRA51) shifts on press
on screenon press

shifts ΔE00 18.3, 7.3× the 2.5 a run varies by

Coated FOGRA39 shifts on press
on screenon press

shifts ΔE00 17.0, 6.8× the 2.5 a run varies by

Japan Color 2011 Coated shifts on press
on screenon press

shifts ΔE00 17.1, 6.8× the 2.5 a run varies by

APTEC Flexo Coated shifts on press
on screenon press

shifts ΔE00 17.3, 6.9× the 2.5 a run varies by

CGATS21 CRPC7 (extended gamut) shifts on press
on screenon press

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.

Rhapsody Converter · coming soon

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.

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The strip shows this page's tints and shades on screen, then through a standard GRACoL 2013 conversion.

The Ubes

Colors similar to Ube

The purple yam (Dioscorea alata). The food came first, like "orange"

Here are other colors similar to Ube along with accessible text pairings and whether or not they're print-safe. Explore The Violets

Vivid PurpleVivid Purple#9900FAwhite text · AA✕ shifts on press
Bright VioletBright Violet#AD0AFDwhite text · AA✕ shifts on press
Electric PurpleElectric Purple#AA23FFwhite text · AA✕ shifts on press
TyrianTyrian#AF00FFwhite text · AA✕ shifts on press
AmethystAmethyst#9100FFwhite text · AA✕ shifts on press
Electric VioletElectric Violet#8B00FFwhite text · AA✕ shifts on press
Blue VioletBlue Violet#8A2BE2white text · AA✕ shifts on press
SugiliteSugilite#8200FFwhite text · AA✕ shifts on press
Lightish PurpleLightish Purple#A552E6black text · AA✕ shifts on press
VioletViolet#7200FFwhite text · AA✕ shifts on press
Lighter PurpleLighter Purple#A55AF4black text · AA✕ shifts on press
Bluish PurpleBluish Purple#703BE7white text · AA✕ shifts on press
PurpleyPurpley#8756E4white text · AA✕ shifts on press
BurpleBurple#6832E3white text · AA✕ shifts on press
Purply BluePurply Blue#661AEEwhite text · AAA✕ shifts on press
Medium Slate BlueMedium Slate Blue#7B68EEblack text · AA✕ shifts on press
Purple HeartPurple Heart#652DC1white text · AAA✕ shifts on press
Bluey PurpleBluey Purple#6241C7white text · AA✕ shifts on press
Light IndigoLight Indigo#6D5ACFwhite text · AA✕ shifts on press
Purple/BluePurple/Blue#5D21D0white text · AAA✕ shifts on press
Light UrpleLight Urple#B36FF6black text · AA✕ shifts on press
Fuchsia BlueFuchsia Blue#7A58C1white text · AA✕ shifts on press
Slate BlueSlate Blue#6A5ACDwhite text · AA✕ shifts on press
Medium PurpleMedium Purple#9370DBblack text · AA✕ shifts on press
StudioStudio#714AB2white text · AA✕ shifts on press
IrisIris#6258C4white text · AA✕ shifts on press
Blue MargueriteBlue Marguerite#7666C6white text · AA✕ shifts on press
True VTrue V#8A73D6black text · AA✕ shifts on press
PeriwinklePeriwinkle#8E82FEblack text · AA✕ shifts on press
Rebecca PurpleRebecca Purple#663399white text · AAA✕ shifts on press
Lavender BlueLavender Blue#8B88F8black text · AA✕ shifts on press
Daisy BushDaisy Bush#4F2398white text · AAA✕ shifts on press
Kingfisher DaisyKingfisher Daisy#3E0480white text · AAA✕ shifts on press
Royal PurpleRoyal Purple#4B006Ewhite text · AAA✕ shifts on press
WindsorWindsor#3C0878white text · AAA✕ shifts on press
Blue DiamondBlue Diamond#380474white text · AAA✕ shifts on press
ChristalleChristalle#33036Bwhite text · AAA✕ shifts on press
Pairings

Colors that go with Ube

The complementary color, straight across the wheel, is a brilliant lime #B3F77A. 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.

Downloads

Take Ube 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.

Ube color codes: hex #A000FF, RGB, HSL, CMYK, and OKLCH, from Rhapsody
Paste it anywhere without coming back for it.
The full tonal scale of Ube, 13 steps from light to dark with every hex, from Rhapsody
Reach for the right depth instead of the one you have.
Ube paired with a warm light lemon #EBDD71, a cool vivid blue #2151CE, a muted purple #7C7487: hex values and roles, from Rhapsody
Open a palette that already works together.
One free account

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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