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violet · neutral

#080409

a deep, soft violet · neutral · closest name: Black

Token name suggestion: Abyss Iris

RGB
8, 4, 9
HSL
288°, 39%, 3%
CMYK
11, 56, 0, 97
Luminance
0.0016

#080409 is a deep soft violet, 288° on the wheel and 57/100 on the cool side. Put white text on it (20.36:1). As text it scores 20.36:1 on white — safe at any size. Nearest name is Black, nearest Tailwind family is zinc.

hsl(288 39% 3%)rgb(8 4 9)Base step 950AAA inkNeutral

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #080409 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#080409
Hue
288°
violet
Saturation
39%
soft
Lightness
3%
deep
Brightness
4%
HSV value
Perceived
2%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.0016
WCAG relative
Temperature
Neutral
57/100 cool
Color family
Violet
Tone
Soft
Best ink
White
20.36:1
Closest name
Black
ΔE2000 2.9
Chroma
2.3
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.118
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
zinc
500 · ΔE 34
Web-safe
#000000
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue288° of 360°
Saturation39%
Lightness3%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #080409.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool57% cool

Reads neutral. Warm and cool siblings keep the same lightness, so you can swap one in without redoing your contrast maths.

Luminance by channel
Red33%
Green55%
Blue12%

Green carries most of what the eye calls brightness — that is why WCAG weights it 0.7152.

Every format

HEX#080409
HEX (8-digit)#080409ff
RGBrgb(8, 4, 9)
RGBArgba(8, 4, 9, 1)
HSLhsl(288, 39%, 3%)
HSV / HSBhsv(288, 56%, 4%)
HWBhwb(288 2% 96%)
CMYKcmyk(11%, 56%, 0%, 97%)
LABlab(1.4 1.7 -1.5)
LCHlch(1.4 2.3 318.9)
OKLCHoklch(0.118 0.017 320.7)
XYZ (D65)xyz(0.19, 0.16, 0.28)
Decimal525321
Display P3color(display-p3 0.031 0.016 0.035)
Web-safe#000000

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #080409;
background-color: #080409;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #080409;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#080409] bg-[#080409]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #080409;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.031, green: 0.016, blue: 0.035)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.031, green: 0.016, blue: 0.035, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#080409</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFF080409)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFF080409)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(9, 4, 8)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(8, 4, 9)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(8, 4, 9)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 8, 4, 9)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.0314f, 0.0157f, 0.0353f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{8,4,9}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #080409 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #080409 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#4E2758, #E7D5EC);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #080409 h s calc(l - 7));

Design tokens

The same ramp in the four formats a team actually needs. Paste one and the whole palette lands with it.

css custom propertiesclick to select
:root {
  --brand-50: #F9F5FA;
  --brand-100: #F2EBF4;
  --brand-200: #E5D3E9;
  --brand-300: #D4B1DC;
  --brand-400: #BE8ACB;
  --brand-500: #A964BA;
  --brand-600: #974BAA;
  --brand-700: #7E3F8D;
  --brand-800: #643271;
  --brand-900: #4A2853;
  --brand-950: #080409;
  --brand: #080409;
  --brand-ink: #ffffff;
  --brand-surface: #F9F4FA;
  --brand-border: #E0C6E6;
  --brand-hover: #000000;
  --brand-pressed: #000000;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #211424;
    --brand-ink: #E7D5EC;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F9F5FA',
        100: '#F2EBF4',
        200: '#E5D3E9',
        300: '#D4B1DC',
        400: '#BE8ACB',
        500: '#A964BA',
        600: '#974BAA',
        700: '#7E3F8D',
        800: '#643271',
        900: '#4A2853',
        950: '#080409',
        DEFAULT: '#080409',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F9F5FA,
  '100': #F2EBF4,
  '200': #E5D3E9,
  '300': #D4B1DC,
  '400': #BE8ACB,
  '500': #A964BA,
  '600': #974BAA,
  '700': #7E3F8D,
  '800': #643271,
  '900': #4A2853,
  '950': #080409,
);
$brand-base: #080409;
$brand-ink: #ffffff;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F9F5FA", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#F2EBF4", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#E5D3E9", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#D4B1DC", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#BE8ACB", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#A964BA", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#974BAA", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#7E3F8D", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#643271", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#4A2853", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#080409", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$value": "#ffffff", "$type": "color" }
  }
}

Best text color

Only one of black and white can be right. This is the one, with the number that proves it.

Readable at a glance#ffffff on #080409 · 20.36:1
Use #ffffffAAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 20.36:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Aa
Black text · 1.03:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Reading the other direction: #080409 as text scores 20.36:1 on white and 1.03:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #F5EDF7 at 17.78:1.

Make it accessible

A contrast checker tells you that you failed. This tells you what to ship instead — same hue, same saturation, lightness moved only as far as WCAG demands.

The quick fox
#080409 · 20.36:1
AA on whitealready passes
#080409
The quick fox
#080409 · 20.36:1
AAA on whitealready passes
#080409
The quick fox
#A257B5 · 4.57:1
AA on black+50% L
#A257B5
The quick fox
#B982C7 · 7.08:1
AAA on black+62% L
#B982C7

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #080409 is enough for headings on white. Non-text elements such as icons, chart strokes and focus rings also sit at 3:1 under WCAG 2.2 (1.4.11).

Accessibility — WCAG contrast

Aa
#080409 on white: 20.36:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#080409 on black: 1.03:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #080409 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #080409.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White20.36:1AaAa
Slate 5019.46:1AaAa
Slate 10018.58:1AaAa
Slate 20016.51:1AaAa
Slate 30013.71:1AaAa
Slate 4007.94:1AaAa
Slate 5004.28:1AaAa
Slate 6002.69:1AaAa
Slate 7001.97:1AaAa
Slate 8001.39:1AaAa
Slate 9001.14:1AaAa
Black1.03:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #040509
deuteranopia · #040509
tritanopia · #080406

Roughly one man in twelve has some form of colour vision deficiency. If any of the three panels above is hard to tell apart from a neighbouring colour in your palette, add a shape, an icon or a label so the meaning does not rest on hue alone.

Color scale — 50 to 950

A Tailwind-shaped ramp built around this exact hex. #080409 is pinned to step 950; the rest hold its hue and let saturation ease off at the extremes so the pale end never turns neon.

#F9F5FA
#F2EBF4
#E5D3E9
#D4B1DC
#BE8ACB
#A964BA
#974BAA
#7E3F8D
#643271
#4A2853
#080409
Base = 950Lightest = 50 · #F9F5FADarkest = 950 · #080409Text step on white = 600
Perceptual ramp — OKLCH

The same eleven steps expressed in OKLCH, where equal lightness numbers actually look equally spaced. HSL ramps go muddy in the yellows and washed out in the blues; this one does not. Modern browsers render it natively — the hex ramp above is the fallback.

50100200300400500600700800900950
oklch tokensclick to select
:root {
  --brand-50: oklch(0.97 0.004 320.7);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.007 320.7);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.010 320.7);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.014 320.7);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.016 320.7);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.017 320.7);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.017 320.7);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.016 320.7);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.015 320.7);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.012 320.7);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.010 320.7);
}

Colors that work with #080409

Not a palette — a role sheet. Each swatch answers one question you will hit while building the component.

Text on it#ffffff
White wins here
Surface#F9F4FA
Tinted page background
Border#E0C6E6
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#8B4B9B
Captions on the surface
Accent#060904
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#4E2758
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#F5EDF7
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#211424
Dark-mode background
Hover#000000
One step down in lightness
Pressed#000000
Two steps down
Disabled#47314C
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#150919
Offset from the fill so it reads
Light mode
Everything in its place

Surface, border, heading and body all derive from this one hue, so the screen stays coherent without a second palette.

Primary actionSecondaryBadge
Dark mode
Same hue, inverted

Lightness flips, hue holds. The accent stays the anchor in both themes.

Primary actionSecondaryAccent

In real components

The same eight roles, wired into the interface patterns you will actually build with them. Every state below is a computed value, not a mock-up.

Buttons and states
Save changesHoverPressedDisabled
OutlineSubtleLinkFocused
Form field
you@company.com

Focus ring uses the light variant so the field still reads as one shape.

Send me product updates
Notice
Your export is ready

The file stays available for seven days. Download it before it expires.

NewBetaDraft
Data
Storage used68%
Acme LtdActive
NorthwindTrial
GlobexActive

How to use #080409

Derived from its contrast, chroma and lightness — not from taste.

Works well for
  • Body text and links on white
  • Charts, tags and secondary surfaces
  • Headers, footers and dark-mode surfaces
  • Brand accents, badges and data highlights
Use with care
  • Text on black or near-black surfaces
  • Black text placed on it
  • Pairing with a same-lightness hue — edges vibrate
Minimum size as text on white
Any size
Safe as a fill behind white type
Yes
Safe as a 1px border on white
Yes

Meaning and mood

What a colour in this family tends to signal, and how this particular chroma and lightness change the reading.

creativepremiummodernimaginative

Violet sits between the warmth of red and the calm of blue, so it reads as inventive without reading as risky. Current shorthand for software craft.

The muted chroma softens the association — it reads considered rather than loud, which suits long-form and data-heavy screens. The low lightness adds weight and formality.

Worth knowing

Deep violets swallow detail on screens with poor gamma; check it on a cheap laptop panel.

Reads as
  • FormalityHigh
  • EnergyMedium
  • Weight98/100
  • TemperatureNeutral
  • ApproachabilityBalanced

Colour associations are cultural and vary by market. Treat these as a starting point for a conversation with your audience, not a finding about them.

Similar colors

One move away from this hex in each direction. Every swatch is its own page.

Color relationships

The wheel positions with their names attached, so you can grab the one you actually need.

Complementary#050904
Analogous left#050409
Analogous right#090407
Split-complement 1#070904
Split-complement 2#040905
Triadic 1#090804
Triadic 2#040908
Tetradic#090504
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°288°

#080409 sits at 288°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red3.1%
Green1.6%
Blue3.5%
R · 0–255
8
0x08
G · 0–255
4
0x04
B · 0–255
9
0x09

CMYK percentages

Cyan11.1%
Magenta55.6%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)96.5%

Total ink coverage is 163%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#080409 text on a black background

contrast 1.03:1

Card sample

#080409 text on a white background

contrast 20.36:1

Card sample

#080409 on grey

18.58:1

#080409 on its own surface

18.76:1

#080409 on its dark surface

1.15:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #080409;
Background color
Panel with #080409 background
background-color: #080409;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #080409;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(8, 4, 9, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(8, 4, 9, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #080409;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #080409, #090407);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #080409, #090405);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #080409;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #080409;
caret-color: #080409;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #080409;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #F5EDF7;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #080409;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#080409 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #080409 over white; the bottom row is the same alpha over a checkerboard, so you can see what survives on a photo or a video.

Bottom row of hexes is the flattened result over white — use those when a design tool refuses transparency, or when you need a solid fallback.

alpha in every syntaxclick to select
rgba(8, 4, 9, 0.5)
rgb(8 4 9 / 50%)
#08040980
hsl(288 39% 3% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #080409 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#0804091a#E6E6E6
20%#08040933#CECDCE
40%#08040966#9C9B9D
60%#08040999#6B686B
80%#080409cc#39363A

Gradients from #080409

Six recipes, each built from this hex and shown with the exact CSS that produced it.

Elevation
Same hue, three lightnesses — safe anywhere
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #2E1733, #080409 45%, #4E2758);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #080409, #000000);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #080409, #050904);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #402048 0%, #080409 45%, #4E2758 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F9F4FA, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #19142C 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #1E0D18 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #4E2758 0%, transparent 65%), #080409;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #080409

Shades — darker

Tints — lighter

Tones — desaturated

Color harmonies

Nearest named colors

Ranked with CIEDE2000 across all 139 CSS keywords. Under ΔE 2 the eye stops telling them apart; over ΔE 10 they are plainly different colors.

#080409 in the real world

Where a color in this family tends to land, and the interface roles it is usually asked to play.

Industries
Creative toolsFintechBeautyLuxury
Common UI roles
ButtonsLinksFocus statesCharts
Print note

Converts to four-color process without much drama. Proof it anyway.

On screens

Very dark values collapse into each other on cheap panels — leave more lightness between your darkest steps than the numbers suggest.

In dark mode

Too dim on dark surfaces at 1.03:1 — lift it to #A257B5 for body text, or reserve it for fills.

Explore nearby colors

Small, deliberate steps away from this hex — useful when you are hunting for the version of a colour that finally feels right.

#080409, answered

What color is #080409?

#080409 is a deep soft violet, closest to Black (ΔE2000 2.9). It sits at 288° on the hue wheel with 39% saturation and 3% lightness, which reads as neutral.

What is the RGB value of #080409?

rgb(8, 4, 9) — 8 red, 4 green and 9 blue out of 255, or 3.1% / 1.6% / 3.5% by channel.

What is #080409 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(288, 39%, 3%) and hsv(288, 56%, 4%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #080409 a light or a dark color?

It is a dark color. Relative luminance is 0.0016 and perceived brightness is 2%, so white text on it reaches 20.36:1.

Should I use black or white text on #080409?

White. It scores 20.36:1 against #080409, versus 1.03:1 for black — AAA at any size.

Is #080409 accessible on a white background?

#080409 on white scores 20.36:1, which clears AAA at every size.

What is the complementary color of #080409?

#050904 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #070904 and #040905, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #080409?

For interface work: #F9F4FA as the surface, #E0C6E6 for borders, #8B4B9B for secondary text, #060904 as an accent and #4E2758 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #050409 and #090407 stays calm, while #050904 is the loudest partner.

What is #080409 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(11%, 56%, 0%, 97%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #080409 warm or cool?

Neutral — it scores 57 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #0B050A; nudged cooler, #07050B.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #080409?

The zinc family — its 500 step is #71717a, ΔE2000 34 away. That is a visible difference, so define #080409 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #080409 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#080409] or text-[#080409], or register the whole ramp under theme.extend.colors.brand so you get bg-brand-500 and friends. The generated 50–950 scale on this page is ready to paste into your config.

What is #080409 with 50% opacity?

rgba(8, 4, 9, 0.5), or #08040980 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #848284; over black, #040205.

Is #080409 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #000000, ΔE2000 2.9 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #080409 mean?

As a violet, it reads creative, premium, modern. Violet sits between the warmth of red and the calm of blue, so it reads as inventive without reading as risky. Current shorthand for software craft. At this moderate chroma the association is present but not shouted.

What gradient works with #080409?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #2E1733, #080409 45%, #4E2758). For more colour, a short hue run to #000000 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #080409 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #080409 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.