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blue · cool

#3914ac

a dark, electric blue · cool · closest name: Medium Blue

Token name suggestion: Dusk Harbour

RGB
57, 20, 172
HSL
255°, 79%, 38%
CMYK
67, 88, 0, 33
Luminance
0.0435

#3914ac is a dark electric blue, 255° on the wheel and 75/100 on the cool side. Put white text on it (11.23:1). As text it scores 11.23:1 on white — safe at any size. Nearest name is Medium Blue, nearest Tailwind family is indigo.

hsl(255 79% 38%)rgb(57 20 172)Base step 700AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #3914ac is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#3914ac
Hue
255°
blue
Saturation
79%
electric
Lightness
38%
dark
Brightness
67%
HSV value
Perceived
27%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.0435
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
75/100 cool
Color family
Blue
Tone
Electric
Best ink
White
11.23:1
Closest name
Medium Blue
ΔE2000 4.4
Chroma
90.9
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.377
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
indigo
500 · ΔE 22.8
Web-safe
#330099
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue255° of 360°
Saturation79%
Lightness38%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #3914ac.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool75% cool

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

Luminance by channel
Red20%
Green12%
Blue68%

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

Every format

HEX#3914ac
HEX (8-digit)#3914acff
RGBrgb(57, 20, 172)
RGBArgba(57, 20, 172, 1)
HSLhsl(255, 79%, 38%)
HSV / HSBhsv(255, 88%, 67%)
HWBhwb(255 8% 33%)
CMYKcmyk(67%, 88%, 0%, 33%)
LABlab(24.8 55.3 -72.2)
LCHlch(24.8 90.9 307.4)
OKLCHoklch(0.377 0.212 280.2)
XYZ (D65)xyz(9.38, 4.35, 39.37)
Decimal3740844
Display P3color(display-p3 0.224 0.078 0.675)
Web-safe#330099

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #3914ac;
background-color: #3914ac;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #3914ac;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#3914ac] bg-[#3914ac]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #3914ac;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.224, green: 0.078, blue: 0.675)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.224, green: 0.078, blue: 0.675, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#3914AC</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFF3914AC)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFF3914AC)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(172, 20, 57)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(57, 20, 172)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(57, 20, 172)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 57, 20, 172)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.2235f, 0.0784f, 0.6745f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{57,20,172}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #3914ac 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #3914ac 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#260D72, #D9D3EE);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #3914ac 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: #F5F3FC;
  --brand-100: #EBE6F9;
  --brand-200: #D2C7F5;
  --brand-300: #B09AF3;
  --brand-400: #8968ED;
  --brand-500: #6136E8;
  --brand-600: #4919DB;
  --brand-700: #3914ac;
  --brand-800: #301192;
  --brand-900: #26116A;
  --brand-950: #180A42;
  --brand: #3914ac;
  --brand-ink: #ffffff;
  --brand-surface: #F6F4FA;
  --brand-border: #CBC0ED;
  --brand-hover: #2E108C;
  --brand-pressed: #240D6C;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #181424;
    --brand-ink: #D9D3EE;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F5F3FC',
        100: '#EBE6F9',
        200: '#D2C7F5',
        300: '#B09AF3',
        400: '#8968ED',
        500: '#6136E8',
        600: '#4919DB',
        700: '#3914ac',
        800: '#301192',
        900: '#26116A',
        950: '#180A42',
        DEFAULT: '#3914ac',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F5F3FC,
  '100': #EBE6F9,
  '200': #D2C7F5,
  '300': #B09AF3,
  '400': #8968ED,
  '500': #6136E8,
  '600': #4919DB,
  '700': #3914ac,
  '800': #301192,
  '900': #26116A,
  '950': #180A42,
);
$brand-base: #3914ac;
$brand-ink: #ffffff;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F5F3FC", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#EBE6F9", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#D2C7F5", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#B09AF3", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#8968ED", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#6136E8", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#4919DB", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#3914ac", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#301192", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#26116A", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#180A42", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #3914ac · 11.23:1
Use #ffffffAAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 11.23:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Aa
Black text · 1.87:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Reading the other direction: #3914ac as text scores 11.23:1 on white and 1.87:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #EDE8FC at 9.39:1.

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
#3914ac · 11.23:1
AA on whitealready passes
#3914ac
The quick fox
#3914ac · 11.23:1
AAA on whitealready passes
#3914ac
The quick fox
#7C59EC · 4.50:1
AA on black+26% L
#7C59EC
The quick fox
#A086F1 · 7.17:1
AAA on black+36% L
#A086F1

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #3914AC 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
#3914ac on white: 11.23:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#3914ac on black: 1.87:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #3914ac as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #3914ac.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White11.23:1AaAa
Slate 5010.73:1AaAa
Slate 10010.25:1AaAa
Slate 2009.11:1AaAa
Slate 3007.56:1AaAa
Slate 4004.38:1AaAa
Slate 5002.36:1AaAa
Slate 6001.48:1AaAa
Slate 7001.08:1AaAa
Slate 8001.30:1AaAa
Slate 9001.59:1AaAa
Black1.87:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #0040B0
deuteranopia · #0035AA
tritanopia · #004865

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. #3914ac is pinned to step 700; the rest hold its hue and let saturation ease off at the extremes so the pale end never turns neon.

#F5F3FC
#EBE6F9
#D2C7F5
#B09AF3
#8968ED
#6136E8
#4919DB
#3914ac
#301192
#26116A
#180A42
Base = 700Lightest = 50 · #F5F3FCDarkest = 950 · #180A42Text step on white = 500
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 0.053 280.2);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.085 280.2);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.127 280.2);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.165 280.2);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.195 280.2);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.212 280.2);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.212 280.2);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.199 280.2);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.178 280.2);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.148 280.2);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.116 280.2);
}

Colors that work with #3914ac

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#F6F4FA
Tinted page background
Border#CBC0ED
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#5E4B9B
Captions on the surface
Accent#BBBA11
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#260D72
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#EDE8FC
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#181424
Dark-mode background
Hover#2E108C
One step down in lightness
Pressed#240D6C
Two steps down
Disabled#8C81AF
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#3A0BC9
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 #3914ac

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

Works well for
  • Body text and links on white
  • Primary buttons and calls to action
  • Focus rings, active and selected states
  • Headers, footers and dark-mode surfaces
  • Brand accents, badges and data highlights
Use with care
  • Text on black or near-black surfaces
  • Full-page backgrounds — tiring over long sessions
  • 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.

trustedcalmcompetentcorporate

The default of institutions for a reason: blue is read as stable and safe across nearly every culture that has been surveyed.

At this chroma the association is amplified — it will dominate anything placed beside it, so give it space and use it sparingly. The low lightness adds weight and formality.

Worth knowing

It is also the most crowded hue on the web. Distinctiveness has to come from your other choices.

Reads as
  • FormalityHigh
  • EnergyHigh
  • Weight62/100
  • TemperatureCool
  • ApproachabilityReserved

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#87AC14
Analogous left#143BAC
Analogous right#8514AC
Split-complement 1#AC8514
Split-complement 2#3BAC14
Triadic 1#AC3914
Triadic 2#14AC39
Tetradic#AC143B
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°255°

#3914ac sits at 255°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red22.4%
Green7.8%
Blue67.5%
R · 0–255
57
0x39
G · 0–255
20
0x14
B · 0–255
172
0xac

CMYK percentages

Cyan66.9%
Magenta88.4%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)32.5%

Total ink coverage is 188%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#3914ac text on a black background

contrast 1.87:1

Card sample

#3914ac text on a white background

contrast 11.23:1

Card sample

#3914ac on grey

10.25:1

#3914ac on its own surface

10.29:1

#3914ac on its dark surface

1.61:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #3914ac;
Background color
Panel with #3914ac background
background-color: #3914ac;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #3914ac;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(57, 20, 172, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(57, 20, 172, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #3914ac;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #3914ac, #9E14AC);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #3914ac, #AC1494);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #3914ac;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #3914ac;
caret-color: #3914ac;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #3914ac;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #EDE8FC;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #3914ac;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#3914ac 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #3914ac 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(57, 20, 172, 0.5)
rgb(57 20 172 / 50%)
#3914ac80
hsl(255 79% 38% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #3914ac 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#3914ac1a#EBE8F7
20%#3914ac33#D7D0EE
40%#3914ac66#B0A1DE
60%#3914ac99#8872CD
80%#3914accc#6143BD

Gradients from #3914ac

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, #4B1AE3, #3914ac 45%, #260D72);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #3914ac, #901190);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #3914ac, #87AC14);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #6034E7 0%, #3914ac 45%, #260D72 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F6F4FA, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #195BDA 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #A917C7 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #260D72 0%, transparent 65%), #3914ac;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #3914ac

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.

#3914ac in the real world

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

Industries
TechnologyFinanceHealthcareEnterprise SaaS
Common UI roles
ButtonsLinksFocus statesCharts
Print note

Sits outside most CMYK gamuts — expect a duller press result, or specify a spot ink.

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 1.87:1 — lift it to #7C59EC 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.

#3914ac, answered

What color is #3914ac?

#3914ac is a dark electric blue, closest to Medium Blue (ΔE2000 4.4). It sits at 255° on the hue wheel with 79% saturation and 38% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #3914ac?

rgb(57, 20, 172) — 57 red, 20 green and 172 blue out of 255, or 22.4% / 7.8% / 67.5% by channel.

What is #3914ac in HSL and HSV?

hsl(255, 79%, 38%) and hsv(255, 88%, 67%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #3914ac a light or a dark color?

It is a dark color. Relative luminance is 0.0435 and perceived brightness is 27%, so white text on it reaches 11.23:1.

Should I use black or white text on #3914ac?

White. It scores 11.23:1 against #3914ac, versus 1.87:1 for black — AAA at any size.

Is #3914ac accessible on a white background?

#3914ac on white scores 11.23:1, which clears AAA at every size.

What is the complementary color of #3914ac?

#87AC14 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #AC8514 and #3BAC14, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #3914ac?

For interface work: #F6F4FA as the surface, #CBC0ED for borders, #5E4B9B for secondary text, #BBBA11 as an accent and #260D72 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #143BAC and #8514AC stays calm, while #87AC14 is the loudest partner.

What is #3914ac in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(67%, 88%, 0%, 33%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — a color this saturated sits outside most CMYK gamuts and will print duller than it looks here.

Is #3914ac warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 75 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #7114AC; nudged cooler, #1225AE.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #3914ac?

The indigo family — its 500 step is #6366f1, ΔE2000 22.8 away. That is a visible difference, so define #3914ac as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #3914ac in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#3914ac] or text-[#3914ac], 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 #3914ac with 50% opacity?

rgba(57, 20, 172, 0.5), or #3914ac80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #9C8AD6; over black, #1D0A56.

Is #3914ac a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #330099, ΔE2000 3.7 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #3914ac mean?

As a blue, it reads trusted, calm, competent. The default of institutions for a reason: blue is read as stable and safe across nearly every culture that has been surveyed. At this chroma the effect is amplified — it will dominate whatever sits beside it.

What gradient works with #3914ac?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #4B1AE3, #3914ac 45%, #260D72). For more colour, a short hue run to #901190 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #3914ac in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #3914ac at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.