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violet · cool

#401491

a dark, electric violet · cool · closest name: Indigo

Token name suggestion: Shadow Iris

RGB
64, 20, 145
HSL
261°, 76%, 32%
CMYK
56, 86, 0, 43
Luminance
0.0363

#401491 is a dark electric violet, 261° on the wheel and 72/100 on the cool side. Put white text on it (12.16:1). As text it scores 12.16:1 on white — safe at any size. Nearest name is Indigo, nearest Tailwind family is indigo.

hsl(261 76% 32%)rgb(64 20 145)Base step 800AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #401491 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#401491
Hue
261°
violet
Saturation
76%
electric
Lightness
32%
dark
Brightness
57%
HSV value
Perceived
24%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.0363
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
72/100 cool
Color family
Violet
Tone
Electric
Best ink
White
12.16:1
Closest name
Indigo
ΔE2000 3.9
Chroma
76.8
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.354
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
indigo
500 · ΔE 24.8
Web-safe
#330099
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue261° of 360°
Saturation76%
Lightness32%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #401491.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool72% 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
Red30%
Green14%
Blue56%

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

Every format

HEX#401491
HEX (8-digit)#401491ff
RGBrgb(64, 20, 145)
RGBArgba(64, 20, 145, 1)
HSLhsl(261, 76%, 32%)
HSV / HSBhsv(261, 86%, 57%)
HWBhwb(261 8% 43%)
CMYKcmyk(56%, 86%, 0%, 43%)
LABlab(22.4 48.6 -59.5)
LCHlch(22.4 76.8 309.2)
OKLCHoklch(0.354 0.181 289.2)
XYZ (D65)xyz(7.47, 3.63, 27.09)
Decimal4199569
Display P3color(display-p3 0.251 0.078 0.569)
Web-safe#330099

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #401491;
background-color: #401491;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #401491;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#401491] bg-[#401491]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #401491;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.251, green: 0.078, blue: 0.569)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.251, green: 0.078, blue: 0.569, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#401491</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFF401491)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFF401491)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(145, 20, 64)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(64, 20, 145)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(64, 20, 145)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 64, 20, 145)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.2510f, 0.0784f, 0.5686f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{64,20,145}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #401491 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #401491 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#310F70, #DCD3EE);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #401491 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: #F6F3FC;
  --brand-100: #EDE7F9;
  --brand-200: #D7C8F4;
  --brand-300: #BA9CF1;
  --brand-400: #986BEB;
  --brand-500: #763AE4;
  --brand-600: #5F1ED7;
  --brand-700: #4F19B3;
  --brand-800: #401491;
  --brand-900: #311368;
  --brand-950: #1E0C41;
  --brand: #401491;
  --brand-ink: #ffffff;
  --brand-surface: #F6F4FA;
  --brand-border: #D0C0ED;
  --brand-hover: #321072;
  --brand-pressed: #240B52;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #1A1424;
    --brand-ink: #DCD3EE;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F6F3FC',
        100: '#EDE7F9',
        200: '#D7C8F4',
        300: '#BA9CF1',
        400: '#986BEB',
        500: '#763AE4',
        600: '#5F1ED7',
        700: '#4F19B3',
        800: '#401491',
        900: '#311368',
        950: '#1E0C41',
        DEFAULT: '#401491',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F6F3FC,
  '100': #EDE7F9,
  '200': #D7C8F4,
  '300': #BA9CF1,
  '400': #986BEB,
  '500': #763AE4,
  '600': #5F1ED7,
  '700': #4F19B3,
  '800': #401491,
  '900': #311368,
  '950': #1E0C41,
);
$brand-base: #401491;
$brand-ink: #ffffff;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F6F3FC", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#EDE7F9", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#D7C8F4", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#BA9CF1", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#986BEB", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#763AE4", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#5F1ED7", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#4F19B3", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#401491", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#311368", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#1E0C41", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #401491 · 12.16:1
Use #ffffffAAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 12.16:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Aa
Black text · 1.73:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Reading the other direction: #401491 as text scores 12.16:1 on white and 1.73:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #EFE9FC at 10.27:1.

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
#401491 · 12.16:1
AA on whitealready passes
#401491
The quick fox
#401491 · 12.16:1
AAA on whitealready passes
#401491
The quick fox
#8A56E8 · 4.58:1
AA on black+30% L
#8A56E8
The quick fox
#A983EE · 7.17:1
AAA on black+40% L
#A983EE

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #401491 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
#401491 on white: 12.16:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#401491 on black: 1.73:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #401491 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #401491.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White12.16:1AaAa
Slate 5011.62:1AaAa
Slate 10011.10:1AaAa
Slate 2009.86:1AaAa
Slate 3008.19:1AaAa
Slate 4004.74:1AaAa
Slate 5002.56:1AaAa
Slate 6001.60:1AaAa
Slate 7001.17:1AaAa
Slate 8001.20:1AaAa
Slate 9001.47:1AaAa
Black1.73:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #003894
deuteranopia · #00328F
tritanopia · #1E3B55

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. #401491 is pinned to step 800; the rest hold its hue and let saturation ease off at the extremes so the pale end never turns neon.

#F6F3FC
#EDE7F9
#D7C8F4
#BA9CF1
#986BEB
#763AE4
#5F1ED7
#4F19B3
#401491
#311368
#1E0C41
Base = 800Lightest = 50 · #F6F3FCDarkest = 950 · #1E0C41Text 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 0.045 289.2);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.073 289.2);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.109 289.2);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.141 289.2);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.167 289.2);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.181 289.2);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.181 289.2);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.171 289.2);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.152 289.2);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.127 289.2);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.100 289.2);
}

Colors that work with #401491

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#D0C0ED
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#674B9B
Captions on the surface
Accent#879511
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#310F70
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#EFE9FC
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#1A1424
Dark-mode background
Hover#321072
One step down in lightness
Pressed#240B52
Two steps down
Disabled#8371A4
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#450DAC
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 #401491

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.

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.

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

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

Reads as
  • FormalityHigh
  • EnergyHigh
  • Weight68/100
  • 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#659114
Analogous left#142791
Analogous right#7F1491
Split-complement 1#917F14
Split-complement 2#279114
Triadic 1#914014
Triadic 2#149140
Tetradic#911427
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°261°

#401491 sits at 261°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red25.1%
Green7.8%
Blue56.9%
R · 0–255
64
0x40
G · 0–255
20
0x14
B · 0–255
145
0x91

CMYK percentages

Cyan55.9%
Magenta86.2%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)43.1%

Total ink coverage is 185%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#401491 text on a black background

contrast 1.73:1

Card sample

#401491 text on a white background

contrast 12.16:1

Card sample

#401491 on grey

11.10:1

#401491 on its own surface

11.14:1

#401491 on its dark surface

1.48:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #401491;
Background color
Panel with #401491 background
background-color: #401491;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #401491;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(64, 20, 145, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(64, 20, 145, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #401491;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #401491, #91148F);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #401491, #911470);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #401491;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #401491;
caret-color: #401491;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #401491;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #EFE9FC;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #401491;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#401491 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #401491 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(64, 20, 145, 0.5)
rgb(64 20 145 / 50%)
#40149180
hsl(261 76% 32% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #401491 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#4014911a#ECE8F4
20%#40149133#D9D0E9
40%#40149166#B3A1D3
60%#40149199#8C72BD
80%#401491cc#6643A7

Gradients from #401491

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, #581BC7, #401491 45%, #310F70);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #401491, #76106C);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #401491, #659114);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #6421E0 0%, #401491 45%, #310F70 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%, #1A40BE 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #A218AC 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #310F70 0%, transparent 65%), #401491;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #401491

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.

#401491 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

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 1.73:1 — lift it to #8A56E8 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.

#401491, answered

What color is #401491?

#401491 is a dark electric violet, closest to Indigo (ΔE2000 3.9). It sits at 261° on the hue wheel with 76% saturation and 32% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #401491?

rgb(64, 20, 145) — 64 red, 20 green and 145 blue out of 255, or 25.1% / 7.8% / 56.9% by channel.

What is #401491 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(261, 76%, 32%) and hsv(261, 86%, 57%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #401491 a light or a dark color?

It is a dark color. Relative luminance is 0.0363 and perceived brightness is 24%, so white text on it reaches 12.16:1.

Should I use black or white text on #401491?

White. It scores 12.16:1 against #401491, versus 1.73:1 for black — AAA at any size.

Is #401491 accessible on a white background?

#401491 on white scores 12.16:1, which clears AAA at every size.

What is the complementary color of #401491?

#659114 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #917F14 and #279114, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #401491?

For interface work: #F6F4FA as the surface, #D0C0ED for borders, #674B9B for secondary text, #879511 as an accent and #310F70 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #142791 and #7F1491 stays calm, while #659114 is the loudest partner.

What is #401491 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(56%, 86%, 0%, 43%). 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 #401491 warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 72 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #6E1491; nudged cooler, #121493.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #401491?

The indigo family — its 500 step is #6366f1, ΔE2000 24.8 away. That is a visible difference, so define #401491 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #401491 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#401491] or text-[#401491], 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 #401491 with 50% opacity?

rgba(64, 20, 145, 0.5), or #40149180 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #A08AC8; over black, #200A49.

Is #401491 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #330099, ΔE2000 2.9 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #401491 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 chroma the effect is amplified — it will dominate whatever sits beside it.

What gradient works with #401491?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #581BC7, #401491 45%, #310F70). For more colour, a short hue run to #76106C keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #401491 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #401491 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.