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violet · cool

#511f97

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

Token name suggestion: Slate Plum

RGB
81, 31, 151
HSL
265°, 66%, 36%
CMYK
46, 80, 0, 41
Luminance
0.0496

#511f97 is a dark vivid violet, 265° on the wheel and 69/100 on the cool side. Put white text on it (10.54:1). As text it scores 10.54:1 on white — safe at any size. Nearest name is Indigo, nearest Tailwind family is violet.

hsl(265 66% 36%)rgb(81 31 151)Base step 800AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #511f97 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#511f97
Hue
265°
violet
Saturation
66%
vivid
Lightness
36%
dark
Brightness
59%
HSV value
Perceived
28%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.0496
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
69/100 cool
Color family
Violet
Tone
Vivid
Best ink
White
10.54:1
Closest name
Indigo
ΔE2000 5.1
Chroma
74.0
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.389
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
violet
500 · ΔE 22.2
Web-safe
#663399
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue265° of 360°
Saturation66%
Lightness36%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #511f97.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool69% 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
Red35%
Green20%
Blue45%

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

Every format

HEX#511f97
HEX (8-digit)#511f97ff
RGBrgb(81, 31, 151)
RGBArgba(81, 31, 151, 1)
HSLhsl(265, 66%, 36%)
HSV / HSBhsv(265, 79%, 59%)
HWBhwb(265 12% 41%)
CMYKcmyk(46%, 80%, 0%, 41%)
LABlab(26.6 48.0 -56.3)
LCHlch(26.6 74.0 310.5)
OKLCHoklch(0.389 0.179 295.7)
XYZ (D65)xyz(9.47, 4.96, 29.73)
Decimal5316503
Display P3color(display-p3 0.318 0.122 0.592)
Web-safe#663399

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #511f97;
background-color: #511f97;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #511f97;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#511f97] bg-[#511f97]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #511f97;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.318, green: 0.122, blue: 0.592)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.318, green: 0.122, blue: 0.592, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#511F97</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFF511F97)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFF511F97)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(151, 31, 81)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(81, 31, 151)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(81, 31, 151)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 81, 31, 151)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.3176f, 0.1216f, 0.5922f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{81,31,151}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #511f97 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #511f97 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#39166A, #DED3EE);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #511f97 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: #F7F3FB;
  --brand-100: #EEE8F8;
  --brand-200: #DBCBF1;
  --brand-300: #C1A2EC;
  --brand-400: #A273E2;
  --brand-500: #8245D9;
  --brand-600: #6D2ACB;
  --brand-700: #5B23A9;
  --brand-800: #511f97;
  --brand-900: #371862;
  --brand-950: #220F3D;
  --brand: #511f97;
  --brand-ink: #ffffff;
  --brand-surface: #F7F4FA;
  --brand-border: #D2C0ED;
  --brand-hover: #411979;
  --brand-pressed: #31135C;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #1B1424;
    --brand-ink: #DED3EE;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F7F3FB',
        100: '#EEE8F8',
        200: '#DBCBF1',
        300: '#C1A2EC',
        400: '#A273E2',
        500: '#8245D9',
        600: '#6D2ACB',
        700: '#5B23A9',
        800: '#511f97',
        900: '#371862',
        950: '#220F3D',
        DEFAULT: '#511f97',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F7F3FB,
  '100': #EEE8F8,
  '200': #DBCBF1,
  '300': #C1A2EC,
  '400': #A273E2,
  '500': #8245D9,
  '600': #6D2ACB,
  '700': #5B23A9,
  '800': #511f97,
  '900': #371862,
  '950': #220F3D,
);
$brand-base: #511f97;
$brand-ink: #ffffff;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F7F3FB", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#EEE8F8", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#DBCBF1", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#C1A2EC", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#A273E2", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#8245D9", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#6D2ACB", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#5B23A9", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#511f97", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#371862", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#220F3D", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #511f97 · 10.54:1
Use #ffffffAAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 10.54:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Aa
Black text · 1.99:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Reading the other direction: #511f97 as text scores 10.54:1 on white and 1.99:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #F1EAFB at 8.98:1.

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
#511f97 · 10.54:1
AA on whitealready passes
#511f97
The quick fox
#511f97 · 10.54:1
AAA on whitealready passes
#511f97
The quick fox
#9059DD · 4.66:1
AA on black+25% L
#9059DD
The quick fox
#AC83E6 · 7.14:1
AAA on black+35% L
#AC83E6

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #511F97 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
#511f97 on white: 10.54:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#511f97 on black: 1.99:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #511f97 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #511f97.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White10.54:1AaAa
Slate 5010.07:1AaAa
Slate 1009.62:1AaAa
Slate 2008.55:1AaAa
Slate 3007.10:1AaAa
Slate 4004.11:1AaAa
Slate 5002.21:1AaAa
Slate 6001.39:1AaAa
Slate 7001.02:1AaAa
Slate 8001.39:1AaAa
Slate 9001.69:1AaAa
Black1.99:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #00409A
deuteranopia · #003D95
tritanopia · #3D405B

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. #511f97 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.

#F7F3FB
#EEE8F8
#DBCBF1
#C1A2EC
#A273E2
#8245D9
#6D2ACB
#5B23A9
#511f97
#371862
#220F3D
Base = 800Lightest = 50 · #F7F3FBDarkest = 950 · #220F3DText 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 0.045 295.7);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.072 295.7);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.107 295.7);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.140 295.7);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.165 295.7);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.179 295.7);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.179 295.7);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.168 295.7);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.150 295.7);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.125 295.7);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.098 295.7);
}

Colors that work with #511f97

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#F7F4FA
Tinted page background
Border#D2C0ED
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#6C4B9B
Captions on the surface
Accent#95AE1E
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#39166A
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#F1EAFB
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#1B1424
Dark-mode background
Hover#411979
One step down in lightness
Pressed#31135C
Two steps down
Disabled#8F7BAB
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#5818B2
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 #511f97

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.

This is a confident chroma: strong enough to lead a brand, restrained enough to live in an interface all day. 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-high
  • Weight64/100
  • 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#65971F
Analogous left#1F2997
Analogous right#8D1F97
Split-complement 1#978D1F
Split-complement 2#29971F
Triadic 1#97511F
Triadic 2#1F9751
Tetradic#971F29
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°265°

#511f97 sits at 265°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red31.8%
Green12.2%
Blue59.2%
R · 0–255
81
0x51
G · 0–255
31
0x1f
B · 0–255
151
0x97

CMYK percentages

Cyan46.4%
Magenta79.5%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)40.8%

Total ink coverage is 167%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#511f97 text on a black background

contrast 1.99:1

Card sample

#511f97 text on a white background

contrast 10.54:1

Card sample

#511f97 on grey

9.62:1

#511f97 on its own surface

9.67:1

#511f97 on its dark surface

1.70:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #511f97;
Background color
Panel with #511f97 background
background-color: #511f97;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #511f97;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(81, 31, 151, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(81, 31, 151, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #511f97;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #511f97, #971F8D);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #511f97, #971F6F);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #511f97;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #511f97;
caret-color: #511f97;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #511f97;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #F1EAFB;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #511f97;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#511f97 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #511f97 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(81, 31, 151, 0.5)
rgb(81 31 151 / 50%)
#511f9780
hsl(265 66% 36% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #511f97 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#511f971a#EEE9F5
20%#511f9733#DCD2EA
40%#511f9766#B9A5D5
60%#511f9799#9779C1
80%#511f97cc#744CAC

Gradients from #511f97

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, #6C29CA, #511f97 45%, #39166A);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #511f97, #7E1A6D);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #511f97, #65971F);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #7C3BD7 0%, #511f97 45%, #39166A 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F7F4FA, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #2841C1 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #B024B0 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #39166A 0%, transparent 65%), #511f97;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #511f97

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.

#511f97 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 1.99:1 — lift it to #9059DD 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.

#511f97, answered

What color is #511f97?

#511f97 is a dark vivid violet, closest to Indigo (ΔE2000 5.1). It sits at 265° on the hue wheel with 66% saturation and 36% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #511f97?

rgb(81, 31, 151) — 81 red, 31 green and 151 blue out of 255, or 31.8% / 12.2% / 59.2% by channel.

What is #511f97 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(265, 66%, 36%) and hsv(265, 79%, 59%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #511f97 a light or a dark color?

It is a dark color. Relative luminance is 0.0496 and perceived brightness is 28%, so white text on it reaches 10.54:1.

Should I use black or white text on #511f97?

White. It scores 10.54:1 against #511f97, versus 1.99:1 for black — AAA at any size.

Is #511f97 accessible on a white background?

#511f97 on white scores 10.54:1, which clears AAA at every size.

What is the complementary color of #511f97?

#65971F sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #978D1F and #29971F, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #511f97?

For interface work: #F7F4FA as the surface, #D2C0ED for borders, #6C4B9B for secondary text, #95AE1E as an accent and #39166A for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #1F2997 and #8D1F97 stays calm, while #65971F is the loudest partner.

What is #511f97 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(46%, 80%, 0%, 41%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #511f97 warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 69 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #7D1F97; nudged cooler, #231D99.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #511f97?

The violet family — its 500 step is #8b5cf6, ΔE2000 22.2 away. That is a visible difference, so define #511f97 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #511f97 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#511f97] or text-[#511f97], 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 #511f97 with 50% opacity?

rgba(81, 31, 151, 0.5), or #511f9780 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #A88FCB; over black, #29104C.

Is #511f97 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #663399, ΔE2000 5.6 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #511f97 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 #511f97?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #6C29CA, #511f97 45%, #39166A). For more colour, a short hue run to #7E1A6D keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #511f97 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #511f97 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.