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violet · cool

#552eb8

a balanced, vivid violet · cool · closest name: Rebecca Purple

Token name suggestion: True Thistle

RGB
85, 46, 184
HSL
257°, 60%, 45%
CMYK
54, 75, 0, 28
Luminance
0.0735

#552eb8 is a balanced vivid violet, 257° on the wheel and 74/100 on the cool side. Put white text on it (8.50:1). As text it scores 8.50:1 on white — safe at any size. Nearest name is Rebecca Purple, nearest Tailwind family is violet.

hsl(257 60% 45%)rgb(85 46 184)Base step 600AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #552eb8 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#552eb8
Hue
257°
violet
Saturation
60%
vivid
Lightness
45%
balanced
Brightness
72%
HSV value
Perceived
33%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.0735
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
74/100 cool
Color family
Violet
Tone
Vivid
Best ink
White
8.50:1
Closest name
Rebecca Purple
ΔE2000 6.2
Chroma
83.5
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.441
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
violet
500 · ΔE 17.3
Web-safe
#6633CC
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue257° of 360°
Saturation60%
Lightness45%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #552eb8.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool74% 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
Red26%
Green27%
Blue47%

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

Every format

HEX#552eb8
HEX (8-digit)#552eb8ff
RGBrgb(85, 46, 184)
RGBArgba(85, 46, 184, 1)
HSLhsl(257, 60%, 45%)
HSV / HSBhsv(257, 75%, 72%)
HWBhwb(257 18% 28%)
CMYKcmyk(54%, 75%, 0%, 28%)
LABlab(32.6 50.6 -66.4)
LCHlch(32.6 83.5 307.3)
OKLCHoklch(0.441 0.201 288.1)
XYZ (D65)xyz(13.37, 7.35, 46.05)
Decimal5582520
Display P3color(display-p3 0.333 0.180 0.722)
Web-safe#6633CC

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #552eb8;
background-color: #552eb8;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #552eb8;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#552eb8] bg-[#552eb8]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #552eb8;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.333, green: 0.180, blue: 0.722)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.333, green: 0.180, blue: 0.722, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#552EB8</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFF552EB8)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFF552EB8)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(184, 46, 85)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(85, 46, 184)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(85, 46, 184)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 85, 46, 184)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.3333f, 0.1804f, 0.7216f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{85,46,184}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #552eb8 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #552eb8 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#2F1A66, #DAD3EE);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #552eb8 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: #F6F4FB;
  --brand-100: #EDE9F7;
  --brand-200: #D6CCEF;
  --brand-300: #B8A5E9;
  --brand-400: #9578DD;
  --brand-500: #724BD2;
  --brand-600: #552eb8;
  --brand-700: #4B29A3;
  --brand-800: #3C2183;
  --brand-900: #2F1B5F;
  --brand-950: #1D113B;
  --brand: #552eb8;
  --brand-ink: #ffffff;
  --brand-surface: #F6F4FA;
  --brand-border: #CCC0ED;
  --brand-hover: #48279B;
  --brand-pressed: #3B207F;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #181424;
    --brand-ink: #DAD3EE;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F6F4FB',
        100: '#EDE9F7',
        200: '#D6CCEF',
        300: '#B8A5E9',
        400: '#9578DD',
        500: '#724BD2',
        600: '#552eb8',
        700: '#4B29A3',
        800: '#3C2183',
        900: '#2F1B5F',
        950: '#1D113B',
        DEFAULT: '#552eb8',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F6F4FB,
  '100': #EDE9F7,
  '200': #D6CCEF,
  '300': #B8A5E9,
  '400': #9578DD,
  '500': #724BD2,
  '600': #552eb8,
  '700': #4B29A3,
  '800': #3C2183,
  '900': #2F1B5F,
  '950': #1D113B,
);
$brand-base: #552eb8;
$brand-ink: #ffffff;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F6F4FB", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#EDE9F7", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#D6CCEF", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#B8A5E9", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#9578DD", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#724BD2", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#552eb8", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#4B29A3", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#3C2183", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#2F1B5F", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#1D113B", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #552eb8 · 8.50:1
Use #ffffffAAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 8.50:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Aa
Black text · 2.47:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Reading the other direction: #552eb8 as text scores 8.50:1 on white and 2.47:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #EFEBFA at 7.26:1.

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
#552eb8 · 8.50:1
AA on whitealready passes
#552eb8
The quick fox
#552eb8 · 8.50:1
AAA on whitealready passes
#552eb8
The quick fox
#8260D7 · 4.60:1
AA on black+16% L
#8260D7
The quick fox
#A289E2 · 7.21:1
AAA on black+26% L
#A289E2

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #552EB8 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
#552eb8 on white: 8.50:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#552eb8 on black: 2.47:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #552eb8 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #552eb8.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White8.50:1AaAa
Slate 508.13:1AaAa
Slate 1007.76:1AaAa
Slate 2006.90:1AaAa
Slate 3005.73:1AaAa
Slate 4003.32:1AaAa
Slate 5001.79:1AaAa
Slate 6001.12:1AaAa
Slate 7001.22:1AaAa
Slate 8001.72:1AaAa
Slate 9002.10:1AaAa
Black2.47:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #0050BC
deuteranopia · #0049B5
tritanopia · #2D5471

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. #552eb8 is pinned to step 600; the rest hold its hue and let saturation ease off at the extremes so the pale end never turns neon.

#F6F4FB
#EDE9F7
#D6CCEF
#B8A5E9
#9578DD
#724BD2
#552eb8
#4B29A3
#3C2183
#2F1B5F
#1D113B
Base = 600Lightest = 50 · #F6F4FBDarkest = 950 · #1D113BText 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 0.050 288.1);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.080 288.1);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.120 288.1);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.157 288.1);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.185 288.1);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.201 288.1);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.201 288.1);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.189 288.1);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.169 288.1);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.141 288.1);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.110 288.1);
}

Colors that work with #552eb8

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#CCC0ED
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#614B9B
Captions on the surface
Accent#A3A824
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#2F1A66
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#EFEBFA
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#181424
Dark-mode background
Hover#48279B
One step down in lightness
Pressed#3B207F
Two steps down
Disabled#A399BE
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#5726D5
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 #552eb8

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
  • Brand accents, badges and data highlights
  • Chart series and data categories
Use with care
  • Text on black or near-black surfaces
  • Full-page backgrounds — tiring over long sessions
  • 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 mid lightness keeps it versatile in both themes.

Worth knowing

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

Reads as
  • FormalityMedium
  • EnergyMedium-high
  • Weight55/100
  • 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#91B82E
Analogous left#2E4CB8
Analogous right#9A2EB8
Split-complement 1#B89A2E
Split-complement 2#4CB82E
Triadic 1#B8552E
Triadic 2#2EB855
Tetradic#B82E4C
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°257°

#552eb8 sits at 257°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red33.3%
Green18.0%
Blue72.2%
R · 0–255
85
0x55
G · 0–255
46
0x2e
B · 0–255
184
0xb8

CMYK percentages

Cyan53.8%
Magenta75.0%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)27.8%

Total ink coverage is 157%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#552eb8 text on a black background

contrast 2.47:1

Card sample

#552eb8 text on a white background

contrast 8.50:1

Card sample

#552eb8 on grey

7.76:1

#552eb8 on its own surface

7.79:1

#552eb8 on its dark surface

2.12:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #552eb8;
Background color
Panel with #552eb8 background
background-color: #552eb8;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #552eb8;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(85, 46, 184, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(85, 46, 184, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #552eb8;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #552eb8, #B12EB8);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #552eb8, #B82E9C);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #552eb8;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #552eb8;
caret-color: #552eb8;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #552eb8;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #EFEBFA;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #552eb8;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#552eb8 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #552eb8 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(85, 46, 184, 0.5)
rgb(85 46 184 / 50%)
#552eb880
hsl(257 60% 45% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #552eb8 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#552eb81a#EEEAF8
20%#552eb833#DDD5F1
40%#552eb866#BBABE3
60%#552eb899#9982D4
80%#552eb8cc#7758C6

Gradients from #552eb8

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, #7550D3, #552eb8 45%, #2F1A66);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #552eb8, #A0289C);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #552eb8, #91B82E);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #8868D9 0%, #552eb8 45%, #2F1A66 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%, #4871D1 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #B937CD 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #2F1A66 0%, transparent 65%), #552eb8;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #552eb8

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.

#552eb8 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

Holds up across typical panel gamma. Still worth checking on an uncalibrated laptop, where mid-tones shift most.

In dark mode

Too dim on dark surfaces at 2.47:1 — lift it to #8260D7 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.

#552eb8, answered

What color is #552eb8?

#552eb8 is a balanced vivid violet, closest to Rebecca Purple (ΔE2000 6.2). It sits at 257° on the hue wheel with 60% saturation and 45% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #552eb8?

rgb(85, 46, 184) — 85 red, 46 green and 184 blue out of 255, or 33.3% / 18% / 72.2% by channel.

What is #552eb8 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(257, 60%, 45%) and hsv(257, 75%, 72%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #552eb8 a light or a dark color?

It is a dark color. Relative luminance is 0.0735 and perceived brightness is 33%, so white text on it reaches 8.50:1.

Should I use black or white text on #552eb8?

White. It scores 8.50:1 against #552eb8, versus 2.47:1 for black — AAA at any size.

Is #552eb8 accessible on a white background?

#552eb8 on white scores 8.50:1, which clears AAA at every size.

What is the complementary color of #552eb8?

#91B82E sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #B89A2E and #4CB82E, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #552eb8?

For interface work: #F6F4FA as the surface, #CCC0ED for borders, #614B9B for secondary text, #A3A824 as an accent and #2F1A66 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #2E4CB8 and #9A2EB8 stays calm, while #91B82E is the loudest partner.

What is #552eb8 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(54%, 75%, 0%, 28%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #552eb8 warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 74 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #882EB8; nudged cooler, #2C38BA.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #552eb8?

The violet family — its 500 step is #8b5cf6, ΔE2000 17.3 away. That is a visible difference, so define #552eb8 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #552eb8 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#552eb8] or text-[#552eb8], 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 #552eb8 with 50% opacity?

rgba(85, 46, 184, 0.5), or #552eb880 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #AA97DC; over black, #2B175C.

Is #552eb8 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #6633CC, ΔE2000 4 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #552eb8 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 #552eb8?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #7550D3, #552eb8 45%, #2F1A66). For more colour, a short hue run to #A0289C keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #552eb8 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #552eb8 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.