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violet · cool

#5a187e

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

Token name suggestion: Forest Iris

RGB
90, 24, 126
HSL
279°, 68%, 29%
CMYK
29, 81, 0, 51
Luminance
0.0433

#5a187e is a dark vivid violet, 279° on the wheel and 62/100 on the cool side. Put white text on it (11.25:1). As text it scores 11.25:1 on white — safe at any size. Nearest name is Indigo, nearest Tailwind family is violet.

hsl(279 68% 29%)rgb(90 24 126)Base step 800AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #5a187e is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#5a187e
Hue
279°
violet
Saturation
68%
vivid
Lightness
29%
dark
Brightness
49%
HSV value
Perceived
27%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.0433
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
62/100 cool
Color family
Violet
Tone
Vivid
Best ink
White
11.25:1
Closest name
Indigo
ΔE2000 4.4
Chroma
63.6
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.372
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
violet
500 · ΔE 24.9
Web-safe
#660066
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue279° of 360°
Saturation68%
Lightness29%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #5a187e.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool62% 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
Red50%
Green15%
Blue35%

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

Every format

HEX#5a187e
HEX (8-digit)#5a187eff
RGBrgb(90, 24, 126)
RGBArgba(90, 24, 126, 1)
HSLhsl(279, 68%, 29%)
HSV / HSBhsv(279, 81%, 49%)
HWBhwb(279 9% 51%)
CMYKcmyk(29%, 81%, 0%, 51%)
LABlab(24.7 46.3 -43.7)
LCHlch(24.7 63.6 316.6)
OKLCHoklch(0.372 0.162 310.0)
XYZ (D65)xyz(8.31, 4.33, 20.13)
Decimal5904510
Display P3color(display-p3 0.353 0.094 0.494)
Web-safe#660066

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #5a187e;
background-color: #5a187e;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #5a187e;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#5a187e] bg-[#5a187e]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #5a187e;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.353, green: 0.094, blue: 0.494)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.353, green: 0.094, blue: 0.494, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#5A187E</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFF5A187E)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFF5A187E)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(126, 24, 90)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(90, 24, 126)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(90, 24, 126)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 90, 24, 126)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.3529f, 0.0941f, 0.4941f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{90,24,126}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #5a187e 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #5a187e 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#4C146B, #E4D3EE);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #5a187e 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: #F9F3FB;
  --brand-100: #F2E8F8;
  --brand-200: #E4CAF2;
  --brand-300: #D2A1ED;
  --brand-400: #BC72E4;
  --brand-500: #A543DB;
  --brand-600: #9327CE;
  --brand-700: #7A21AB;
  --brand-800: #5a187e;
  --brand-900: #481763;
  --brand-950: #2D0E3E;
  --brand: #5a187e;
  --brand-ink: #ffffff;
  --brand-surface: #F8F4FA;
  --brand-border: #DDC0ED;
  --brand-hover: #451260;
  --brand-pressed: #2F0D42;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #1F1424;
    --brand-ink: #E4D3EE;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F9F3FB',
        100: '#F2E8F8',
        200: '#E4CAF2',
        300: '#D2A1ED',
        400: '#BC72E4',
        500: '#A543DB',
        600: '#9327CE',
        700: '#7A21AB',
        800: '#5a187e',
        900: '#481763',
        950: '#2D0E3E',
        DEFAULT: '#5a187e',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F9F3FB,
  '100': #F2E8F8,
  '200': #E4CAF2,
  '300': #D2A1ED,
  '400': #BC72E4,
  '500': #A543DB,
  '600': #9327CE,
  '700': #7A21AB,
  '800': #5a187e,
  '900': #481763,
  '950': #2D0E3E,
);
$brand-base: #5a187e;
$brand-ink: #ffffff;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F9F3FB", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#F2E8F8", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#E4CAF2", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#D2A1ED", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#BC72E4", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#A543DB", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#9327CE", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#7A21AB", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#5a187e", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#481763", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#2D0E3E", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #5a187e · 11.25:1
Use #ffffffAAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 11.25:1 · 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: #5a187e as text scores 11.25:1 on white and 1.87:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #F5EAFB at 9.67:1.

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
#5a187e · 11.25:1
AA on whitealready passes
#5a187e
The quick fox
#5a187e · 11.25:1
AAA on whitealready passes
#5a187e
The quick fox
#A849DC · 4.65:1
AA on black+28% L
#A849DC
The quick fox
#BE78E5 · 7.01:1
AAA on black+39% L
#BE78E5

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #5A187E 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
#5a187e on white: 11.25:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#5a187e on black: 1.87:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #5a187e as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #5a187e.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White11.25:1AaAa
Slate 5010.75:1AaAa
Slate 10010.27:1AaAa
Slate 2009.13:1AaAa
Slate 3007.58:1AaAa
Slate 4004.39:1AaAa
Slate 5002.36:1AaAa
Slate 6001.48:1AaAa
Slate 7001.09:1AaAa
Slate 8001.30:1AaAa
Slate 9001.59:1AaAa
Black1.87:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #003881
deuteranopia · #003C7C
tritanopia · #55314B

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. #5a187e 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.

#F9F3FB
#F2E8F8
#E4CAF2
#D2A1ED
#BC72E4
#A543DB
#9327CE
#7A21AB
#5a187e
#481763
#2D0E3E
Base = 800Lightest = 50 · #F9F3FBDarkest = 950 · #2D0E3EText 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 0.040 310.0);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.065 310.0);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.097 310.0);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.126 310.0);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.149 310.0);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.162 310.0);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.162 310.0);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.152 310.0);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.136 310.0);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.113 310.0);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.089 310.0);
}

Colors that work with #5a187e

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#F8F4FA
Tinted page background
Border#DDC0ED
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#7F4B9B
Captions on the surface
Accent#568115
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#4C146B
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#F5EAFB
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#1F1424
Dark-mode background
Hover#451260
One step down in lightness
Pressed#2F0D42
Two steps down
Disabled#8B689E
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#691398
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 #5a187e

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
  • Weight71/100
  • TemperatureCool
  • 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#3C7E18
Analogous left#27187E
Analogous right#7E186F
Split-complement 1#6F7E18
Split-complement 2#187E27
Triadic 1#7E5A18
Triadic 2#187E5A
Tetradic#7E2718
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°279°

#5a187e sits at 279°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red35.3%
Green9.4%
Blue49.4%
R · 0–255
90
0x5a
G · 0–255
24
0x18
B · 0–255
126
0x7e

CMYK percentages

Cyan28.6%
Magenta81.0%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)50.6%

Total ink coverage is 160%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#5a187e text on a black background

contrast 1.87:1

Card sample

#5a187e text on a white background

contrast 11.25:1

Card sample

#5a187e on grey

10.27:1

#5a187e on its own surface

10.35:1

#5a187e on its dark surface

1.58:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #5a187e;
Background color
Panel with #5a187e background
background-color: #5a187e;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #5a187e;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(90, 24, 126, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(90, 24, 126, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #5a187e;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #5a187e, #7E185E);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #5a187e, #7E1845);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #5a187e;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #5a187e;
caret-color: #5a187e;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #5a187e;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #F5EAFB;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #5a187e;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#5a187e 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #5a187e 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(90, 24, 126, 0.5)
rgb(90 24 126 / 50%)
#5a187e80
hsl(279 68% 29% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #5a187e 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#5a187e1a#EFE8F2
20%#5a187e33#DED1E5
40%#5a187e66#BDA3CB
60%#5a187e99#9C74B2
80%#5a187ecc#7B4698

Gradients from #5a187e

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, #7F22B1, #5a187e 45%, #4C146B);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #5a187e, #641344);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #5a187e, #3C7E18);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #9127CB 0%, #5a187e 45%, #4C146B 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F8F4FA, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #2920A9 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #981D7B 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #4C146B 0%, transparent 65%), #5a187e;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #5a187e

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.

#5a187e 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 1.87:1 — lift it to #A849DC 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.

#5a187e, answered

What color is #5a187e?

#5a187e is a dark vivid violet, closest to Indigo (ΔE2000 4.4). It sits at 279° on the hue wheel with 68% saturation and 29% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #5a187e?

rgb(90, 24, 126) — 90 red, 24 green and 126 blue out of 255, or 35.3% / 9.4% / 49.4% by channel.

What is #5a187e in HSL and HSV?

hsl(279, 68%, 29%) and hsv(279, 81%, 49%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #5a187e a light or a dark color?

It is a dark color. Relative luminance is 0.0433 and perceived brightness is 27%, so white text on it reaches 11.25:1.

Should I use black or white text on #5a187e?

White. It scores 11.25:1 against #5a187e, versus 1.87:1 for black — AAA at any size.

Is #5a187e accessible on a white background?

#5a187e on white scores 11.25:1, which clears AAA at every size.

What is the complementary color of #5a187e?

#3C7E18 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #6F7E18 and #187E27, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #5a187e?

For interface work: #F8F4FA as the surface, #DDC0ED for borders, #7F4B9B for secondary text, #568115 as an accent and #4C146B for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #27187E and #7E186F stays calm, while #3C7E18 is the loudest partner.

What is #5a187e in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(29%, 81%, 0%, 51%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #5a187e warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 62 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #7E187D; nudged cooler, #34167F.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #5a187e?

The violet family — its 500 step is #8b5cf6, ΔE2000 24.9 away. That is a visible difference, so define #5a187e as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #5a187e in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#5a187e] or text-[#5a187e], 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 #5a187e with 50% opacity?

rgba(90, 24, 126, 0.5), or #5a187e80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #AD8CBF; over black, #2D0C3F.

Is #5a187e a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #660066, ΔE2000 6.5 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #5a187e 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 #5a187e?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #7F22B1, #5a187e 45%, #4C146B). For more colour, a short hue run to #641344 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #5a187e in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #5a187e at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.