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violet · neutral

#816c91

a balanced, muted violet · neutral · closest name: Medium Purple

Token name suggestion: Studio Iris

RGB
129, 108, 145
HSL
274°, 15%, 50%
CMYK
11, 26, 0, 43
Luminance
0.1744

#816c91 is a balanced muted violet, 274° on the wheel and 56/100 on the cool side. Put white text on it (4.68:1). As text it scores 4.68:1 on white — safe at any size. Nearest name is Medium Purple, nearest Tailwind family is zinc.

hsl(274 15% 50%)rgb(129 108 145)Base step 600AA inkNeutral

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #816c91 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#816c91
Hue
274°
violet
Saturation
15%
muted
Lightness
50%
balanced
Brightness
57%
HSV value
Perceived
47%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.1744
WCAG relative
Temperature
Neutral
56/100 cool
Color family
Violet
Tone
Muted
Best ink
White
4.68:1
Closest name
Medium Purple
ΔE2000 15.3
Chroma
23.2
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.565
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
zinc
500 · ΔE 13.5
Web-safe
#996699
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue274° of 360°
Saturation15%
Lightness50%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #816c91.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool56% cool

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

Luminance by channel
Red27%
Green62%
Blue12%

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

Every format

HEX#816c91
HEX (8-digit)#816c91ff
RGBrgb(129, 108, 145)
RGBArgba(129, 108, 145, 1)
HSLhsl(274, 15%, 50%)
HSV / HSBhsv(274, 26%, 57%)
HWBhwb(274 42% 43%)
CMYKcmyk(11%, 26%, 0%, 43%)
LABlab(48.8 15.7 -17.1)
LCHlch(48.8 23.2 312.5)
OKLCHoklch(0.565 0.061 310.2)
XYZ (D65)xyz(19.53, 17.44, 29.12)
Decimal8481937
Display P3color(display-p3 0.506 0.424 0.569)
Web-safe#996699

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #816c91;
background-color: #816c91;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #816c91;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#816c91] bg-[#816c91]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #816c91;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.506, green: 0.424, blue: 0.569)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.506, green: 0.424, blue: 0.569, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#816C91</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFF816C91)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFF816C91)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(145, 108, 129)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(129, 108, 145)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(129, 108, 145)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 129, 108, 145)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.5059f, 0.4235f, 0.5686f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{129,108,145}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #816c91 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #816c91 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#413649, #E1DCE5);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #816c91 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: #F7F6F8;
  --brand-100: #F0EEF1;
  --brand-200: #DEDAE2;
  --brand-300: #C8BFCF;
  --brand-400: #AD9FB7;
  --brand-500: #917E9F;
  --brand-600: #816c91;
  --brand-700: #685775;
  --brand-800: #53465E;
  --brand-900: #3E3545;
  --brand-950: #27212B;
  --brand: #816c91;
  --brand-ink: #ffffff;
  --brand-surface: #F8F6F8;
  --brand-border: #D7D0DC;
  --brand-hover: #6F5D7C;
  --brand-pressed: #5D4E68;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #1D1820;
    --brand-ink: #E1DCE5;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F7F6F8',
        100: '#F0EEF1',
        200: '#DEDAE2',
        300: '#C8BFCF',
        400: '#AD9FB7',
        500: '#917E9F',
        600: '#816c91',
        700: '#685775',
        800: '#53465E',
        900: '#3E3545',
        950: '#27212B',
        DEFAULT: '#816c91',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F7F6F8,
  '100': #F0EEF1,
  '200': #DEDAE2,
  '300': #C8BFCF,
  '400': #AD9FB7,
  '500': #917E9F,
  '600': #816c91,
  '700': #685775,
  '800': #53465E,
  '900': #3E3545,
  '950': #27212B,
);
$brand-base: #816c91;
$brand-ink: #ffffff;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F7F6F8", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#F0EEF1", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#DEDAE2", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#C8BFCF", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#AD9FB7", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#917E9F", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#816c91", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#685775", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#53465E", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#3E3545", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#27212B", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #816c91 · 4.68:1
Use #ffffffAA at every size, AAA for large text only.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 4.68:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 4.49:1
AA fail · AA large pass · AAA fail
Reading the other direction: #816c91 as text scores 4.68:1 on white and 4.49:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #F3F0F4 at 4.14:1.

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
#816c91 · 4.68:1
AA on whitealready passes
#816c91
The quick fox
#62526E · 7.12:1
AAA on white−12% L
#62526E
The quick fox
#846F93 · 4.68:1
AA on black+1% L
#846F93
The quick fox
#A292AE · 7.26:1
AAA on black+13% L
#A292AE

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #816C91 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
#816c91 on white: 4.68:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#816c91 on black: 4.49:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #816c91 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #816c91.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White4.68:1AaAa
Slate 504.47:1AaAa
Slate 1004.27:1AaAa
Slate 2003.80:1AaAa
Slate 3003.15:1AaAa
Slate 4001.83:1AaAa
Slate 5001.02:1AaAa
Slate 6001.62:1AaAa
Slate 7002.21:1AaAa
Slate 8003.13:1AaAa
Slate 9003.81:1AaAa
Black4.49:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #667393
deuteranopia · #6A7490
tritanopia · #7F7179

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. #816c91 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.

#F7F6F8
#F0EEF1
#DEDAE2
#C8BFCF
#AD9FB7
#917E9F
#816c91
#685775
#53465E
#3E3545
#27212B
Base = 600Lightest = 50 · #F7F6F8Darkest = 950 · #27212BText step on white = 600
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 0.015 310.2);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.024 310.2);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.037 310.2);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.048 310.2);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.056 310.2);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.061 310.2);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.061 310.2);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.057 310.2);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.051 310.2);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.043 310.2);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.034 310.2);
}

Colors that work with #816c91

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#F8F6F8
Tinted page background
Border#D7D0DC
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#756284
Captions on the surface
Accent#6D7953
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#413649
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#F3F0F4
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#1D1820
Dark-mode background
Hover#6F5D7C
One step down in lightness
Pressed#5D4E68
Two steps down
Disabled#B8ACC1
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#8D6CA6
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 #816c91

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

Works well for
  • Body text and links on white
  • Borders, dividers and quiet backgrounds
  • Long-form reading surfaces
  • Brand accents, badges and data highlights
Use with care
  • 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.

With almost no chroma left, the family association is barely present; treat it as a neutral that happens to lean this way. 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
  • EnergyLow
  • Weight50/100
  • TemperatureNeutral
  • 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#7C916C
Analogous left#6F6C91
Analogous right#916C8E
Split-complement 1#8E916C
Split-complement 2#6C916F
Triadic 1#91816C
Triadic 2#6C9181
Tetradic#916F6C
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°274°

#816c91 sits at 274°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red50.6%
Green42.4%
Blue56.9%
R · 0–255
129
0x81
G · 0–255
108
0x6c
B · 0–255
145
0x91

CMYK percentages

Cyan11.0%
Magenta25.5%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)43.1%

Total ink coverage is 80%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#816c91 text on a black background

contrast 4.49:1

Card sample

#816c91 text on a white background

contrast 4.68:1

Card sample

#816c91 on grey

4.27:1

#816c91 on its own surface

4.35:1

#816c91 on its dark surface

3.73:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #816c91;
Background color
Panel with #816c91 background
background-color: #816c91;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #816c91;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(129, 108, 145, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(129, 108, 145, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #816c91;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #816c91, #916C88);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #816c91, #916C7F);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #816c91;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #816c91;
caret-color: #816c91;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #816c91;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #F3F0F4;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #816c91;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#816c91 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #816c91 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(129, 108, 145, 0.5)
rgb(129 108 145 / 50%)
#816c9180
hsl(274 15% 50% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #816c91 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#816c911a#F2F0F4
20%#816c9133#E6E2E9
40%#816c9166#CDC4D3
60%#816c9199#B3A7BD
80%#816c91cc#9A89A7

Gradients from #816c91

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, #9F8FAB, #816c91 45%, #413649);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #816c91, #7F5F75);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #816c91, #7C916C);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #AEA0B8 0%, #816c91 45%, #413649 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F8F6F8, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #8989A7 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #9E7D99 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #413649 0%, transparent 65%), #816c91;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #816c91

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.

#816c91 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
BackgroundsBordersBody textDividers
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 4.49:1 — lift it to #846F93 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.

#816c91, answered

What color is #816c91?

#816c91 is a balanced muted violet, closest to Medium Purple (ΔE2000 15.3). It sits at 274° on the hue wheel with 15% saturation and 50% lightness, which reads as neutral.

What is the RGB value of #816c91?

rgb(129, 108, 145) — 129 red, 108 green and 145 blue out of 255, or 50.6% / 42.4% / 56.9% by channel.

What is #816c91 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(274, 15%, 50%) and hsv(274, 26%, 57%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #816c91 a light or a dark color?

It is a dark color. Relative luminance is 0.1744 and perceived brightness is 47%, so white text on it reaches 4.68:1.

Should I use black or white text on #816c91?

White. It scores 4.68:1 against #816c91, versus 4.49:1 for black — AA at any size.

Is #816c91 accessible on a white background?

#816c91 on white scores 4.68:1, which clears AA at every size but not AAA.

What is the complementary color of #816c91?

#7C916C sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #8E916C and #6C916F, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #816c91?

For interface work: #F8F6F8 as the surface, #D7D0DC for borders, #756284 for secondary text, #6D7953 as an accent and #413649 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #6F6C91 and #916C8E stays calm, while #7C916C is the loudest partner.

What is #816c91 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(11%, 26%, 0%, 43%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #816c91 warm or cool?

Neutral — it scores 56 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #8F6C91; nudged cooler, #726993.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #816c91?

The zinc family — its 500 step is #71717a, ΔE2000 13.5 away. That is a visible difference, so define #816c91 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #816c91 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#816c91] or text-[#816c91], 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 #816c91 with 50% opacity?

rgba(129, 108, 145, 0.5), or #816c9180 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #C0B6C8; over black, #413649.

Is #816c91 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #996699, ΔE2000 7.2 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #816c91 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 low chroma the association is faint; it behaves more like a neutral.

What gradient works with #816c91?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #9F8FAB, #816c91 45%, #413649). For more colour, a short hue run to #7F5F75 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #816c91 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #816c91 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.