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violet · cool

#8c6baf

a balanced, soft violet · cool · closest name: Medium Purple

Token name suggestion: Atlas Plum

RGB
140, 107, 175
HSL
269°, 30%, 55%
CMYK
20, 39, 0, 31
Luminance
0.1919

#8c6baf is a balanced soft violet, 269° on the wheel and 65/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (4.84:1). As text it scores 4.34:1 on white — large text only. Nearest name is Medium Purple, nearest Tailwind family is violet.

hsl(269 30% 55%)rgb(140 107 175)Base step 500AA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #8c6baf is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#8c6baf
Hue
269°
violet
Saturation
30%
soft
Lightness
55%
balanced
Brightness
69%
HSV value
Perceived
50%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.1919
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
65/100 cool
Color family
Violet
Tone
Soft
Best ink
Black
4.84:1
Closest name
Medium Purple
ΔE2000 8.2
Chroma
41.3
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.588
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
violet
500 · ΔE 12.6
Web-safe
#996699
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue269° of 360°
Saturation30%
Lightness55%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #8c6baf.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool65% 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
Red29%
Green55%
Blue16%

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

Every format

HEX#8c6baf
HEX (8-digit)#8c6bafff
RGBrgb(140, 107, 175)
RGBArgba(140, 107, 175, 1)
HSLhsl(269, 30%, 55%)
HSV / HSBhsv(269, 39%, 69%)
HWBhwb(269 42% 31%)
CMYKcmyk(20%, 39%, 0%, 31%)
LABlab(50.9 26.8 -31.4)
LCHlch(50.9 41.3 310.5)
OKLCHoklch(0.588 0.107 305.7)
XYZ (D65)xyz(23.81, 19.19, 43.00)
Decimal9202607
Display P3color(display-p3 0.549 0.420 0.686)
Web-safe#996699

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #8c6baf;
background-color: #8c6baf;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #8c6baf;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#8c6baf] bg-[#8c6baf]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #8c6baf;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.549, green: 0.420, blue: 0.686)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.549, green: 0.420, blue: 0.686, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#8C6BAF</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFF8C6BAF)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFF8C6BAF)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(175, 107, 140)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(140, 107, 175)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(140, 107, 175)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 140, 107, 175)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.5490f, 0.4196f, 0.6863f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{140,107,175}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #8c6baf 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #8c6baf 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#3F2D53, #E0D7EA);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #8c6baf 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: #F7F6F9;
  --brand-100: #F0ECF3;
  --brand-200: #DED5E7;
  --brand-300: #C6B6D8;
  --brand-400: #AA92C4;
  --brand-500: #8c6baf;
  --brand-600: #79569F;
  --brand-700: #654884;
  --brand-800: #51396A;
  --brand-900: #3D2C4E;
  --brand-950: #261C31;
  --brand: #8c6baf;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F7F5FA;
  --brand-border: #D6CAE2;
  --brand-hover: #7A56A0;
  --brand-pressed: #684A89;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #1C1424;
    --brand-ink: #E0D7EA;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F7F6F9',
        100: '#F0ECF3',
        200: '#DED5E7',
        300: '#C6B6D8',
        400: '#AA92C4',
        500: '#8c6baf',
        600: '#79569F',
        700: '#654884',
        800: '#51396A',
        900: '#3D2C4E',
        950: '#261C31',
        DEFAULT: '#8c6baf',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F7F6F9,
  '100': #F0ECF3,
  '200': #DED5E7,
  '300': #C6B6D8,
  '400': #AA92C4,
  '500': #8c6baf,
  '600': #79569F,
  '700': #654884,
  '800': #51396A,
  '900': #3D2C4E,
  '950': #261C31,
);
$brand-base: #8c6baf;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F7F6F9", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#F0ECF3", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#DED5E7", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#C6B6D8", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#AA92C4", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#8c6baf", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#79569F", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#654884", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#51396A", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#3D2C4E", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#261C31", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$value": "#000000", "$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#000000 on #8c6baf · 4.84:1
Use #000000AA at every size, AAA for large text only.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 4.34:1
AA fail · AA large pass · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 4.84:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA fail
Reading the other direction: #8c6baf as text scores 4.34:1 on white and 4.84:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #3F2D53 at 2.83:1.

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
#8968AD · 4.52:1
AA on white−1% L
#8968AD
The quick fox
#684A89 · 7.17:1
AAA on white−14% L
#684A89
The quick fox
#8c6baf · 4.84:1
AA on blackalready passes
#8c6baf
The quick fox
#A68CC1 · 7.14:1
AAA on black+10% L
#A68CC1

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #8C6BAF 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
#8c6baf on white: 4.34:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#8c6baf on black: 4.84:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #8c6baf as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #8c6baf.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White4.34:1AaAa
Slate 504.15:1AaAa
Slate 1003.96:1AaAa
Slate 2003.52:1AaAa
Slate 3002.92:1AaAa
Slate 4001.69:1AaAa
Slate 5001.10:1AaAa
Slate 6001.75:1AaAa
Slate 7002.39:1AaAa
Slate 8003.37:1AaAa
Slate 9004.11:1AaAa
Black4.84:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #5C78B2
deuteranopia · #6379AD
tritanopia · #877685

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. #8c6baf is pinned to step 500; the rest hold its hue and let saturation ease off at the extremes so the pale end never turns neon.

#F7F6F9
#F0ECF3
#DED5E7
#C6B6D8
#AA92C4
#8c6baf
#79569F
#654884
#51396A
#3D2C4E
#261C31
Base = 500Lightest = 50 · #F7F6F9Darkest = 950 · #261C31Text 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 0.027 305.7);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.043 305.7);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.064 305.7);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.084 305.7);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.099 305.7);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.107 305.7);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.107 305.7);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.101 305.7);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.090 305.7);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.075 305.7);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.059 305.7);
}

Colors that work with #8c6baf

Not a palette — a role sheet. Each swatch answers one question you will hit while building the component.

Text on it#000000
Black wins here
Surface#F7F5FA
Tinted page background
Border#D6CAE2
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#725195
Captions on the surface
Accent#788943
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#3F2D53
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#F2EEF6
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#1C1424
Dark-mode background
Hover#7A56A0
One step down in lightness
Pressed#684A89
Two steps down
Disabled#C5B8D2
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#966EC1
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 #8c6baf

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

Works well for
  • Headings from 24px up on white
  • Text and icons on dark surfaces
  • Charts, tags and secondary surfaces
  • Brand accents, badges and data highlights
  • Chart series and data categories
Use with care
  • Small text on white — under 4.5:1
  • Pairing with a same-lightness hue — edges vibrate
Minimum size as text on white
24px / 18.66px bold
Safe as a fill behind white type
No — use #3F2D53
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.

The muted chroma softens the association — it reads considered rather than loud, which suits long-form and data-heavy screens. 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
  • Weight45/100
  • 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#8EAF6B
Analogous left#6B6CAF
Analogous right#AE6BAF
Split-complement 1#AFAE6B
Split-complement 2#6CAF6B
Triadic 1#AF8C6B
Triadic 2#6BAF8C
Tetradic#AF6B6C
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°269°

#8c6baf sits at 269°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red54.9%
Green42.0%
Blue68.6%
R · 0–255
140
0x8c
G · 0–255
107
0x6b
B · 0–255
175
0xaf

CMYK percentages

Cyan20.0%
Magenta38.9%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)31.4%

Total ink coverage is 90%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#8c6baf text on a black background

contrast 4.84:1

Card sample

#8c6baf text on a white background

contrast 4.34:1

Card sample

#8c6baf on grey

3.96:1

#8c6baf on its own surface

4.01:1

#8c6baf on its dark surface

4.12:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #8c6baf;
Background color
Panel with #8c6baf background
background-color: #8c6baf;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #8c6baf;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(140, 107, 175, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(140, 107, 175, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #8c6baf;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #8c6baf, #AF6BA5);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #8c6baf, #AF6B94);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #8c6baf;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #8c6baf;
caret-color: #8c6baf;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #8c6baf;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #F2EEF6;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #8c6baf;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#8c6baf 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #8c6baf 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(140, 107, 175, 0.5)
rgb(140 107 175 / 50%)
#8c6baf80
hsl(269 30% 55% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #8c6baf 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#8c6baf1a#F4F0F7
20%#8c6baf33#E8E1EF
40%#8c6baf66#D1C4DF
60%#8c6baf99#BAA6CF
80%#8c6bafcc#A389BF

Gradients from #8c6baf

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, #AB93C4, #8c6baf 45%, #3F2D53);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #8c6baf, #A35892);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #8c6baf, #8EAF6B);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #BAA7CF 0%, #8c6baf 45%, #3F2D53 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F7F5FA, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #8C91C1 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #BA7FB6 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #3F2D53 0%, transparent 65%), #8c6baf;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #8c6baf

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.

#8c6baf 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

Usable as-is on a dark surface at 4.84:1.

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.

#8c6baf, answered

What color is #8c6baf?

#8c6baf is a balanced soft violet, closest to Medium Purple (ΔE2000 8.2). It sits at 269° on the hue wheel with 30% saturation and 55% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #8c6baf?

rgb(140, 107, 175) — 140 red, 107 green and 175 blue out of 255, or 54.9% / 42% / 68.6% by channel.

What is #8c6baf in HSL and HSV?

hsl(269, 30%, 55%) and hsv(269, 39%, 69%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #8c6baf a light or a dark color?

It is a mid-tone. Relative luminance is 0.1919 and perceived brightness is 50%, so black text on it reaches 4.84:1.

Should I use black or white text on #8c6baf?

Black. It scores 4.84:1 against #8c6baf, versus 4.34:1 for white — AA at any size.

Is #8c6baf accessible on a white background?

#8c6baf on white scores 4.34:1, which only clears AA for large text — 18.66px bold or 24px regular and up. Darken it to #8968AD to reach 4.5:1, or #684A89 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #8c6baf?

#8EAF6B sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #AFAE6B and #6CAF6B, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #8c6baf?

For interface work: #F7F5FA as the surface, #D6CAE2 for borders, #725195 for secondary text, #788943 as an accent and #3F2D53 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #6B6CAF and #AE6BAF stays calm, while #8EAF6B is the loudest partner.

What is #8c6baf in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(20%, 39%, 0%, 31%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #8c6baf warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 65 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #A56BAF; nudged cooler, #7169B1.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #8c6baf?

The violet family — its 500 step is #8b5cf6, ΔE2000 12.6 away. That is a visible difference, so define #8c6baf as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #8c6baf in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#8c6baf] or text-[#8c6baf], 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 #8c6baf with 50% opacity?

rgba(140, 107, 175, 0.5), or #8c6baf80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #C6B5D7; over black, #463658.

Is #8c6baf 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 #8c6baf 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 moderate chroma the association is present but not shouted.

What gradient works with #8c6baf?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #AB93C4, #8c6baf 45%, #3F2D53). For more colour, a short hue run to #A35892 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #8c6baf in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #8c6baf at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.