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violet · neutral

#a616cf

a dark, electric violet · neutral · closest name: Dark Orchid

Token name suggestion: Slate Thistle

RGB
166, 22, 207
HSL
287°, 81%, 45%
CMYK
20, 89, 0, 19
Luminance
0.1319

#a616cf is a dark electric violet, 287° on the wheel and 57/100 on the cool side. Put white text on it (5.77:1). As text it scores 5.77:1 on white — safe at any size. Nearest name is Dark Orchid, nearest Tailwind family is purple.

hsl(287 81% 45%)rgb(166 22 207)Base step 600AA inkNeutral

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #a616cf is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#a616cf
Hue
287°
violet
Saturation
81%
electric
Lightness
45%
dark
Brightness
81%
HSV value
Perceived
45%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.1319
WCAG relative
Temperature
Neutral
57/100 cool
Color family
Violet
Tone
Electric
Best ink
White
5.77:1
Closest name
Dark Orchid
ΔE2000 2.7
Chroma
97.7
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.543
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
purple
500 · ΔE 11.8
Web-safe
#9900CC
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue287° of 360°
Saturation81%
Lightness45%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #a616cf.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool57% 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
Red61%
Green4%
Blue34%

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

Every format

HEX#a616cf
HEX (8-digit)#a616cfff
RGBrgb(166, 22, 207)
RGBArgba(166, 22, 207, 1)
HSLhsl(287, 81%, 45%)
HSV / HSBhsv(287, 89%, 81%)
HWBhwb(287 9% 19%)
CMYKcmyk(20%, 89%, 0%, 19%)
LABlab(43.0 75.3 -62.3)
LCHlch(43.0 97.7 320.4)
OKLCHoklch(0.543 0.255 316.3)
XYZ (D65)xyz(27.27, 13.19, 60.13)
Decimal10884815
Display P3color(display-p3 0.651 0.086 0.812)
Web-safe#9900CC

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #a616cf;
background-color: #a616cf;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #a616cf;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#a616cf] bg-[#a616cf]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #a616cf;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.651, green: 0.086, blue: 0.812)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.651, green: 0.086, blue: 0.812, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#A616CF</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFA616CF)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFA616CF)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(207, 22, 166)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(166, 22, 207)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(166, 22, 207)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 166, 22, 207)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.6510f, 0.0863f, 0.8118f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{166,22,207}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #a616cf 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #a616cf 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#5C0C73, #E8D3EE);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #a616cf 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: #FAF3FC;
  --brand-100: #F5E6F9;
  --brand-200: #EBC6F5;
  --brand-300: #E09AF4;
  --brand-400: #D167EF;
  --brand-500: #C134E9;
  --brand-600: #a616cf;
  --brand-700: #9414B8;
  --brand-800: #761094;
  --brand-900: #57106B;
  --brand-950: #360A43;
  --brand: #a616cf;
  --brand-ink: #ffffff;
  --brand-surface: #F9F4FA;
  --brand-border: #E3C0ED;
  --brand-hover: #8C13AF;
  --brand-pressed: #720F8E;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #211424;
    --brand-ink: #E8D3EE;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#FAF3FC',
        100: '#F5E6F9',
        200: '#EBC6F5',
        300: '#E09AF4',
        400: '#D167EF',
        500: '#C134E9',
        600: '#a616cf',
        700: '#9414B8',
        800: '#761094',
        900: '#57106B',
        950: '#360A43',
        DEFAULT: '#a616cf',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #FAF3FC,
  '100': #F5E6F9,
  '200': #EBC6F5,
  '300': #E09AF4,
  '400': #D167EF,
  '500': #C134E9,
  '600': #a616cf,
  '700': #9414B8,
  '800': #761094,
  '900': #57106B,
  '950': #360A43,
);
$brand-base: #a616cf;
$brand-ink: #ffffff;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#FAF3FC", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#F5E6F9", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#EBC6F5", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#E09AF4", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#D167EF", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#C134E9", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#a616cf", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#9414B8", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#761094", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#57106B", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#360A43", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #a616cf · 5.77:1
Use #ffffffAA at every size, AAA for large text only.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 5.77:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 3.64:1
AA fail · AA large pass · AAA fail
Reading the other direction: #a616cf as text scores 5.77:1 on white and 3.64:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #F8E8FD at 4.94:1.

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
#a616cf · 5.77:1
AA on whitealready passes
#a616cf
The quick fox
#9013B3 · 7.17:1
AAA on white−6% L
#9013B3
The quick fox
#BC21E7 · 4.51:1
AA on black+7% L
#BC21E7
The quick fox
#D26BEF · 7.09:1
AAA on black+23% L
#D26BEF

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #A616CF 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
#a616cf on white: 5.77:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#a616cf on black: 3.64:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #a616cf as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #a616cf.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White5.77:1AaAa
Slate 505.52:1AaAa
Slate 1005.27:1AaAa
Slate 2004.68:1AaAa
Slate 3003.89:1AaAa
Slate 4002.25:1AaAa
Slate 5001.21:1AaAa
Slate 6001.31:1AaAa
Slate 7001.79:1AaAa
Slate 8002.53:1AaAa
Slate 9003.09:1AaAa
Black3.64:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #005ED3
deuteranopia · #0F69CB
tritanopia · #A34B7B

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. #a616cf 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.

#FAF3FC
#F5E6F9
#EBC6F5
#E09AF4
#D167EF
#C134E9
#a616cf
#9414B8
#761094
#57106B
#360A43
Base = 600Lightest = 50 · #FAF3FCDarkest = 950 · #360A43Text 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 0.064 316.3);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.102 316.3);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.153 316.3);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.199 316.3);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.235 316.3);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.255 316.3);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.255 316.3);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.240 316.3);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.214 316.3);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.178 316.3);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.140 316.3);
}

Colors that work with #a616cf

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#F9F4FA
Tinted page background
Border#E3C0ED
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#894B9B
Captions on the surface
Accent#61BD0F
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#5C0C73
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#F8E8FD
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#211424
Dark-mode background
Hover#8C13AF
One step down in lightness
Pressed#720F8E
Two steps down
Disabled#B598BD
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#BC0BEE
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 #a616cf

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
  • 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.

At this chroma the association is amplified — it will dominate anything placed beside it, so give it space and use it sparingly. 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
  • EnergyHigh
  • Weight55/100
  • 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#3FCF16
Analogous left#4916CF
Analogous right#CF169C
Split-complement 1#9CCF16
Split-complement 2#16CF49
Triadic 1#CFA616
Triadic 2#16CFA6
Tetradic#CF4916
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°287°

#a616cf sits at 287°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red65.1%
Green8.6%
Blue81.2%
R · 0–255
166
0xa6
G · 0–255
22
0x16
B · 0–255
207
0xcf

CMYK percentages

Cyan19.8%
Magenta89.4%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)18.8%

Total ink coverage is 128%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#a616cf text on a black background

contrast 3.64:1

Card sample

#a616cf text on a white background

contrast 5.77:1

Card sample

#a616cf on grey

5.27:1

#a616cf on its own surface

5.32:1

#a616cf on its dark surface

3.06:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #a616cf;
Background color
Panel with #a616cf background
background-color: #a616cf;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #a616cf;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(166, 22, 207, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(166, 22, 207, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #a616cf;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #a616cf, #CF167D);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #a616cf, #CF164E);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #a616cf;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #a616cf;
caret-color: #a616cf;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #a616cf;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #F8E8FD;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #a616cf;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#a616cf 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #a616cf 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(166, 22, 207, 0.5)
rgb(166 22 207 / 50%)
#a616cf80
hsl(287 81% 45% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #a616cf 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#a616cf1a#F6E8FA
20%#a616cf33#EDD0F5
40%#a616cf66#DBA2EC
60%#a616cf99#CA73E2
80%#a616cfcc#B845D9

Gradients from #a616cf

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, #C338EA, #a616cf 45%, #5C0C73);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #a616cf, #B3135F);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #a616cf, #3FCF16);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #CB54ED 0%, #a616cf 45%, #5C0C73 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F9F4FA, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #532FE9 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #E71D9E 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #5C0C73 0%, transparent 65%), #a616cf;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #a616cf

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.

#a616cf 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

Sits outside most CMYK gamuts — expect a duller press result, or specify a spot ink.

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 3.64:1 — lift it to #BC21E7 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.

#a616cf, answered

What color is #a616cf?

#a616cf is a dark electric violet, closest to Dark Orchid (ΔE2000 2.7). It sits at 287° on the hue wheel with 81% saturation and 45% lightness, which reads as neutral.

What is the RGB value of #a616cf?

rgb(166, 22, 207) — 166 red, 22 green and 207 blue out of 255, or 65.1% / 8.6% / 81.2% by channel.

What is #a616cf in HSL and HSV?

hsl(287, 81%, 45%) and hsv(287, 89%, 81%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #a616cf a light or a dark color?

It is a dark color. Relative luminance is 0.1319 and perceived brightness is 45%, so white text on it reaches 5.77:1.

Should I use black or white text on #a616cf?

White. It scores 5.77:1 against #a616cf, versus 3.64:1 for black — AA at any size.

Is #a616cf accessible on a white background?

#a616cf on white scores 5.77:1, which clears AA at every size but not AAA.

What is the complementary color of #a616cf?

#3FCF16 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #9CCF16 and #16CF49, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #a616cf?

For interface work: #F9F4FA as the surface, #E3C0ED for borders, #894B9B for secondary text, #61BD0F as an accent and #5C0C73 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #4916CF and #CF169C stays calm, while #3FCF16 is the loudest partner.

What is #a616cf in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(20%, 89%, 0%, 19%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — a color this saturated sits outside most CMYK gamuts and will print duller than it looks here.

Is #a616cf warm or cool?

Neutral — it scores 57 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #CF16B4; nudged cooler, #6214D1.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #a616cf?

The purple family — its 500 step is #a855f7, ΔE2000 11.8 away. That is a visible difference, so define #a616cf as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #a616cf in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#a616cf] or text-[#a616cf], 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 #a616cf with 50% opacity?

rgba(166, 22, 207, 0.5), or #a616cf80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #D38BE7; over black, #530B68.

Is #a616cf a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #9900CC, ΔE2000 3.1 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #a616cf 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 #a616cf?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #C338EA, #a616cf 45%, #5C0C73). For more colour, a short hue run to #B3135F keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #a616cf in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #a616cf at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.