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violet · cool

#a68def

a light, electric violet · cool · closest name: Medium Purple

Token name suggestion: Meadow Amethyst

RGB
166, 141, 239
HSL
255°, 75%, 75%
CMYK
31, 41, 0, 6
Luminance
0.3339

#a68def is a light electric violet, 255° on the wheel and 75/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (7.68:1). As text it scores 2.74:1 on white — use #805CE8 instead. Nearest name is Medium Purple, nearest Tailwind family is violet.

hsl(255 75% 75%)rgb(166 141 239)Base step 300AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #a68def is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#a68def
Hue
255°
violet
Saturation
75%
electric
Lightness
75%
light
Brightness
94%
HSV value
Perceived
64%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.3339
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
75/100 cool
Color family
Violet
Tone
Electric
Best ink
Black
7.68:1
Closest name
Medium Purple
ΔE2000 8.7
Chroma
55.2
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.706
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
violet
500 · ΔE 13.9
Web-safe
#9999FF
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue255° of 360°
Saturation75%
Lightness75%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #a68def.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool75% 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
Red24%
Green57%
Blue19%

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

Every format

HEX#a68def
HEX (8-digit)#a68defff
RGBrgb(166, 141, 239)
RGBArgba(166, 141, 239, 1)
HSLhsl(255, 75%, 75%)
HSV / HSBhsv(255, 41%, 94%)
HWBhwb(255 55% 6%)
CMYKcmyk(31%, 41%, 0%, 6%)
LABlab(64.5 30.4 -46.1)
LCHlch(64.5 55.2 303.4)
OKLCHoklch(0.706 0.141 294.2)
XYZ (D65)xyz(40.83, 33.39, 85.94)
Decimal10915311
Display P3color(display-p3 0.651 0.553 0.937)
Web-safe#9999FF

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #a68def;
background-color: #a68def;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #a68def;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#a68def] bg-[#a68def]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #a68def;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.651, green: 0.553, blue: 0.937)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.651, green: 0.553, blue: 0.937, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#A68DEF</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFA68DEF)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFA68DEF)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(239, 141, 166)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(166, 141, 239)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(166, 141, 239)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 166, 141, 239)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.6510f, 0.5529f, 0.9373f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{166,141,239}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #a68def 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #a68def 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#281070, #DAD3EE);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #a68def 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: #F5F3FC;
  --brand-100: #EBE7F9;
  --brand-200: #D3C8F4;
  --brand-300: #a68def;
  --brand-400: #8C6BEA;
  --brand-500: #653AE3;
  --brand-600: #4D1ED7;
  --brand-700: #4019B3;
  --brand-800: #33148F;
  --brand-900: #281368;
  --brand-950: #190C41;
  --brand: #a68def;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F6F4FA;
  --brand-border: #CBC0ED;
  --brand-hover: #8E6EEB;
  --brand-pressed: #754EE6;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #181424;
    --brand-ink: #DAD3EE;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F5F3FC',
        100: '#EBE7F9',
        200: '#D3C8F4',
        300: '#a68def',
        400: '#8C6BEA',
        500: '#653AE3',
        600: '#4D1ED7',
        700: '#4019B3',
        800: '#33148F',
        900: '#281368',
        950: '#190C41',
        DEFAULT: '#a68def',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F5F3FC,
  '100': #EBE7F9,
  '200': #D3C8F4,
  '300': #a68def,
  '400': #8C6BEA,
  '500': #653AE3,
  '600': #4D1ED7,
  '700': #4019B3,
  '800': #33148F,
  '900': #281368,
  '950': #190C41,
);
$brand-base: #a68def;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F5F3FC", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#EBE7F9", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#D3C8F4", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#a68def", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#8C6BEA", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#653AE3", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#4D1ED7", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#4019B3", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#33148F", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#281368", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#190C41", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #a68def · 7.68:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 2.74:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 7.68:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #a68def as text scores 2.74:1 on white and 7.68:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #281070 at 5.49:1.

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
#805CE8 · 4.55:1
AA on white−11% L
#805CE8
The quick fox
#5D2FE2 · 7.07:1
AAA on white−21% L
#5D2FE2
The quick fox
#a68def · 7.68:1
AA on blackalready passes
#a68def
The quick fox
#a68def · 7.68:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#a68def

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #9F84EE 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
#a68def on white: 2.74:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#a68def on black: 7.68:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #a68def as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #a68def.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White2.74:1AaAa
Slate 502.61:1AaAa
Slate 1002.50:1AaAa
Slate 2002.22:1AaAa
Slate 3001.84:1AaAa
Slate 4001.07:1AaAa
Slate 5001.74:1AaAa
Slate 6002.77:1AaAa
Slate 7003.79:1AaAa
Slate 8005.35:1AaAa
Slate 9006.53:1AaAa
Black7.68:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #709DF3
deuteranopia · #739BED
tritanopia · #969FB3

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. #a68def is pinned to step 300; the rest hold its hue and let saturation ease off at the extremes so the pale end never turns neon.

#F5F3FC
#EBE7F9
#D3C8F4
#a68def
#8C6BEA
#653AE3
#4D1ED7
#4019B3
#33148F
#281368
#190C41
Base = 300Lightest = 50 · #F5F3FCDarkest = 950 · #190C41Text 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 0.035 294.2);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.057 294.2);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.085 294.2);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.110 294.2);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.130 294.2);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.141 294.2);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.141 294.2);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.133 294.2);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.119 294.2);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.099 294.2);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.078 294.2);
}

Colors that work with #a68def

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#F6F4FA
Tinted page background
Border#CBC0ED
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#5F4B9B
Captions on the surface
Accent#B6B814
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#281070
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#EEE9FC
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#181424
Dark-mode background
Hover#8E6EEB
One step down in lightness
Pressed#754EE6
Two steps down
Disabled#F4F3F7
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#B199F7
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 #a68def

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

Works well for
  • Text and icons on dark surfaces
  • Primary buttons and calls to action
  • Focus rings, active and selected states
  • Card and section backgrounds
  • Brand accents, badges and data highlights
Use with care
  • Text of any size on white — fails WCAG AA
  • Full-page backgrounds — tiring over long sessions
  • White text placed on it
  • Pairing with a same-lightness hue — edges vibrate
Minimum size as text on white
Not as text
Safe as a fill behind white type
No — use #281070
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #9F84EE

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 lightness keeps it airy and approachable.

Worth knowing

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

Reads as
  • FormalityLow
  • EnergyHigh
  • Weight26/100
  • 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#D6EF8D
Analogous left#8DA5EF
Analogous right#D78DEF
Split-complement 1#EFD78D
Split-complement 2#A5EF8D
Triadic 1#EFA68D
Triadic 2#8DEFA6
Tetradic#EF8DA5
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°255°

#a68def sits at 255°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red65.1%
Green55.3%
Blue93.7%
R · 0–255
166
0xa6
G · 0–255
141
0x8d
B · 0–255
239
0xef

CMYK percentages

Cyan30.5%
Magenta41.0%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)6.3%

Total ink coverage is 78%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#a68def text on a black background

contrast 7.68:1

Card sample

#a68def text on a white background

contrast 2.74:1

Card sample

#a68def on grey

2.50:1

#a68def on its own surface

2.51:1

#a68def on its dark surface

6.59:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #a68def;
Background color
Panel with #a68def background
background-color: #a68def;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #a68def;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(166, 141, 239, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(166, 141, 239, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #a68def;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #a68def, #E78DEF);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #a68def, #EF8DDE);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #a68def;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #a68def;
caret-color: #a68def;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #a68def;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #EEE9FC;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #a68def;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#a68def 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #a68def 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, 141, 239, 0.5)
rgb(166 141 239 / 50%)
#a68def80
hsl(255 75% 75% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #a68def 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#a68def1a#F6F4FD
20%#a68def33#EDE8FC
40%#a68def66#DBD1F9
60%#a68def99#CABBF5
80%#a68defcc#B8A4F2

Gradients from #a68def

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, #D0C3F7, #a68def 45%, #281070);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #a68def, #EB72EB);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #a68def, #D6EF8D);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #E5DDFA 0%, #a68def 45%, #281070 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%, #BACDF5 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #E7A8F3 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #281070 0%, transparent 65%), #a68def;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #a68def

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.

#a68def 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
SurfacesBadgesHighlightsEmpty states
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

Usable as-is on a dark surface at 7.68:1.

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.

#a68def, answered

What color is #a68def?

#a68def is a light electric violet, closest to Medium Purple (ΔE2000 8.7). It sits at 255° on the hue wheel with 75% saturation and 75% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #a68def?

rgb(166, 141, 239) — 166 red, 141 green and 239 blue out of 255, or 65.1% / 55.3% / 93.7% by channel.

What is #a68def in HSL and HSV?

hsl(255, 75%, 75%) and hsv(255, 41%, 94%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #a68def a light or a dark color?

It is a mid-tone. Relative luminance is 0.3339 and perceived brightness is 64%, so black text on it reaches 7.68:1.

Should I use black or white text on #a68def?

Black. It scores 7.68:1 against #a68def, versus 2.74:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #a68def accessible on a white background?

#a68def on white scores 2.74:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #805CE8 to reach 4.5:1, or #5D2FE2 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #a68def?

#D6EF8D sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #EFD78D and #A5EF8D, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #a68def?

For interface work: #F6F4FA as the surface, #CBC0ED for borders, #5F4B9B for secondary text, #B6B814 as an accent and #281070 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #8DA5EF and #D78DEF stays calm, while #D6EF8D is the loudest partner.

What is #a68def in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(31%, 41%, 0%, 6%). 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 #a68def warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 75 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #CA8DEF; nudged cooler, #8C97F0.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #a68def?

The violet family — its 500 step is #8b5cf6, ΔE2000 13.9 away. That is a visible difference, so define #a68def as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #a68def in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#a68def] or text-[#a68def], 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 #a68def with 50% opacity?

rgba(166, 141, 239, 0.5), or #a68def80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #D3C6F7; over black, #534778.

Is #a68def a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #9999FF, ΔE2000 6 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #a68def 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 #a68def?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #D0C3F7, #a68def 45%, #281070). For more colour, a short hue run to #EB72EB keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #a68def in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #a68def at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.