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violet · cool

#ab3eee

a balanced, electric violet · cool · closest name: Dark Orchid

Token name suggestion: Signal Thistle

RGB
171, 62, 238
HSL
277°, 84%, 59%
CMYK
28, 74, 0, 7
Luminance
0.1828

#ab3eee is a balanced electric violet, 277° on the wheel and 63/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (4.66:1). As text it scores 4.51:1 on white — safe at any size. Nearest name is Dark Orchid, nearest Tailwind family is purple.

hsl(277 84% 59%)rgb(171 62 238)Base step 500AA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #ab3eee is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#ab3eee
Hue
277°
violet
Saturation
84%
electric
Lightness
59%
balanced
Brightness
93%
HSV value
Perceived
52%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.1828
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
63/100 cool
Color family
Violet
Tone
Electric
Best ink
Black
4.66:1
Closest name
Dark Orchid
ΔE2000 6.7
Chroma
98.9
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.599
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
purple
500 · ΔE 4.5
Web-safe
#9933FF
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue277° of 360°
Saturation84%
Lightness59%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #ab3eee.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool63% 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
Red47%
Green19%
Blue34%

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

Every format

HEX#ab3eee
HEX (8-digit)#ab3eeeff
RGBrgb(171, 62, 238)
RGBArgba(171, 62, 238, 1)
HSLhsl(277, 84%, 59%)
HSV / HSBhsv(277, 74%, 93%)
HWBhwb(277 24% 7%)
CMYKcmyk(28%, 74%, 0%, 7%)
LABlab(49.8 71.0 -68.9)
LCHlch(49.8 98.9 315.9)
OKLCHoklch(0.599 0.251 308.8)
XYZ (D65)xyz(33.95, 18.28, 82.61)
Decimal11222766
Display P3color(display-p3 0.671 0.243 0.933)
Web-safe#9933FF

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #ab3eee;
background-color: #ab3eee;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #ab3eee;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#ab3eee] bg-[#ab3eee]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #ab3eee;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.671, green: 0.243, blue: 0.933)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.671, green: 0.243, blue: 0.933, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#AB3EEE</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFAB3EEE)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFAB3EEE)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(238, 62, 171)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(171, 62, 238)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(171, 62, 238)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 171, 62, 238)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.6706f, 0.2431f, 0.9333f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{171,62,238}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #ab3eee 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #ab3eee 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#4D0A75, #E4D3EE);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #ab3eee 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: #F9F2FC;
  --brand-100: #F2E6FA;
  --brand-200: #E4C5F6;
  --brand-300: #D298F6;
  --brand-400: #BC64F1;
  --brand-500: #ab3eee;
  --brand-600: #9314E1;
  --brand-700: #7B11BB;
  --brand-800: #620D96;
  --brand-900: #490E6C;
  --brand-950: #2D0944;
  --brand: #ab3eee;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F8F4FA;
  --brand-border: #DCC0ED;
  --brand-hover: #9D1DEB;
  --brand-pressed: #8913D2;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #1E1424;
    --brand-ink: #E4D3EE;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F9F2FC',
        100: '#F2E6FA',
        200: '#E4C5F6',
        300: '#D298F6',
        400: '#BC64F1',
        500: '#ab3eee',
        600: '#9314E1',
        700: '#7B11BB',
        800: '#620D96',
        900: '#490E6C',
        950: '#2D0944',
        DEFAULT: '#ab3eee',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F9F2FC,
  '100': #F2E6FA,
  '200': #E4C5F6,
  '300': #D298F6,
  '400': #BC64F1,
  '500': #ab3eee,
  '600': #9314E1,
  '700': #7B11BB,
  '800': #620D96,
  '900': #490E6C,
  '950': #2D0944,
);
$brand-base: #ab3eee;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F9F2FC", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#F2E6FA", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#E4C5F6", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#D298F6", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#BC64F1", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#ab3eee", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#9314E1", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#7B11BB", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#620D96", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#490E6C", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#2D0944", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #ab3eee · 4.66:1
Use #000000AA at every size, AAA for large text only.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 4.51:1
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 4.66:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA fail
Reading the other direction: #ab3eee as text scores 4.51:1 on white and 4.66:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #4D0A75 at 2.88:1.

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
#ab3eee · 4.51:1
AA on whitealready passes
#ab3eee
The quick fox
#8612CD · 7.04:1
AAA on white−15% L
#8612CD
The quick fox
#ab3eee · 4.66:1
AA on blackalready passes
#ab3eee
The quick fox
#C476F3 · 7.23:1
AAA on black+12% L
#C476F3

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #AB3EEE 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
#ab3eee on white: 4.51:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#ab3eee on black: 4.66:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #ab3eee as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #ab3eee.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White4.51:1AaAa
Slate 504.31:1AaAa
Slate 1004.12:1AaAa
Slate 2003.66:1AaAa
Slate 3003.04:1AaAa
Slate 4001.76:1AaAa
Slate 5001.05:1AaAa
Slate 6001.68:1AaAa
Slate 7002.30:1AaAa
Slate 8003.24:1AaAa
Slate 9003.96:1AaAa
Black4.66:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #0072F3
deuteranopia · #0078EA
tritanopia · #A16894

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. #ab3eee 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.

#F9F2FC
#F2E6FA
#E4C5F6
#D298F6
#BC64F1
#ab3eee
#9314E1
#7B11BB
#620D96
#490E6C
#2D0944
Base = 500Lightest = 50 · #F9F2FCDarkest = 950 · #2D0944Text 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 0.063 308.8);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.100 308.8);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.151 308.8);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.196 308.8);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.231 308.8);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.251 308.8);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.251 308.8);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.236 308.8);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.211 308.8);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.176 308.8);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.138 308.8);
}

Colors that work with #ab3eee

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#F8F4FA
Tinted page background
Border#DCC0ED
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#7C4B9B
Captions on the surface
Accent#7DBF0D
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#4D0A75
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#F5E8FD
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#1E1424
Dark-mode background
Hover#9D1DEB
One step down in lightness
Pressed#8913D2
Two steps down
Disabled#D1C3D9
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#B547F9
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 #ab3eee

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

Works well for
  • Body text and links on white
  • Text and icons on dark surfaces
  • Primary buttons and calls to action
  • Focus rings, active and selected states
  • Brand accents, badges and data highlights
  • Chart series and data categories
Use with care
  • Full-page backgrounds — tiring over long sessions
  • 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 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
  • FormalityLow
  • EnergyHigh
  • Weight41/100
  • 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#81EE3E
Analogous left#533EEE
Analogous right#EE3ED9
Split-complement 1#D9EE3E
Split-complement 2#3EEE53
Triadic 1#EEAB3E
Triadic 2#3EEEAB
Tetradic#EE533E
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°277°

#ab3eee sits at 277°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red67.1%
Green24.3%
Blue93.3%
R · 0–255
171
0xab
G · 0–255
62
0x3e
B · 0–255
238
0xee

CMYK percentages

Cyan28.2%
Magenta73.9%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)6.7%

Total ink coverage is 109%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#ab3eee text on a black background

contrast 4.66:1

Card sample

#ab3eee text on a white background

contrast 4.51:1

Card sample

#ab3eee on grey

4.12:1

#ab3eee on its own surface

4.15:1

#ab3eee on its dark surface

3.94:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #ab3eee;
Background color
Panel with #ab3eee background
background-color: #ab3eee;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #ab3eee;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(171, 62, 238, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(171, 62, 238, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #ab3eee;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #ab3eee, #EE3EBC);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #ab3eee, #EE3E8F);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #ab3eee;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #ab3eee;
caret-color: #ab3eee;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #ab3eee;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #F5E8FD;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #ab3eee;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#ab3eee 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #ab3eee 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(171, 62, 238, 0.5)
rgb(171 62 238 / 50%)
#ab3eee80
hsl(277 84% 59% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #ab3eee 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#ab3eee1a#F7ECFD
20%#ab3eee33#EED8FC
40%#ab3eee66#DDB2F8
60%#ab3eee99#CD8BF5
80%#ab3eeecc#BC65F1

Gradients from #ab3eee

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, #C476F3, #ab3eee 45%, #4D0A75);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #ab3eee, #EC22A1);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #ab3eee, #81EE3E);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #D092F5 0%, #ab3eee 45%, #4D0A75 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%, #726DF2 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #F05AD2 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #4D0A75 0%, transparent 65%), #ab3eee;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #ab3eee

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.

#ab3eee 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

Usable as-is on a dark surface at 4.66:1.

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.

#ab3eee, answered

What color is #ab3eee?

#ab3eee is a balanced electric violet, closest to Dark Orchid (ΔE2000 6.7). It sits at 277° on the hue wheel with 84% saturation and 59% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #ab3eee?

rgb(171, 62, 238) — 171 red, 62 green and 238 blue out of 255, or 67.1% / 24.3% / 93.3% by channel.

What is #ab3eee in HSL and HSV?

hsl(277, 84%, 59%) and hsv(277, 74%, 93%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #ab3eee a light or a dark color?

It is a mid-tone. Relative luminance is 0.1828 and perceived brightness is 52%, so black text on it reaches 4.66:1.

Should I use black or white text on #ab3eee?

Black. It scores 4.66:1 against #ab3eee, versus 4.51:1 for white — AA at any size.

Is #ab3eee accessible on a white background?

#ab3eee on white scores 4.51:1, which clears AA at every size but not AAA.

What is the complementary color of #ab3eee?

#81EE3E sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #D9EE3E and #3EEE53, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #ab3eee?

For interface work: #F8F4FA as the surface, #DCC0ED for borders, #7C4B9B for secondary text, #7DBF0D as an accent and #4D0A75 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #533EEE and #EE3ED9 stays calm, while #81EE3E is the loudest partner.

What is #ab3eee in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(28%, 74%, 0%, 7%). 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 #ab3eee warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 63 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #EC3EEE; nudged cooler, #693CF0.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #ab3eee?

The purple family — its 500 step is #a855f7, ΔE2000 4.5 away. That is a visible difference, so define #ab3eee as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #ab3eee in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#ab3eee] or text-[#ab3eee], 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 #ab3eee with 50% opacity?

rgba(171, 62, 238, 0.5), or #ab3eee80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #D59FF7; over black, #561F77.

Is #ab3eee a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #9933FF, ΔE2000 4.3 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #ab3eee 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 #ab3eee?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #C476F3, #ab3eee 45%, #4D0A75). For more colour, a short hue run to #EC22A1 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #ab3eee in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #ab3eee at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.