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violet · cool

#af37e2

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

Token name suggestion: Signal Plum

RGB
175, 55, 226
HSL
282°, 75%, 55%
CMYK
23, 76, 0, 11
Luminance
0.1734

#af37e2 is a balanced vivid violet, 282° on the wheel and 60/100 on the cool side. Put white text on it (4.70:1). As text it scores 4.70:1 on white — safe at any size. Nearest name is Dark Orchid, nearest Tailwind family is purple.

hsl(282 75% 55%)rgb(175 55 226)Base step 500AA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #af37e2 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#af37e2
Hue
282°
violet
Saturation
75%
vivid
Lightness
55%
balanced
Brightness
89%
HSV value
Perceived
51%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.1734
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
60/100 cool
Color family
Violet
Tone
Vivid
Best ink
White
4.70:1
Closest name
Dark Orchid
ΔE2000 5.3
Chroma
96.2
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.590
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
purple
500 · ΔE 6.4
Web-safe
#9933CC
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue282° of 360°
Saturation75%
Lightness55%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #af37e2.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool60% 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
Red53%
Green16%
Blue32%

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

Every format

HEX#af37e2
HEX (8-digit)#af37e2ff
RGBrgb(175, 55, 226)
RGBArgba(175, 55, 226, 1)
HSLhsl(282, 75%, 55%)
HSV / HSBhsv(282, 76%, 89%)
HWBhwb(282 22% 11%)
CMYKcmyk(23%, 76%, 0%, 11%)
LABlab(48.7 71.8 -64.0)
LCHlch(48.7 96.2 318.3)
OKLCHoklch(0.590 0.248 313.3)
XYZ (D65)xyz(32.77, 17.34, 73.56)
Decimal11483106
Display P3color(display-p3 0.686 0.216 0.886)
Web-safe#9933CC

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #af37e2;
background-color: #af37e2;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #af37e2;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#af37e2] bg-[#af37e2]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #af37e2;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.686, green: 0.216, blue: 0.886)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.686, green: 0.216, blue: 0.886, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#AF37E2</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFAF37E2)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFAF37E2)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(226, 55, 175)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(175, 55, 226)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(175, 55, 226)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 175, 55, 226)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.6863f, 0.2157f, 0.8863f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{175,55,226}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #af37e2 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #af37e2 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#53106F, #E6D3EE);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #af37e2 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: #F9F3FC;
  --brand-100: #F3E7F9;
  --brand-200: #E7C8F4;
  --brand-300: #D89DF1;
  --brand-400: #C46CEA;
  --brand-500: #af37e2;
  --brand-600: #9F1FD6;
  --brand-700: #851AB2;
  --brand-800: #6A158F;
  --brand-900: #4E1367;
  --brand-950: #310C41;
  --brand: #af37e2;
  --brand-ink: #ffffff;
  --brand-surface: #F9F4FA;
  --brand-border: #DFC0ED;
  --brand-hover: #A01FD6;
  --brand-pressed: #881BB7;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #1F1424;
    --brand-ink: #E6D3EE;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F9F3FC',
        100: '#F3E7F9',
        200: '#E7C8F4',
        300: '#D89DF1',
        400: '#C46CEA',
        500: '#af37e2',
        600: '#9F1FD6',
        700: '#851AB2',
        800: '#6A158F',
        900: '#4E1367',
        950: '#310C41',
        DEFAULT: '#af37e2',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F9F3FC,
  '100': #F3E7F9,
  '200': #E7C8F4,
  '300': #D89DF1,
  '400': #C46CEA,
  '500': #af37e2,
  '600': #9F1FD6,
  '700': #851AB2,
  '800': #6A158F,
  '900': #4E1367,
  '950': #310C41,
);
$brand-base: #af37e2;
$brand-ink: #ffffff;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F9F3FC", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#F3E7F9", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#E7C8F4", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#D89DF1", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#C46CEA", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#af37e2", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#9F1FD6", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#851AB2", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#6A158F", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#4E1367", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#310C41", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #af37e2 · 4.70:1
Use #ffffffAA at every size, AAA for large text only.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 4.70:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 4.47:1
AA fail · AA large pass · AAA fail
Reading the other direction: #af37e2 as text scores 4.70:1 on white and 4.47:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #F6E9FC at 4.02:1.

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
#af37e2 · 4.70:1
AA on whitealready passes
#af37e2
The quick fox
#8C1BBC · 7.00:1
AAA on white−13% L
#8C1BBC
The quick fox
#B13BE3 · 4.60:1
AA on black+1% L
#B13BE3
The quick fox
#C875EB · 7.20:1
AAA on black+14% L
#C875EB

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #AF37E2 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
#af37e2 on white: 4.70:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#af37e2 on black: 4.47:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #af37e2 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #af37e2.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White4.70:1AaAa
Slate 504.49:1AaAa
Slate 1004.29:1AaAa
Slate 2003.81:1AaAa
Slate 3003.17:1AaAa
Slate 4001.83:1AaAa
Slate 5001.01:1AaAa
Slate 6001.61:1AaAa
Slate 7002.20:1AaAa
Slate 8003.11:1AaAa
Slate 9003.80:1AaAa
Black4.47:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #006EE7
deuteranopia · #2376DE
tritanopia · #A95F8B

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. #af37e2 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.

#F9F3FC
#F3E7F9
#E7C8F4
#D89DF1
#C46CEA
#af37e2
#9F1FD6
#851AB2
#6A158F
#4E1367
#310C41
Base = 500Lightest = 50 · #F9F3FCDarkest = 950 · #310C41Text 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 0.062 313.3);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.099 313.3);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.149 313.3);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.194 313.3);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.229 313.3);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.248 313.3);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.248 313.3);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.233 313.3);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.209 313.3);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.174 313.3);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.137 313.3);
}

Colors that work with #af37e2

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#DFC0ED
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#834B9B
Captions on the surface
Accent#6EB715
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#53106F
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#F6E9FC
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#1F1424
Dark-mode background
Hover#A01FD6
One step down in lightness
Pressed#881BB7
Two steps down
Disabled#CAB8D1
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#BA3EEF
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 #af37e2

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
  • 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.

This is a confident chroma: strong enough to lead a brand, restrained enough to live in an interface all day. 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-high
  • 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#6AE237
Analogous left#5937E2
Analogous right#E237C0
Split-complement 1#C0E237
Split-complement 2#37E259
Triadic 1#E2AF37
Triadic 2#37E2AF
Tetradic#E25937
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°282°

#af37e2 sits at 282°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red68.6%
Green21.6%
Blue88.6%
R · 0–255
175
0xaf
G · 0–255
55
0x37
B · 0–255
226
0xe2

CMYK percentages

Cyan22.6%
Magenta75.7%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)11.4%

Total ink coverage is 110%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#af37e2 text on a black background

contrast 4.47:1

Card sample

#af37e2 text on a white background

contrast 4.70:1

Card sample

#af37e2 on grey

4.29:1

#af37e2 on its own surface

4.33:1

#af37e2 on its dark surface

3.77:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #af37e2;
Background color
Panel with #af37e2 background
background-color: #af37e2;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #af37e2;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(175, 55, 226, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(175, 55, 226, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #af37e2;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #af37e2, #E237A3);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #af37e2, #E23778);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #af37e2;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #af37e2;
caret-color: #af37e2;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #af37e2;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #F6E9FC;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #af37e2;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#af37e2 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #af37e2 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(175, 55, 226, 0.5)
rgb(175 55 226 / 50%)
#af37e280
hsl(282 75% 55% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #af37e2 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#af37e21a#F7EBFC
20%#af37e233#EFD7F9
40%#af37e266#DFAFF3
60%#af37e299#CF87EE
80%#af37e2cc#BF5FE8

Gradients from #af37e2

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, #C46CEA, #af37e2 45%, #53106F);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #af37e2, #DB2086);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #af37e2, #6AE237);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #CF87EE 0%, #af37e2 45%, #53106F 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%, #7364E8 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #E652BC 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #53106F 0%, transparent 65%), #af37e2;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #af37e2

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.

#af37e2 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

Too dim on dark surfaces at 4.47:1 — lift it to #B13BE3 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.

#af37e2, answered

What color is #af37e2?

#af37e2 is a balanced vivid violet, closest to Dark Orchid (ΔE2000 5.3). It sits at 282° on the hue wheel with 75% saturation and 55% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #af37e2?

rgb(175, 55, 226) — 175 red, 55 green and 226 blue out of 255, or 68.6% / 21.6% / 88.6% by channel.

What is #af37e2 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(282, 75%, 55%) and hsv(282, 76%, 89%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #af37e2 a light or a dark color?

It is a dark color. Relative luminance is 0.1734 and perceived brightness is 51%, so white text on it reaches 4.70:1.

Should I use black or white text on #af37e2?

White. It scores 4.70:1 against #af37e2, versus 4.47:1 for black — AA at any size.

Is #af37e2 accessible on a white background?

#af37e2 on white scores 4.70:1, which clears AA at every size but not AAA.

What is the complementary color of #af37e2?

#6AE237 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #C0E237 and #37E259, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #af37e2?

For interface work: #F9F4FA as the surface, #DFC0ED for borders, #834B9B for secondary text, #6EB715 as an accent and #53106F for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #5937E2 and #E237C0 stays calm, while #6AE237 is the loudest partner.

What is #af37e2 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(23%, 76%, 0%, 11%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #af37e2 warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 60 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #E237D6; nudged cooler, #7035E4.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #af37e2?

The purple family — its 500 step is #a855f7, ΔE2000 6.4 away. That is a visible difference, so define #af37e2 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #af37e2 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#af37e2] or text-[#af37e2], 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 #af37e2 with 50% opacity?

rgba(175, 55, 226, 0.5), or #af37e280 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #D79BF1; over black, #581C71.

Is #af37e2 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #9933CC, ΔE2000 5.3 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #af37e2 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 #af37e2?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #C46CEA, #af37e2 45%, #53106F). For more colour, a short hue run to #DB2086 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #af37e2 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #af37e2 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.