Skip to content
violet · cool

#af3afb

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

Token name suggestion: Atlas Thistle

RGB
175, 58, 251
HSL
276°, 96%, 61%
CMYK
30, 77, 0, 2
Luminance
0.1911

#af3afb is a balanced electric violet, 276° on the wheel and 63/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (4.82:1). As text it scores 4.36:1 on white — large text only. Nearest name is Medium Orchid, nearest Tailwind family is purple.

hsl(276 96% 61%)rgb(175 58 251)Base step 500AA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #af3afb is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#af3afb
Hue
276°
violet
Saturation
96%
electric
Lightness
61%
balanced
Brightness
98%
HSV value
Perceived
53%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.1911
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
63/100 cool
Color family
Violet
Tone
Electric
Best ink
Black
4.82:1
Closest name
Medium Orchid
ΔE2000 7.9
Chroma
106.3
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.610
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
purple
500 · ΔE 4.2
Web-safe
#9933FF
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue276° of 360°
Saturation96%
Lightness61%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #af3afb.

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
Red48%
Green16%
Blue36%

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

Every format

HEX#af3afb
HEX (8-digit)#af3afbff
RGBrgb(175, 58, 251)
RGBArgba(175, 58, 251, 1)
HSLhsl(276, 96%, 61%)
HSV / HSBhsv(276, 77%, 98%)
HWBhwb(276 23% 2%)
CMYKcmyk(30%, 77%, 0%, 2%)
LABlab(50.8 75.8 -74.6)
LCHlch(50.8 106.3 315.5)
OKLCHoklch(0.610 0.268 307.6)
XYZ (D65)xyz(36.60, 19.11, 93.01)
Decimal11483899
Display P3color(display-p3 0.686 0.227 0.984)
Web-safe#9933FF

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #af3afb;
background-color: #af3afb;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #af3afb;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#af3afb] bg-[#af3afb]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #af3afb;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.686, green: 0.227, blue: 0.984)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.686, green: 0.227, blue: 0.984, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#AF3AFB</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFAF3AFB)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFAF3AFB)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(251, 58, 175)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(175, 58, 251)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(175, 58, 251)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 175, 58, 251)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.6863f, 0.2275f, 0.9843f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{175,58,251}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #af3afb 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #af3afb 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#4D037D, #E3D3EE);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #af3afb 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: #F9F1FD;
  --brand-100: #F2E4FC;
  --brand-200: #E4C1FA;
  --brand-300: #D291FD;
  --brand-400: #BC5AFC;
  --brand-500: #af3afb;
  --brand-600: #9305F0;
  --brand-700: #7B04C8;
  --brand-800: #6203A0;
  --brand-900: #490773;
  --brand-950: #2D0448;
  --brand: #af3afb;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F8F4FA;
  --brand-border: #DBC0ED;
  --brand-hover: #A117FA;
  --brand-pressed: #8F05E9;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #1E1424;
    --brand-ink: #E3D3EE;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F9F1FD',
        100: '#F2E4FC',
        200: '#E4C1FA',
        300: '#D291FD',
        400: '#BC5AFC',
        500: '#af3afb',
        600: '#9305F0',
        700: '#7B04C8',
        800: '#6203A0',
        900: '#490773',
        950: '#2D0448',
        DEFAULT: '#af3afb',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F9F1FD,
  '100': #F2E4FC,
  '200': #E4C1FA,
  '300': #D291FD,
  '400': #BC5AFC,
  '500': #af3afb,
  '600': #9305F0,
  '700': #7B04C8,
  '800': #6203A0,
  '900': #490773,
  '950': #2D0448,
);
$brand-base: #af3afb;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F9F1FD", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#F2E4FC", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#E4C1FA", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#D291FD", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#BC5AFC", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#af3afb", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#9305F0", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#7B04C8", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#6203A0", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#490773", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#2D0448", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #af3afb · 4.82:1
Use #000000AA at every size, AAA for large text only.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 4.36:1
AA fail · AA large pass · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 4.82:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA fail
Reading the other direction: #af3afb as text scores 4.36:1 on white and 4.82:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #4D037D at 2.97:1.

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
#AB30FB · 4.62:1
AA on white−2% L
#AB30FB
The quick fox
#8304D5 · 7.13:1
AAA on white−18% L
#8304D5
The quick fox
#af3afb · 4.82:1
AA on blackalready passes
#af3afb
The quick fox
#C571FC · 7.14:1
AAA on black+11% L
#C571FC

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #AF3AFB 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
#af3afb on white: 4.36:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#af3afb on black: 4.82:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #af3afb as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #af3afb.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White4.36:1AaAa
Slate 504.16:1AaAa
Slate 1003.98:1AaAa
Slate 2003.53:1AaAa
Slate 3002.93:1AaAa
Slate 4001.70:1AaAa
Slate 5001.09:1AaAa
Slate 6001.74:1AaAa
Slate 7002.38:1AaAa
Slate 8003.36:1AaAa
Slate 9004.10:1AaAa
Black4.82:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #0075FF
deuteranopia · #007AF7
tritanopia · #A26B9A

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. #af3afb 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.

#F9F1FD
#F2E4FC
#E4C1FA
#D291FD
#BC5AFC
#af3afb
#9305F0
#7B04C8
#6203A0
#490773
#2D0448
Base = 500Lightest = 50 · #F9F1FDDarkest = 950 · #2D0448Text 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 0.067 307.6);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.107 307.6);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.161 307.6);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.209 307.6);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.246 307.6);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.268 307.6);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.268 307.6);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.251 307.6);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.225 307.6);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.187 307.6);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.147 307.6);
}

Colors that work with #af3afb

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#DBC0ED
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#7B4B9B
Captions on the surface
Accent#83CC00
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#4D037D
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#F5E6FE
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#1E1424
Dark-mode background
Hover#A117FA
One step down in lightness
Pressed#8F05E9
Two steps down
Disabled#D5C9DC
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#B84AFF
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 #af3afb

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
  • 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
  • Small text on white — under 4.5:1
  • Full-page backgrounds — tiring over long sessions
  • 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 #4D037D
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
  • Weight39/100
  • 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#86FB3A
Analogous left#4F3AFB
Analogous right#FB3AE6
Split-complement 1#E6FB3A
Split-complement 2#3AFB4F
Triadic 1#FBAF3A
Triadic 2#3AFBAF
Tetradic#FB4F3A
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°276°

#af3afb sits at 276°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red68.6%
Green22.7%
Blue98.4%
R · 0–255
175
0xaf
G · 0–255
58
0x3a
B · 0–255
251
0xfb

CMYK percentages

Cyan30.3%
Magenta76.9%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)1.6%

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

Color previews

#af3afb text on a black background

contrast 4.82:1

Card sample

#af3afb text on a white background

contrast 4.36:1

Card sample

#af3afb on grey

3.98:1

#af3afb on its own surface

4.01:1

#af3afb on its dark surface

4.08:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #af3afb;
Background color
Panel with #af3afb background
background-color: #af3afb;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #af3afb;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(175, 58, 251, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(175, 58, 251, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #af3afb;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #af3afb, #FB3AC6);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #af3afb, #FB3A96);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #af3afb;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #af3afb;
caret-color: #af3afb;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #af3afb;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #F5E6FE;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #af3afb;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#af3afb 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #af3afb 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, 58, 251, 0.5)
rgb(175 58 251 / 50%)
#af3afb80
hsl(276 96% 61% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #af3afb 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#af3afb1a#F7EBFF
20%#af3afb33#EFD8FE
40%#af3afb66#DFB0FD
60%#af3afb99#CF89FD
80%#af3afbcc#BF61FC

Gradients from #af3afb

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, #C776FC, #af3afb 45%, #4D037D);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #af3afb, #FA1CAB);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #af3afb, #86FB3A);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #D494FD 0%, #af3afb 45%, #4D037D 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%, #6F6CFC 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #FC58DD 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #4D037D 0%, transparent 65%), #af3afb;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #af3afb

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.

#af3afb 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 4.82:1.

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.

#af3afb, answered

What color is #af3afb?

#af3afb is a balanced electric violet, closest to Medium Orchid (ΔE2000 7.9). It sits at 276° on the hue wheel with 96% saturation and 61% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #af3afb?

rgb(175, 58, 251) — 175 red, 58 green and 251 blue out of 255, or 68.6% / 22.7% / 98.4% by channel.

What is #af3afb in HSL and HSV?

hsl(276, 96%, 61%) and hsv(276, 77%, 98%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #af3afb a light or a dark color?

It is a mid-tone. Relative luminance is 0.1911 and perceived brightness is 53%, so black text on it reaches 4.82:1.

Should I use black or white text on #af3afb?

Black. It scores 4.82:1 against #af3afb, versus 4.36:1 for white — AA at any size.

Is #af3afb accessible on a white background?

#af3afb on white scores 4.36:1, which only clears AA for large text — 18.66px bold or 24px regular and up. Darken it to #AB30FB to reach 4.5:1, or #8304D5 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #af3afb?

#86FB3A sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #E6FB3A and #3AFB4F, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #af3afb?

For interface work: #F8F4FA as the surface, #DBC0ED for borders, #7B4B9B for secondary text, #83CC00 as an accent and #4D037D for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #4F3AFB and #FB3AE6 stays calm, while #86FB3A is the loudest partner.

What is #af3afb in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(30%, 77%, 0%, 2%). 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 #af3afb 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 #F63AFB; nudged cooler, #6738FD.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #af3afb?

The purple family — its 500 step is #a855f7, ΔE2000 4.2 away. That is a visible difference, so define #af3afb as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #af3afb in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#af3afb] or text-[#af3afb], 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 #af3afb with 50% opacity?

rgba(175, 58, 251, 0.5), or #af3afb80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #D79DFD; over black, #581D7E.

Is #af3afb 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 #af3afb 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 #af3afb?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #C776FC, #af3afb 45%, #4D037D). For more colour, a short hue run to #FA1CAB keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #af3afb in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #af3afb at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.