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violet · cool

#afaabc

a light, muted violet · cool · closest name: Dark Gray

Token name suggestion: Morning Thistle

RGB
175, 170, 188
HSL
257°, 12%, 70%
CMYK
7, 10, 0, 26
Luminance
0.4149

#afaabc is a light muted violet, 257° on the wheel and 58/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (9.30:1). As text it scores 2.26:1 on white — use #79718F instead. Nearest name is Dark Gray, nearest Tailwind family is zinc.

hsl(257 12% 70%)rgb(175 170 188)Base step 400AAA inkCool

At a glance

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

Hex
#afaabc
Hue
257°
violet
Saturation
12%
muted
Lightness
70%
light
Brightness
74%
HSV value
Perceived
68%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.4149
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
58/100 cool
Color family
Violet
Tone
Muted
Best ink
Black
9.30:1
Closest name
Dark Gray
ΔE2000 9.3
Chroma
10.0
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.748
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
zinc
500 · ΔE 20.6
Web-safe
#9999CC
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue257° of 360°
Saturation12%
Lightness70%
Saturation × lightness field

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

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool58% 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
Red22%
Green69%
Blue9%

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

Every format

HEX#afaabc
HEX (8-digit)#afaabcff
RGBrgb(175, 170, 188)
RGBArgba(175, 170, 188, 1)
HSLhsl(257, 12%, 70%)
HSV / HSBhsv(257, 10%, 74%)
HWBhwb(257 67% 26%)
CMYKcmyk(7%, 10%, 0%, 26%)
LABlab(70.5 5.3 -8.6)
LCHlch(70.5 10.0 301.5)
OKLCHoklch(0.748 0.026 298.5)
XYZ (D65)xyz(41.13, 41.49, 53.41)
Decimal11512508
Display P3color(display-p3 0.686 0.667 0.737)
Web-safe#9999CC

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #afaabc;
background-color: #afaabc;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #afaabc;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#afaabc] bg-[#afaabc]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #afaabc;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.686, green: 0.667, blue: 0.737)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.686, green: 0.667, blue: 0.737, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#AFAABC</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFAFAABC)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFAFAABC)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(188, 170, 175)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(175, 170, 188)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(175, 170, 188)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 175, 170, 188)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.6863f, 0.6667f, 0.7373f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{175,170,188}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #afaabc 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #afaabc 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#3C3847, #DFDDE4);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #afaabc 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: #F7F7F8;
  --brand-100: #EFEEF1;
  --brand-200: #DCDAE1;
  --brand-300: #C4C0CE;
  --brand-400: #afaabc;
  --brand-500: #89829C;
  --brand-600: #746C89;
  --brand-700: #615A72;
  --brand-800: #4D485B;
  --brand-900: #3A3744;
  --brand-950: #24222A;
  --brand: #afaabc;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F7F6F8;
  --brand-border: #D4D1DB;
  --brand-hover: #9C96AC;
  --brand-pressed: #89829C;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #1B191F;
    --brand-ink: #DFDDE4;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F7F7F8',
        100: '#EFEEF1',
        200: '#DCDAE1',
        300: '#C4C0CE',
        400: '#afaabc',
        500: '#89829C',
        600: '#746C89',
        700: '#615A72',
        800: '#4D485B',
        900: '#3A3744',
        950: '#24222A',
        DEFAULT: '#afaabc',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F7F7F8,
  '100': #EFEEF1,
  '200': #DCDAE1,
  '300': #C4C0CE,
  '400': #afaabc,
  '500': #89829C,
  '600': #746C89,
  '700': #615A72,
  '800': #4D485B,
  '900': #3A3744,
  '950': #24222A,
);
$brand-base: #afaabc;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F7F7F8", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#EFEEF1", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#DCDAE1", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#C4C0CE", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#afaabc", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#89829C", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#746C89", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#615A72", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#4D485B", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#3A3744", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#24222A", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #afaabc · 9.30:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 2.26:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 9.30:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #afaabc as text scores 2.26:1 on white and 9.30:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #3C3847 at 5.03:1.

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
#79718F · 4.59:1
AA on white−20% L
#79718F
The quick fox
#5A546A · 7.21:1
AAA on white−33% L
#5A546A
The quick fox
#afaabc · 9.30:1
AA on blackalready passes
#afaabc
The quick fox
#afaabc · 9.30:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#afaabc

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #9790A8 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
#afaabc on white: 2.26:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#afaabc on black: 9.30:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

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

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White2.26:1AaAa
Slate 502.16:1AaAa
Slate 1002.06:1AaAa
Slate 2001.83:1AaAa
Slate 3001.52:1AaAa
Slate 4001.14:1AaAa
Slate 5002.11:1AaAa
Slate 6003.36:1AaAa
Slate 7004.59:1AaAa
Slate 8006.48:1AaAa
Slate 9007.91:1AaAa
Black9.30:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #A7ACBD
deuteranopia · #A7ACBB
tritanopia · #ADACB0

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. #afaabc is pinned to step 400; the rest hold its hue and let saturation ease off at the extremes so the pale end never turns neon.

#F7F7F8
#EFEEF1
#DCDAE1
#C4C0CE
#afaabc
#89829C
#746C89
#615A72
#4D485B
#3A3744
#24222A
Base = 400Lightest = 50 · #F7F7F8Darkest = 950 · #24222AText 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 0.007 298.5);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.010 298.5);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.016 298.5);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.020 298.5);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.024 298.5);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.026 298.5);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.026 298.5);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.025 298.5);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.022 298.5);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.018 298.5);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.014 298.5);
}

Colors that work with #afaabc

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#F7F6F8
Tinted page background
Border#D4D1DB
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#6D6580
Captions on the surface
Accent#757656
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#3C3847
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#F2F1F4
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#1B191F
Dark-mode background
Hover#9C96AC
One step down in lightness
Pressed#89829C
Two steps down
Disabled#EAE9ED
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#B7AFCC
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 #afaabc

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

Works well for
  • Text and icons on dark surfaces
  • Borders, dividers and quiet backgrounds
  • Long-form reading surfaces
  • Card and section backgrounds
  • Brand accents, badges and data highlights
Use with care
  • Text of any size on white — fails WCAG AA
  • 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 #3C3847
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #9790A8

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.

With almost no chroma left, the family association is barely present; treat it as a neutral that happens to lean this way. 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
  • FormalityMedium
  • EnergyLow
  • Weight30/100
  • 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#B7BCAA
Analogous left#AAAEBC
Analogous right#B8AABC
Split-complement 1#BCB8AA
Split-complement 2#AEBCAA
Triadic 1#BCAFAA
Triadic 2#AABCAF
Tetradic#BCAAAE
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°257°

#afaabc sits at 257°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red68.6%
Green66.7%
Blue73.7%
R · 0–255
175
0xaf
G · 0–255
170
0xaa
B · 0–255
188
0xbc

CMYK percentages

Cyan6.9%
Magenta9.6%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)26.3%

Total ink coverage is 43%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#afaabc text on a black background

contrast 9.30:1

Card sample

#afaabc text on a white background

contrast 2.26:1

Card sample

#afaabc on grey

2.06:1

#afaabc on its own surface

2.10:1

#afaabc on its dark surface

7.71:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

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

Glowing headline

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

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(175, 170, 188, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(175, 170, 188, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #afaabc;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #afaabc, #BBAABC);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #afaabc, #BCAAB8);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #afaabc;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #afaabc;
caret-color: #afaabc;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #afaabc;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #F2F1F4;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #afaabc;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#afaabc 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #afaabc 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, 170, 188, 0.5)
rgb(175 170 188 / 50%)
#afaabc80
hsl(257 12% 70% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #afaabc 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#afaabc1a#F7F7F8
20%#afaabc33#EFEEF2
40%#afaabc66#DFDDE4
60%#afaabc99#CFCCD7
80%#afaabccc#BFBBC9

Gradients from #afaabc

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, #CFCCD7, #afaabc 45%, #3C3847);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #afaabc, #AE99AE);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #afaabc, #B7BCAA);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #DFDDE4 0%, #afaabc 45%, #3C3847 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F7F6F8, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #C7CAD2 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #C7BBC9 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #3C3847 0%, transparent 65%), #afaabc;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #afaabc

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.

#afaabc 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
BackgroundsBordersBody textDividers
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

Usable as-is on a dark surface at 9.30:1.

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.

#afaabc, answered

What color is #afaabc?

#afaabc is a light muted violet, closest to Dark Gray (ΔE2000 9.3). It sits at 257° on the hue wheel with 12% saturation and 70% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #afaabc?

rgb(175, 170, 188) — 175 red, 170 green and 188 blue out of 255, or 68.6% / 66.7% / 73.7% by channel.

What is #afaabc in HSL and HSV?

hsl(257, 12%, 70%) and hsv(257, 10%, 74%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #afaabc a light or a dark color?

It is a mid-tone. Relative luminance is 0.4149 and perceived brightness is 68%, so black text on it reaches 9.30:1.

Should I use black or white text on #afaabc?

Black. It scores 9.30:1 against #afaabc, versus 2.26:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #afaabc accessible on a white background?

#afaabc on white scores 2.26:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #79718F to reach 4.5:1, or #5A546A for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #afaabc?

#B7BCAA sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #BCB8AA and #AEBCAA, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #afaabc?

For interface work: #F7F6F8 as the surface, #D4D1DB for borders, #6D6580 for secondary text, #757656 as an accent and #3C3847 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #AAAEBC and #B8AABC stays calm, while #B7BCAA is the loudest partner.

What is #afaabc in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(7%, 10%, 0%, 26%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #afaabc warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 58 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #B6AABC; nudged cooler, #A9AABD.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #afaabc?

The zinc family — its 500 step is #71717a, ΔE2000 20.6 away. That is a visible difference, so define #afaabc as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #afaabc in Tailwind CSS?

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

rgba(175, 170, 188, 0.5), or #afaabc80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #D7D5DE; over black, #58555E.

Is #afaabc a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #9999CC, ΔE2000 11.4 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #afaabc 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 low chroma the association is faint; it behaves more like a neutral.

What gradient works with #afaabc?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #CFCCD7, #afaabc 45%, #3C3847). For more colour, a short hue run to #AE99AE keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #afaabc in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

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