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violet · cool

#b187cd

a light, soft violet · cool · closest name: Orchid

Token name suggestion: Linen Plum

RGB
177, 135, 205
HSL
276°, 41%, 67%
CMYK
14, 34, 0, 20
Luminance
0.3108

#b187cd is a light soft violet, 276° on the wheel and 63/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (7.22:1). As text it scores 2.91:1 on white — use #955CBB instead. Nearest name is Orchid, nearest Tailwind family is fuchsia.

hsl(276 41% 67%)rgb(177 135 205)Base step 400AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #b187cd is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#b187cd
Hue
276°
violet
Saturation
41%
soft
Lightness
67%
light
Brightness
80%
HSV value
Perceived
62%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.3108
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
63/100 cool
Color family
Violet
Tone
Soft
Best ink
Black
7.22:1
Closest name
Orchid
ΔE2000 9.6
Chroma
41.8
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.689
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
fuchsia
500 · ΔE 14.7
Web-safe
#9999CC
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue276° of 360°
Saturation41%
Lightness67%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #b187cd.

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
Red30%
Green56%
Blue14%

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

Every format

HEX#b187cd
HEX (8-digit)#b187cdff
RGBrgb(177, 135, 205)
RGBArgba(177, 135, 205, 1)
HSLhsl(276, 41%, 67%)
HSV / HSBhsv(276, 34%, 80%)
HWBhwb(276 53% 20%)
CMYKcmyk(14%, 34%, 0%, 20%)
LABlab(62.6 29.0 -30.1)
LCHlch(62.6 41.8 314.0)
OKLCHoklch(0.689 0.110 311.1)
XYZ (D65)xyz(37.81, 31.08, 61.75)
Decimal11634637
Display P3color(display-p3 0.694 0.529 0.804)
Web-safe#9999CC

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #b187cd;
background-color: #b187cd;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #b187cd;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#b187cd] bg-[#b187cd]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #b187cd;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.694, green: 0.529, blue: 0.804)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.694, green: 0.529, blue: 0.804, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#B187CD</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFB187CD)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFB187CD)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(205, 135, 177)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(177, 135, 205)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(177, 135, 205)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 177, 135, 205)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.6941f, 0.5294f, 0.8039f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{177,135,205}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #b187cd 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #b187cd 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#45255A, #E3D4ED);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #b187cd 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: #F8F5FA;
  --brand-100: #F1EBF5;
  --brand-200: #E0D2EA;
  --brand-300: #CCB0DE;
  --brand-400: #b187cd;
  --brand-500: #9861BD;
  --brand-600: #8448AD;
  --brand-700: #6E3C90;
  --brand-800: #583073;
  --brand-900: #422654;
  --brand-950: #291835;
  --brand: #b187cd;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F8F4FA;
  --brand-border: #DAC5E7;
  --brand-hover: #A16EC3;
  --brand-pressed: #9055B8;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #1E1424;
    --brand-ink: #E3D4ED;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F8F5FA',
        100: '#F1EBF5',
        200: '#E0D2EA',
        300: '#CCB0DE',
        400: '#b187cd',
        500: '#9861BD',
        600: '#8448AD',
        700: '#6E3C90',
        800: '#583073',
        900: '#422654',
        950: '#291835',
        DEFAULT: '#b187cd',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F8F5FA,
  '100': #F1EBF5,
  '200': #E0D2EA,
  '300': #CCB0DE,
  '400': #b187cd,
  '500': #9861BD,
  '600': #8448AD,
  '700': #6E3C90,
  '800': #583073,
  '900': #422654,
  '950': #291835,
);
$brand-base: #b187cd;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F8F5FA", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#F1EBF5", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#E0D2EA", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#CCB0DE", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#b187cd", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#9861BD", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#8448AD", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#6E3C90", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#583073", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#422654", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#291835", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #b187cd · 7.22:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 2.91:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 7.22:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #b187cd as text scores 2.91:1 on white and 7.22:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #45255A at 4.33:1.

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
#955CBB · 4.64:1
AA on white−12% L
#955CBB
The quick fox
#76409A · 7.07:1
AAA on white−24% L
#76409A
The quick fox
#b187cd · 7.22:1
AA on blackalready passes
#b187cd
The quick fox
#b187cd · 7.22:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#b187cd

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #AF83CC 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
#b187cd on white: 2.91:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#b187cd on black: 7.22:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #b187cd as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #b187cd.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White2.91:1AaAa
Slate 502.78:1AaAa
Slate 1002.66:1AaAa
Slate 2002.36:1AaAa
Slate 3001.96:1AaAa
Slate 4001.13:1AaAa
Slate 5001.64:1AaAa
Slate 6002.60:1AaAa
Slate 7003.56:1AaAa
Slate 8005.03:1AaAa
Slate 9006.13:1AaAa
Black7.22:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #7B95D0
deuteranopia · #8498CB
tritanopia · #AE91A1

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. #b187cd 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.

#F8F5FA
#F1EBF5
#E0D2EA
#CCB0DE
#b187cd
#9861BD
#8448AD
#6E3C90
#583073
#422654
#291835
Base = 400Lightest = 50 · #F8F5FADarkest = 950 · #291835Text 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 0.027 311.1);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.044 311.1);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.066 311.1);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.086 311.1);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.101 311.1);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.110 311.1);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.110 311.1);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.103 311.1);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.092 311.1);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.077 311.1);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.060 311.1);
}

Colors that work with #b187cd

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#DAC5E7
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#7B4B9B
Captions on the surface
Accent#749438
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#45255A
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#F3EDF8
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#1E1424
Dark-mode background
Hover#A16EC3
One step down in lightness
Pressed#9055B8
Two steps down
Disabled#E3DCE9
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#BC8EDB
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 #b187cd

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

Works well for
  • Text and icons on dark surfaces
  • Charts, tags and secondary 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 #45255A
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #AF83CC

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.

The muted chroma softens the association — it reads considered rather than loud, which suits long-form and data-heavy screens. 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
  • EnergyMedium
  • Weight33/100
  • 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#A3CD87
Analogous left#8E87CD
Analogous right#CD87C6
Split-complement 1#C6CD87
Split-complement 2#87CD8E
Triadic 1#CDB187
Triadic 2#87CDB1
Tetradic#CD8E87
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°276°

#b187cd sits at 276°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red69.4%
Green52.9%
Blue80.4%
R · 0–255
177
0xb1
G · 0–255
135
0x87
B · 0–255
205
0xcd

CMYK percentages

Cyan13.7%
Magenta34.1%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)19.6%

Total ink coverage is 67%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#b187cd text on a black background

contrast 7.22:1

Card sample

#b187cd text on a white background

contrast 2.91:1

Card sample

#b187cd on grey

2.66:1

#b187cd on its own surface

2.68:1

#b187cd on its dark surface

6.11:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #b187cd;
Background color
Panel with #b187cd background
background-color: #b187cd;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #b187cd;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(177, 135, 205, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(177, 135, 205, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #b187cd;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #b187cd, #CD87BA);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #b187cd, #CD87A9);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #b187cd;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #b187cd;
caret-color: #b187cd;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #b187cd;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #F3EDF8;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #b187cd;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#b187cd 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #b187cd 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(177, 135, 205, 0.5)
rgb(177 135 205 / 50%)
#b187cd80
hsl(276 41% 67% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #b187cd 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#b187cd1a#F7F3FA
20%#b187cd33#EFE7F5
40%#b187cd66#E0CFEB
60%#b187cd99#D0B7E1
80%#b187cdcc#C19FD7

Gradients from #b187cd

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, #CDB2DF, #b187cd 45%, #45255A);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #b187cd, #C471A7);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #b187cd, #A3CD87);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #DBC8E8 0%, #b187cd 45%, #45255A 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%, #ACABDC 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #D69DCC 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #45255A 0%, transparent 65%), #b187cd;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #b187cd

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.

#b187cd 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

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 7.22:1.

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.

#b187cd, answered

What color is #b187cd?

#b187cd is a light soft violet, closest to Orchid (ΔE2000 9.6). It sits at 276° on the hue wheel with 41% saturation and 67% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #b187cd?

rgb(177, 135, 205) — 177 red, 135 green and 205 blue out of 255, or 69.4% / 52.9% / 80.4% by channel.

What is #b187cd in HSL and HSV?

hsl(276, 41%, 67%) and hsv(276, 34%, 80%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #b187cd a light or a dark color?

It is a mid-tone. Relative luminance is 0.3108 and perceived brightness is 62%, so black text on it reaches 7.22:1.

Should I use black or white text on #b187cd?

Black. It scores 7.22:1 against #b187cd, versus 2.91:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #b187cd accessible on a white background?

#b187cd on white scores 2.91:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #955CBB to reach 4.5:1, or #76409A for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #b187cd?

#A3CD87 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #C6CD87 and #87CD8E, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #b187cd?

For interface work: #F8F4FA as the surface, #DAC5E7 for borders, #7B4B9B for secondary text, #749438 as an accent and #45255A for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #8E87CD and #CD87C6 stays calm, while #A3CD87 is the loudest partner.

What is #b187cd in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(14%, 34%, 0%, 20%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #b187cd 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 #CB87CD; nudged cooler, #9785CF.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #b187cd?

The fuchsia family — its 500 step is #d946ef, ΔE2000 14.7 away. That is a visible difference, so define #b187cd as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #b187cd in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#b187cd] or text-[#b187cd], 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 #b187cd with 50% opacity?

rgba(177, 135, 205, 0.5), or #b187cd80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #D8C3E6; over black, #594467.

Is #b187cd a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #9999CC, ΔE2000 10.1 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #b187cd 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 moderate chroma the association is present but not shouted.

What gradient works with #b187cd?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #CDB2DF, #b187cd 45%, #45255A). For more colour, a short hue run to #C471A7 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #b187cd in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #b187cd at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.