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magenta / pink · neutral

#b201ba

a dark, electric magenta / pink · neutral · closest name: Dark Orchid

Token name suggestion: Forest Blossom

RGB
178, 1, 186
HSL
297°, 99%, 37%
CMYK
4, 100, 0, 27
Luminance
0.1303

#b201ba is a dark electric magenta / pink, 297° on the wheel and 51/100 on the cool side. Put white text on it (5.82:1). As text it scores 5.82:1 on white — safe at any size. Nearest name is Dark Orchid, nearest Tailwind family is purple.

hsl(297 99% 37%)rgb(178 1 186)Base step 700AA inkNeutral

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #b201ba is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#b201ba
Hue
297°
magenta / pink
Saturation
99%
electric
Lightness
37%
dark
Brightness
73%
HSV value
Perceived
45%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.1303
WCAG relative
Temperature
Neutral
51/100 cool
Color family
Magenta / pink
Tone
Electric
Best ink
White
5.82:1
Closest name
Dark Orchid
ΔE2000 6
Chroma
91.2
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.541
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
purple
500 · ΔE 14.2
Web-safe
#9900CC
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue297° of 360°
Saturation99%
Lightness37%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #b201ba.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool51% cool

Reads neutral. Warm and cool siblings keep the same lightness, so you can swap one in without redoing your contrast maths.

Luminance by channel
Red73%
Green0%
Blue27%

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

Every format

HEX#b201ba
HEX (8-digit)#b201baff
RGBrgb(178, 1, 186)
RGBArgba(178, 1, 186, 1)
HSLhsl(297, 99%, 37%)
HSV / HSBhsv(297, 99%, 73%)
HWBhwb(297 0% 27%)
CMYKcmyk(4%, 100%, 0%, 27%)
LABlab(42.8 76.1 -50.3)
LCHlch(42.8 91.2 326.5)
OKLCHoklch(0.541 0.251 326.0)
XYZ (D65)xyz(27.23, 13.03, 47.53)
Decimal11665850
Display P3color(display-p3 0.698 0.004 0.729)
Web-safe#9900CC

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #b201ba;
background-color: #b201ba;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #b201ba;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#b201ba] bg-[#b201ba]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #b201ba;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.698, green: 0.004, blue: 0.729)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.698, green: 0.004, blue: 0.729, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#B201BA</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFB201BA)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFB201BA)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(186, 1, 178)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(178, 1, 186)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(178, 1, 186)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 178, 1, 186)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.6980f, 0.0039f, 0.7294f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{178,1,186}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #b201ba 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #b201ba 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#79017F, #EDD3EE);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #b201ba 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: #FDF1FE;
  --brand-100: #FBE3FC;
  --brand-200: #F9C0FB;
  --brand-300: #FA8FFE;
  --brand-400: #F758FE;
  --brand-500: #F420FE;
  --brand-600: #E901F3;
  --brand-700: #b201ba;
  --brand-800: #9B01A2;
  --brand-900: #700675;
  --brand-950: #460349;
  --brand: #b201ba;
  --brand-ink: #ffffff;
  --brand-surface: #FAF4FA;
  --brand-border: #EBC0ED;
  --brand-hover: #900197;
  --brand-pressed: #6E0173;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #241424;
    --brand-ink: #EDD3EE;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#FDF1FE',
        100: '#FBE3FC',
        200: '#F9C0FB',
        300: '#FA8FFE',
        400: '#F758FE',
        500: '#F420FE',
        600: '#E901F3',
        700: '#b201ba',
        800: '#9B01A2',
        900: '#700675',
        950: '#460349',
        DEFAULT: '#b201ba',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #FDF1FE,
  '100': #FBE3FC,
  '200': #F9C0FB,
  '300': #FA8FFE,
  '400': #F758FE,
  '500': #F420FE,
  '600': #E901F3,
  '700': #b201ba,
  '800': #9B01A2,
  '900': #700675,
  '950': #460349,
);
$brand-base: #b201ba;
$brand-ink: #ffffff;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#FDF1FE", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#FBE3FC", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#F9C0FB", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#FA8FFE", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#F758FE", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#F420FE", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#E901F3", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#b201ba", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#9B01A2", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#700675", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#460349", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #b201ba · 5.82:1
Use #ffffffAA at every size, AAA for large text only.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 5.82:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 3.61:1
AA fail · AA large pass · AAA fail
Reading the other direction: #b201ba as text scores 5.82:1 on white and 3.61:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #FEE6FF at 4.98:1.

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
#b201ba · 5.82:1
AA on whitealready passes
#b201ba
The quick fox
#9A01A1 · 7.26:1
AAA on white−5% L
#9A01A1
The quick fox
#CF01D9 · 4.66:1
AA on black+6% L
#CF01D9
The quick fox
#F63DFE · 7.02:1
AAA on black+25% L
#F63DFE

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #B201BA 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
#b201ba on white: 5.82:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#b201ba on black: 3.61:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #b201ba as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #b201ba.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White5.82:1AaAa
Slate 505.57:1AaAa
Slate 1005.32:1AaAa
Slate 2004.72:1AaAa
Slate 3003.92:1AaAa
Slate 4002.27:1AaAa
Slate 5001.22:1AaAa
Slate 6001.30:1AaAa
Slate 7001.78:1AaAa
Slate 8002.51:1AaAa
Slate 9003.07:1AaAa
Black3.61:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #0059BE
deuteranopia · #406BB6
tritanopia · #B7376D

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. #b201ba is pinned to step 700; the rest hold its hue and let saturation ease off at the extremes so the pale end never turns neon.

#FDF1FE
#FBE3FC
#F9C0FB
#FA8FFE
#F758FE
#F420FE
#E901F3
#b201ba
#9B01A2
#700675
#460349
Base = 700Lightest = 50 · #FDF1FEDarkest = 950 · #460349Text step on white = 700
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 0.063 326.0);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.101 326.0);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.151 326.0);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.196 326.0);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.231 326.0);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.251 326.0);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.251 326.0);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.236 326.0);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.211 326.0);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.176 326.0);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.138 326.0);
}

Colors that work with #b201ba

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#FAF4FA
Tinted page background
Border#EBC0ED
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#974B9B
Captions on the surface
Accent#3CCC00
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#79017F
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#FEE6FF
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#241424
Dark-mode background
Hover#900197
One step down in lightness
Pressed#6E0173
Two steps down
Disabled#AB7FAD
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#C700D0
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 #b201ba

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
  • Headers, footers and dark-mode surfaces
  • Brand accents, badges and data highlights
Use with care
  • Full-page backgrounds — tiring over long sessions
  • Black text placed on it
  • 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.

expressiveyouthfulwarmconfident

Pink is the fastest way to signal that a product is not another enterprise dashboard. It carries beauty, fashion and culture brands.

At this chroma the association is amplified — it will dominate anything placed beside it, so give it space and use it sparingly. The low lightness adds weight and formality.

Worth knowing

Strong gendered associations in some markets — test it with the audience you actually have.

Reads as
  • FormalityHigh
  • EnergyHigh
  • Weight63/100
  • TemperatureNeutral
  • 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#09BA01
Analogous left#5601BA
Analogous right#BA0166
Split-complement 1#66BA01
Split-complement 2#01BA56
Triadic 1#BAB201
Triadic 2#01BAB2
Tetradic#BA5601
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°297°

#b201ba sits at 297°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red69.8%
Green0.4%
Blue72.9%
R · 0–255
178
0xb2
G · 0–255
1
0x01
B · 0–255
186
0xba

CMYK percentages

Cyan4.3%
Magenta99.5%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)27.1%

Total ink coverage is 131%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#b201ba text on a black background

contrast 3.61:1

Card sample

#b201ba text on a white background

contrast 5.82:1

Card sample

#b201ba on grey

5.32:1

#b201ba on its own surface

5.38:1

#b201ba on its dark surface

3.00:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #b201ba;
Background color
Panel with #b201ba background
background-color: #b201ba;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #b201ba;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(178, 1, 186, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(178, 1, 186, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #b201ba;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #b201ba, #BA0147);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #b201ba, #BA0118);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #b201ba;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #b201ba;
caret-color: #b201ba;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #b201ba;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #FEE6FF;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #b201ba;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#b201ba 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #b201ba 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(178, 1, 186, 0.5)
rgb(178 1 186 / 50%)
#b201ba80
hsl(297 99% 37% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #b201ba 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#b201ba1a#F7E6F8
20%#b201ba33#F0CCF1
40%#b201ba66#E099E3
60%#b201ba99#D167D6
80%#b201bacc#C134C8

Gradients from #b201ba

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, #EC01F7, #b201ba 45%, #79017F);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #b201ba, #9C012E);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #b201ba, #09BA01);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #F419FE 0%, #b201ba 45%, #79017F 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #FAF4FA, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #5901ED 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #D90164 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #79017F 0%, transparent 65%), #b201ba;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #b201ba

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.

#b201ba in the real world

Where a color in this family tends to land, and the interface roles it is usually asked to play.

Industries
BeautyFashionLifestyleYouth brands
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

Too dim on dark surfaces at 3.61:1 — lift it to #CF01D9 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.

#b201ba, answered

What color is #b201ba?

#b201ba is a dark electric magenta / pink, closest to Dark Orchid (ΔE2000 6). It sits at 297° on the hue wheel with 99% saturation and 37% lightness, which reads as neutral.

What is the RGB value of #b201ba?

rgb(178, 1, 186) — 178 red, 1 green and 186 blue out of 255, or 69.8% / 0.4% / 72.9% by channel.

What is #b201ba in HSL and HSV?

hsl(297, 99%, 37%) and hsv(297, 99%, 73%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #b201ba a light or a dark color?

It is a dark color. Relative luminance is 0.1303 and perceived brightness is 45%, so white text on it reaches 5.82:1.

Should I use black or white text on #b201ba?

White. It scores 5.82:1 against #b201ba, versus 3.61:1 for black — AA at any size.

Is #b201ba accessible on a white background?

#b201ba on white scores 5.82:1, which clears AA at every size but not AAA.

What is the complementary color of #b201ba?

#09BA01 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #66BA01 and #01BA56, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #b201ba?

For interface work: #FAF4FA as the surface, #EBC0ED for borders, #974B9B for secondary text, #3CCC00 as an accent and #79017F for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #5601BA and #BA0166 stays calm, while #09BA01 is the loudest partner.

What is #b201ba in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(4%, 100%, 0%, 27%). 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 #b201ba warm or cool?

Neutral — it scores 51 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #BA017E; nudged cooler, #6E00BB.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #b201ba?

The purple family — its 500 step is #a855f7, ΔE2000 14.2 away. That is a visible difference, so define #b201ba as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #b201ba in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#b201ba] or text-[#b201ba], 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 #b201ba with 50% opacity?

rgba(178, 1, 186, 0.5), or #b201ba80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #D980DD; over black, #59015D.

Is #b201ba a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #9900CC, ΔE2000 5.9 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #b201ba mean?

As a magenta / pink, it reads expressive, youthful, warm. Pink is the fastest way to signal that a product is not another enterprise dashboard. It carries beauty, fashion and culture brands. At this chroma the effect is amplified — it will dominate whatever sits beside it.

What gradient works with #b201ba?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #EC01F7, #b201ba 45%, #79017F). For more colour, a short hue run to #9C012E keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #b201ba in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #b201ba at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.