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magenta / pink · neutral

#b494ac

a balanced, soft magenta / pink · neutral · closest name: Rosy Brown

Token name suggestion: True Fuchsia

RGB
180, 148, 172
HSL
315°, 18%, 64%
CMYK
0, 18, 4, 29
Luminance
0.3386

#b494ac is a balanced soft magenta / pink, 315° on the wheel and 46/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (7.77:1). As text it scores 2.70:1 on white — use #946889 instead. Nearest name is Rosy Brown, nearest Tailwind family is pink.

hsl(315 18% 64%)rgb(180 148 172)Base step 400AAA inkNeutral

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #b494ac is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#b494ac
Hue
315°
magenta / pink
Saturation
18%
soft
Lightness
64%
balanced
Brightness
71%
HSV value
Perceived
63%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.3386
WCAG relative
Temperature
Neutral
46/100 cool
Color family
Magenta / pink
Tone
Soft
Best ink
Black
7.77:1
Closest name
Rosy Brown
ΔE2000 10
Chroma
18.0
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.703
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
pink
500 · ΔE 19.7
Web-safe
#CC9999
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue315° of 360°
Saturation18%
Lightness64%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #b494ac.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool46% 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
Red29%
Green63%
Blue9%

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

Every format

HEX#b494ac
HEX (8-digit)#b494acff
RGBrgb(180, 148, 172)
RGBArgba(180, 148, 172, 1)
HSLhsl(315, 18%, 64%)
HSV / HSBhsv(315, 18%, 71%)
HWBhwb(315 58% 29%)
CMYKcmyk(0%, 18%, 4%, 29%)
LABlab(64.8 16.1 -8.0)
LCHlch(64.8 18.0 333.5)
OKLCHoklch(0.703 0.051 335.0)
XYZ (D65)xyz(36.86, 33.86, 43.62)
Decimal11834540
Display P3color(display-p3 0.706 0.580 0.675)
Web-safe#CC9999

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #b494ac;
background-color: #b494ac;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #b494ac;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#b494ac] bg-[#b494ac]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #b494ac;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.706, green: 0.580, blue: 0.675)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.706, green: 0.580, blue: 0.675, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#B494AC</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFB494AC)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFB494AC)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(172, 148, 180)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(180, 148, 172)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(180, 148, 172)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 180, 148, 172)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.7059f, 0.5804f, 0.6745f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{180,148,172}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #b494ac 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #b494ac 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#4B3545, #E6DBE3);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #b494ac 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: #F8F6F8;
  --brand-100: #F2EEF1;
  --brand-200: #E3D9E0;
  --brand-300: #D1BDCC;
  --brand-400: #b494ac;
  --brand-500: #A37B99;
  --brand-600: #906585;
  --brand-700: #78546F;
  --brand-800: #604359;
  --brand-900: #473342;
  --brand-950: #2C2029;
  --brand: #b494ac;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F9F6F8;
  --brand-border: #DDCFDA;
  --brand-hover: #A57F9C;
  --brand-pressed: #976A8B;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #21171F;
    --brand-ink: #E6DBE3;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F8F6F8',
        100: '#F2EEF1',
        200: '#E3D9E0',
        300: '#D1BDCC',
        400: '#b494ac',
        500: '#A37B99',
        600: '#906585',
        700: '#78546F',
        800: '#604359',
        900: '#473342',
        950: '#2C2029',
        DEFAULT: '#b494ac',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F8F6F8,
  '100': #F2EEF1,
  '200': #E3D9E0,
  '300': #D1BDCC,
  '400': #b494ac,
  '500': #A37B99,
  '600': #906585,
  '700': #78546F,
  '800': #604359,
  '900': #473342,
  '950': #2C2029,
);
$brand-base: #b494ac;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F8F6F8", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#F2EEF1", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#E3D9E0", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#D1BDCC", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#b494ac", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#A37B99", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#906585", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#78546F", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#604359", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#473342", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#2C2029", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #b494ac · 7.77:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 2.70:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 7.77:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #b494ac as text scores 2.70:1 on white and 7.77:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #4B3545 at 4.10:1.

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
#946889 · 4.56:1
AA on white−15% L
#946889
The quick fox
#704E67 · 7.06:1
AAA on white−27% L
#704E67
The quick fox
#b494ac · 7.77:1
AA on blackalready passes
#b494ac
The quick fox
#b494ac · 7.77:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#b494ac

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #AC88A3 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
#b494ac on white: 2.70:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#b494ac on black: 7.77:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #b494ac as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #b494ac.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White2.70:1AaAa
Slate 502.58:1AaAa
Slate 1002.47:1AaAa
Slate 2002.19:1AaAa
Slate 3001.82:1AaAa
Slate 4001.05:1AaAa
Slate 5001.76:1AaAa
Slate 6002.80:1AaAa
Slate 7003.83:1AaAa
Slate 8005.41:1AaAa
Slate 9006.61:1AaAa
Black7.77:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #949BAD
deuteranopia · #9B9FAB
tritanopia · #B8959C

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. #b494ac 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.

#F8F6F8
#F2EEF1
#E3D9E0
#D1BDCC
#b494ac
#A37B99
#906585
#78546F
#604359
#473342
#2C2029
Base = 400Lightest = 50 · #F8F6F8Darkest = 950 · #2C2029Text 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 0.013 335.0);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.020 335.0);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.030 335.0);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.039 335.0);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.046 335.0);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.051 335.0);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.051 335.0);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.047 335.0);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.042 335.0);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.035 335.0);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.028 335.0);
}

Colors that work with #b494ac

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#F9F6F8
Tinted page background
Border#DDCFDA
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#875F7D
Captions on the surface
Accent#507C50
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#4B3545
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#F4F0F3
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#21171F
Dark-mode background
Hover#A57F9C
One step down in lightness
Pressed#976A8B
Two steps down
Disabled#E2D6DF
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#C498B9
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 #b494ac

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

Works well for
  • Text and icons on dark surfaces
  • Charts, tags and secondary surfaces
  • Brand accents, badges and data highlights
  • Chart series and data categories
Use with care
  • Text of any size on white — fails WCAG AA
  • 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 #4B3545
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #AC88A3

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.

The muted chroma softens the association — it reads considered rather than loud, which suits long-form and data-heavy screens. The mid lightness keeps it versatile in both themes.

Worth knowing

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

Reads as
  • FormalityMedium
  • EnergyMedium
  • Weight36/100
  • 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#94B49C
Analogous left#AC94B4
Analogous right#B4949C
Split-complement 1#9CB494
Split-complement 2#94B4AC
Triadic 1#ACB494
Triadic 2#94ACB4
Tetradic#B4AC94
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°315°

#b494ac sits at 315°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red70.6%
Green58.0%
Blue67.5%
R · 0–255
180
0xb4
G · 0–255
148
0x94
B · 0–255
172
0xac

CMYK percentages

Cyan0.0%
Magenta17.8%
Yellow4.4%
Key (black)29.4%

Total ink coverage is 52%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#b494ac text on a black background

contrast 7.77:1

Card sample

#b494ac text on a white background

contrast 2.70:1

Card sample

#b494ac on grey

2.47:1

#b494ac on its own surface

2.52:1

#b494ac on its dark surface

6.44:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #b494ac;
Background color
Panel with #b494ac background
background-color: #b494ac;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #b494ac;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(180, 148, 172, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(180, 148, 172, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #b494ac;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #b494ac, #B49497);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #b494ac, #B49994);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #b494ac;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #b494ac;
caret-color: #b494ac;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #b494ac;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #F4F0F3;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #b494ac;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#b494ac 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #b494ac 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(180, 148, 172, 0.5)
rgb(180 148 172 / 50%)
#b494ac80
hsl(315 18% 64% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #b494ac 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#b494ac1a#F8F4F7
20%#b494ac33#F0EAEE
40%#b494ac66#E1D4DE
60%#b494ac99#D2BFCD
80%#b494accc#C3A9BD

Gradients from #b494ac

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, #CDB8C8, #b494ac 45%, #4B3545);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #b494ac, #A78282);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #b494ac, #94B49C);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #DACAD6 0%, #b494ac 45%, #4B3545 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F9F6F8, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #C1B2C9 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #C1A6AA 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #4B3545 0%, transparent 65%), #b494ac;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #b494ac

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.

#b494ac 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

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 7.77:1.

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.

#b494ac, answered

What color is #b494ac?

#b494ac is a balanced soft magenta / pink, closest to Rosy Brown (ΔE2000 10). It sits at 315° on the hue wheel with 18% saturation and 64% lightness, which reads as neutral.

What is the RGB value of #b494ac?

rgb(180, 148, 172) — 180 red, 148 green and 172 blue out of 255, or 70.6% / 58% / 67.5% by channel.

What is #b494ac in HSL and HSV?

hsl(315, 18%, 64%) and hsv(315, 18%, 71%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #b494ac a light or a dark color?

It is a mid-tone. Relative luminance is 0.3386 and perceived brightness is 63%, so black text on it reaches 7.77:1.

Should I use black or white text on #b494ac?

Black. It scores 7.77:1 against #b494ac, versus 2.70:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #b494ac accessible on a white background?

#b494ac on white scores 2.70:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #946889 to reach 4.5:1, or #704E67 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #b494ac?

#94B49C sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #9CB494 and #94B4AC, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #b494ac?

For interface work: #F9F6F8 as the surface, #DDCFDA for borders, #875F7D for secondary text, #507C50 as an accent and #4B3545 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #AC94B4 and #B4949C stays calm, while #94B49C is the loudest partner.

What is #b494ac in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(0%, 18%, 4%, 29%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #b494ac warm or cool?

Neutral — it scores 46 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #B494A0; nudged cooler, #B292B6.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #b494ac?

The pink family — its 500 step is #ec4899, ΔE2000 19.7 away. That is a visible difference, so define #b494ac as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #b494ac in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#b494ac] or text-[#b494ac], 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 #b494ac with 50% opacity?

rgba(180, 148, 172, 0.5), or #b494ac80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #DACAD6; over black, #5A4A56.

Is #b494ac a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #CC9999, ΔE2000 10.8 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #b494ac 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 moderate chroma the association is present but not shouted.

What gradient works with #b494ac?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #CDB8C8, #b494ac 45%, #4B3545). For more colour, a short hue run to #A78282 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #b494ac in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #b494ac at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.