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violet · cool

#bba9cb

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

Token name suggestion: Meadow Amethyst

RGB
187, 169, 203
HSL
272°, 25%, 73%
CMYK
8, 17, 0, 20
Luminance
0.4325

#bba9cb is a light soft violet, 272° on the wheel and 61/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (9.65:1). As text it scores 2.18:1 on white — use #8969A4 instead. Nearest name is Thistle, nearest Tailwind family is zinc.

hsl(272 25% 73%)rgb(187 169 203)Base step 300AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #bba9cb is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#bba9cb
Hue
272°
violet
Saturation
25%
soft
Lightness
73%
light
Brightness
80%
HSV value
Perceived
70%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.4325
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
61/100 cool
Color family
Violet
Tone
Soft
Best ink
Black
9.65:1
Closest name
Thistle
ΔE2000 7.2
Chroma
19.7
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.761
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
zinc
500 · ΔE 24
Web-safe
#CC99CC
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue272° of 360°
Saturation25%
Lightness73%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #bba9cb.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool61% 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
Red24%
Green66%
Blue10%

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

Every format

HEX#bba9cb
HEX (8-digit)#bba9cbff
RGBrgb(187, 169, 203)
RGBArgba(187, 169, 203, 1)
HSLhsl(272, 25%, 73%)
HSV / HSBhsv(272, 17%, 80%)
HWBhwb(272 66% 20%)
CMYKcmyk(8%, 17%, 0%, 20%)
LABlab(71.7 12.9 -14.9)
LCHlch(71.7 19.7 310.8)
OKLCHoklch(0.761 0.052 308.9)
XYZ (D65)xyz(45.46, 43.25, 62.44)
Decimal12298699
Display P3color(display-p3 0.733 0.663 0.796)
Web-safe#CC99CC

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #bba9cb;
background-color: #bba9cb;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #bba9cb;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#bba9cb] bg-[#bba9cb]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #bba9cb;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.733, green: 0.663, blue: 0.796)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.733, green: 0.663, blue: 0.796, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#BBA9CB</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFBBA9CB)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFBBA9CB)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(203, 169, 187)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(187, 169, 203)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(187, 169, 203)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 187, 169, 203)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.7333f, 0.6627f, 0.7961f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{187,169,203}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #bba9cb 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #bba9cb 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#41304F, #E1D9E8);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #bba9cb 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: #F7F6F9;
  --brand-100: #F0EDF3;
  --brand-200: #DED7E5;
  --brand-300: #bba9cb;
  --brand-400: #AC96C0;
  --brand-500: #9073AA;
  --brand-600: #7C5C99;
  --brand-700: #684D7F;
  --brand-800: #533E66;
  --brand-900: #3E2F4B;
  --brand-950: #271E2F;
  --brand: #bba9cb;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F7F5F9;
  --brand-border: #D7CCE0;
  --brand-hover: #A993BD;
  --brand-pressed: #987CB0;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #1C1523;
    --brand-ink: #E1D9E8;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F7F6F9',
        100: '#F0EDF3',
        200: '#DED7E5',
        300: '#bba9cb',
        400: '#AC96C0',
        500: '#9073AA',
        600: '#7C5C99',
        700: '#684D7F',
        800: '#533E66',
        900: '#3E2F4B',
        950: '#271E2F',
        DEFAULT: '#bba9cb',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F7F6F9,
  '100': #F0EDF3,
  '200': #DED7E5,
  '300': #bba9cb,
  '400': #AC96C0,
  '500': #9073AA,
  '600': #7C5C99,
  '700': #684D7F,
  '800': #533E66,
  '900': #3E2F4B,
  '950': #271E2F,
);
$brand-base: #bba9cb;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F7F6F9", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#F0EDF3", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#DED7E5", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#bba9cb", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#AC96C0", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#9073AA", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#7C5C99", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#684D7F", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#533E66", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#3E2F4B", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#271E2F", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #bba9cb · 9.65:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 2.18:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 9.65:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #bba9cb as text scores 2.18:1 on white and 9.65:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #41304F at 5.48:1.

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
#8969A4 · 4.55:1
AA on white−20% L
#8969A4
The quick fox
#674D7F · 7.13:1
AAA on white−33% L
#674D7F
The quick fox
#bba9cb · 9.65:1
AA on blackalready passes
#bba9cb
The quick fox
#bba9cb · 9.65:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#bba9cb

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #A289B8 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
#bba9cb on white: 2.18:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#bba9cb on black: 9.65:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #bba9cb as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #bba9cb.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White2.18:1AaAa
Slate 502.08:1AaAa
Slate 1001.99:1AaAa
Slate 2001.77:1AaAa
Slate 3001.47:1AaAa
Slate 4001.18:1AaAa
Slate 5002.19:1AaAa
Slate 6003.48:1AaAa
Slate 7004.76:1AaAa
Slate 8006.72:1AaAa
Slate 9008.20:1AaAa
Black9.65:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #A4AFCD
deuteranopia · #A7B0CA
tritanopia · #B9ADB4

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. #bba9cb is pinned to step 300; the rest hold its hue and let saturation ease off at the extremes so the pale end never turns neon.

#F7F6F9
#F0EDF3
#DED7E5
#bba9cb
#AC96C0
#9073AA
#7C5C99
#684D7F
#533E66
#3E2F4B
#271E2F
Base = 300Lightest = 50 · #F7F6F9Darkest = 950 · #271E2FText 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 0.013 308.9);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.021 308.9);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.031 308.9);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.040 308.9);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.048 308.9);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.052 308.9);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.052 308.9);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.049 308.9);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.043 308.9);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.036 308.9);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.028 308.9);
}

Colors that work with #bba9cb

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#F7F5F9
Tinted page background
Border#D7CCE0
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#74578F
Captions on the surface
Accent#738448
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#41304F
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#F2EFF5
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#1C1523
Dark-mode background
Hover#A993BD
One step down in lightness
Pressed#987CB0
Two steps down
Disabled#F2EFF5
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#C5B0D8
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 #bba9cb

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 #41304F
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #A289B8

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
  • Weight27/100
  • 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#B9CBA9
Analogous left#AAA9CB
Analogous right#CBA9CA
Split-complement 1#CACBA9
Split-complement 2#A9CBAA
Triadic 1#CBBBA9
Triadic 2#A9CBBB
Tetradic#CBAAA9
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°272°

#bba9cb sits at 272°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red73.3%
Green66.3%
Blue79.6%
R · 0–255
187
0xbb
G · 0–255
169
0xa9
B · 0–255
203
0xcb

CMYK percentages

Cyan7.9%
Magenta16.7%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)20.4%

Total ink coverage is 45%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#bba9cb text on a black background

contrast 9.65:1

Card sample

#bba9cb text on a white background

contrast 2.18:1

Card sample

#bba9cb on grey

1.99:1

#bba9cb on its own surface

2.01:1

#bba9cb on its dark surface

8.17:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #bba9cb;
Background color
Panel with #bba9cb background
background-color: #bba9cb;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #bba9cb;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(187, 169, 203, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(187, 169, 203, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #bba9cb;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #bba9cb, #CBA9C4);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #bba9cb, #CBA9BC);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #bba9cb;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #bba9cb;
caret-color: #bba9cb;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #bba9cb;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #F2EFF5;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #bba9cb;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#bba9cb 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #bba9cb 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(187, 169, 203, 0.5)
rgb(187 169 203 / 50%)
#bba9cb80
hsl(272 25% 73% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #bba9cb 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#bba9cb1a#F8F6FA
20%#bba9cb33#F1EEF5
40%#bba9cb66#E4DDEA
60%#bba9cb99#D6CBE0
80%#bba9cbcc#C9BAD5

Gradients from #bba9cb

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, #D9CFE2, #bba9cb 45%, #41304F);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #bba9cb, #BF96B4);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #bba9cb, #B9CBA9);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #E8E2EE 0%, #bba9cb 45%, #41304F 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F7F5F9, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #C9CADE 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #D6BCD3 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #41304F 0%, transparent 65%), #bba9cb;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #bba9cb

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.

#bba9cb 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 9.65:1.

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.

#bba9cb, answered

What color is #bba9cb?

#bba9cb is a light soft violet, closest to Thistle (ΔE2000 7.2). It sits at 272° on the hue wheel with 25% saturation and 73% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #bba9cb?

rgb(187, 169, 203) — 187 red, 169 green and 203 blue out of 255, or 73.3% / 66.3% / 79.6% by channel.

What is #bba9cb in HSL and HSV?

hsl(272, 25%, 73%) and hsv(272, 17%, 80%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #bba9cb a light or a dark color?

It is a mid-tone. Relative luminance is 0.4325 and perceived brightness is 70%, so black text on it reaches 9.65:1.

Should I use black or white text on #bba9cb?

Black. It scores 9.65:1 against #bba9cb, versus 2.18:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #bba9cb accessible on a white background?

#bba9cb on white scores 2.18:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #8969A4 to reach 4.5:1, or #674D7F for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #bba9cb?

#B9CBA9 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #CACBA9 and #A9CBAA, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #bba9cb?

For interface work: #F7F5F9 as the surface, #D7CCE0 for borders, #74578F for secondary text, #738448 as an accent and #41304F for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #AAA9CB and #CBA9CA stays calm, while #B9CBA9 is the loudest partner.

What is #bba9cb in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(8%, 17%, 0%, 20%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #bba9cb warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 61 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #C7A9CB; nudged cooler, #AEA8CC.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #bba9cb?

The zinc family — its 500 step is #71717a, ΔE2000 24 away. That is a visible difference, so define #bba9cb as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #bba9cb in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#bba9cb] or text-[#bba9cb], 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 #bba9cb with 50% opacity?

rgba(187, 169, 203, 0.5), or #bba9cb80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #DDD4E5; over black, #5E5566.

Is #bba9cb a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #CC99CC, ΔE2000 8.3 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #bba9cb 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 #bba9cb?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #D9CFE2, #bba9cb 45%, #41304F). For more colour, a short hue run to #BF96B4 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #bba9cb in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #bba9cb at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.