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violet · cool

#bbaed2

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

Token name suggestion: Drift Thistle

RGB
187, 174, 210
HSL
262°, 29%, 75%
CMYK
11, 17, 0, 18
Luminance
0.4549

#bbaed2 is a light soft violet, 262° on the wheel and 67/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (10.10:1). As text it scores 2.08:1 on white — use #8169AC instead. Nearest name is Thistle, nearest Tailwind family is zinc.

hsl(262 29% 75%)rgb(187 174 210)Base step 300AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #bbaed2 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#bbaed2
Hue
262°
violet
Saturation
29%
soft
Lightness
75%
light
Brightness
82%
HSV value
Perceived
72%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.4549
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
67/100 cool
Color family
Violet
Tone
Soft
Best ink
Black
10.10:1
Closest name
Thistle
ΔE2000 7.4
Chroma
20.2
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.773
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
zinc
500 · ΔE 24.7
Web-safe
#CC99CC
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue262° of 360°
Saturation29%
Lightness75%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #bbaed2.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool67% 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
Red23%
Green67%
Blue10%

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

Every format

HEX#bbaed2
HEX (8-digit)#bbaed2ff
RGBrgb(187, 174, 210)
RGBArgba(187, 174, 210, 1)
HSLhsl(262, 29%, 75%)
HSV / HSBhsv(262, 17%, 82%)
HWBhwb(262 68% 18%)
CMYKcmyk(11%, 17%, 0%, 18%)
LABlab(73.2 11.6 -16.5)
LCHlch(73.2 20.2 305.0)
OKLCHoklch(0.773 0.052 301.6)
XYZ (D65)xyz(47.26, 45.49, 67.25)
Decimal12299986
Display P3color(display-p3 0.733 0.682 0.824)
Web-safe#CC99CC

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #bbaed2;
background-color: #bbaed2;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #bbaed2;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#bbaed2] bg-[#bbaed2]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #bbaed2;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.733, green: 0.682, blue: 0.824)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.733, green: 0.682, blue: 0.824, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#BBAED2</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFBBAED2)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFBBAED2)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(210, 174, 187)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(187, 174, 210)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(187, 174, 210)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 187, 174, 210)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.7333f, 0.6824f, 0.8235f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{187,174,210}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #bbaed2 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #bbaed2 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#3B2E52, #DED8E9);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #bbaed2 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: #EFECF3;
  --brand-200: #DCD6E6;
  --brand-300: #bbaed2;
  --brand-400: #A493C3;
  --brand-500: #866FAF;
  --brand-600: #71579D;
  --brand-700: #5E4983;
  --brand-800: #4B3A69;
  --brand-900: #392D4D;
  --brand-950: #231C30;
  --brand: #bbaed2;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F7F5FA;
  --brand-border: #D3CBE2;
  --brand-hover: #A897C5;
  --brand-pressed: #9580B9;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #1A1424;
    --brand-ink: #DED8E9;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F7F6F9',
        100: '#EFECF3',
        200: '#DCD6E6',
        300: '#bbaed2',
        400: '#A493C3',
        500: '#866FAF',
        600: '#71579D',
        700: '#5E4983',
        800: '#4B3A69',
        900: '#392D4D',
        950: '#231C30',
        DEFAULT: '#bbaed2',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F7F6F9,
  '100': #EFECF3,
  '200': #DCD6E6,
  '300': #bbaed2,
  '400': #A493C3,
  '500': #866FAF,
  '600': #71579D,
  '700': #5E4983,
  '800': #4B3A69,
  '900': #392D4D,
  '950': #231C30,
);
$brand-base: #bbaed2;
$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": "#EFECF3", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#DCD6E6", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#bbaed2", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#A493C3", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#866FAF", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#71579D", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#5E4983", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#4B3A69", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#392D4D", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#231C30", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #bbaed2 · 10.10:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 2.08:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 10.10:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #bbaed2 as text scores 2.08:1 on white and 10.10:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #3B2E52 at 5.94:1.

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
#8169AC · 4.62:1
AA on white−21% L
#8169AC
The quick fox
#634D8B · 7.08:1
AAA on white−33% L
#634D8B
The quick fox
#bbaed2 · 10.10:1
AA on blackalready passes
#bbaed2
The quick fox
#bbaed2 · 10.10:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#bbaed2

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #9D8ABE 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
#bbaed2 on white: 2.08:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#bbaed2 on black: 10.10:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #bbaed2 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #bbaed2.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White2.08:1AaAa
Slate 501.99:1AaAa
Slate 1001.90:1AaAa
Slate 2001.69:1AaAa
Slate 3001.40:1AaAa
Slate 4001.23:1AaAa
Slate 5002.29:1AaAa
Slate 6003.64:1AaAa
Slate 7004.98:1AaAa
Slate 8007.03:1AaAa
Slate 9008.58:1AaAa
Black10.10:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #A8B4D4
deuteranopia · #AAB4D1
tritanopia · #B7B3BA

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. #bbaed2 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
#EFECF3
#DCD6E6
#bbaed2
#A493C3
#866FAF
#71579D
#5E4983
#4B3A69
#392D4D
#231C30
Base = 300Lightest = 50 · #F7F6F9Darkest = 950 · #231C30Text 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 0.013 301.6);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.021 301.6);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.032 301.6);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.041 301.6);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.048 301.6);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.052 301.6);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.052 301.6);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.049 301.6);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.044 301.6);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.037 301.6);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.029 301.6);
}

Colors that work with #bbaed2

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#F7F5FA
Tinted page background
Border#D3CBE2
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#6A5294
Captions on the surface
Accent#808844
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#3B2E52
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#F1EFF6
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#1A1424
Dark-mode background
Hover#A897C5
One step down in lightness
Pressed#9580B9
Two steps down
Disabled#F4F3F7
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#C5B6DF
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 #bbaed2

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 #3B2E52
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #9D8ABE

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
  • Weight25/100
  • TemperatureCool
  • ApproachabilityReserved

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#C5D2AE
Analogous left#AEB3D2
Analogous right#CDAED2
Split-complement 1#D2CDAE
Split-complement 2#B3D2AE
Triadic 1#D2BBAE
Triadic 2#AED2BB
Tetradic#D2AEB3
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°262°

#bbaed2 sits at 262°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red73.3%
Green68.2%
Blue82.4%
R · 0–255
187
0xbb
G · 0–255
174
0xae
B · 0–255
210
0xd2

CMYK percentages

Cyan11.0%
Magenta17.1%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)17.6%

Total ink coverage is 46%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#bbaed2 text on a black background

contrast 10.10:1

Card sample

#bbaed2 text on a white background

contrast 2.08:1

Card sample

#bbaed2 on grey

1.90:1

#bbaed2 on its own surface

1.92:1

#bbaed2 on its dark surface

8.63:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #bbaed2;
Background color
Panel with #bbaed2 background
background-color: #bbaed2;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #bbaed2;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(187, 174, 210, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(187, 174, 210, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #bbaed2;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #bbaed2, #D2AED1);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #bbaed2, #D2AEC8);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #bbaed2;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #bbaed2;
caret-color: #bbaed2;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #bbaed2;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #F1EFF6;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #bbaed2;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#bbaed2 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #bbaed2 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, 174, 210, 0.5)
rgb(187 174 210 / 50%)
#bbaed280
hsl(262 29% 75% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #bbaed2 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#bbaed21a#F8F7FB
20%#bbaed233#F1EFF6
40%#bbaed266#E4DFED
60%#bbaed299#D6CEE4
80%#bbaed2cc#C9BEDB

Gradients from #bbaed2

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, #DCD5E8, #bbaed2 45%, #3B2E52);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #bbaed2, #C79AC2);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #bbaed2, #C5D2AE);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #EDE9F3 0%, #bbaed2 45%, #3B2E52 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F7F5FA, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #CFD4E4 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #DBC2DD 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #3B2E52 0%, transparent 65%), #bbaed2;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #bbaed2

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.

#bbaed2 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 10.10:1.

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.

#bbaed2, answered

What color is #bbaed2?

#bbaed2 is a light soft violet, closest to Thistle (ΔE2000 7.4). It sits at 262° on the hue wheel with 29% saturation and 75% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #bbaed2?

rgb(187, 174, 210) — 187 red, 174 green and 210 blue out of 255, or 73.3% / 68.2% / 82.4% by channel.

What is #bbaed2 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(262, 29%, 75%) and hsv(262, 17%, 82%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #bbaed2 a light or a dark color?

It is a mid-tone. Relative luminance is 0.4549 and perceived brightness is 72%, so black text on it reaches 10.10:1.

Should I use black or white text on #bbaed2?

Black. It scores 10.10:1 against #bbaed2, versus 2.08:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #bbaed2 accessible on a white background?

#bbaed2 on white scores 2.08:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #8169AC to reach 4.5:1, or #634D8B for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #bbaed2?

#C5D2AE sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #D2CDAE and #B3D2AE, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #bbaed2?

For interface work: #F7F5FA as the surface, #D3CBE2 for borders, #6A5294 for secondary text, #808844 as an accent and #3B2E52 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #AEB3D2 and #CDAED2 stays calm, while #C5D2AE is the loudest partner.

What is #bbaed2 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(11%, 17%, 0%, 18%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #bbaed2 warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 67 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #C8AED2; nudged cooler, #ADADD3.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #bbaed2?

The zinc family — its 500 step is #71717a, ΔE2000 24.7 away. That is a visible difference, so define #bbaed2 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #bbaed2 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#bbaed2] or text-[#bbaed2], 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 #bbaed2 with 50% opacity?

rgba(187, 174, 210, 0.5), or #bbaed280 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #DDD7E9; over black, #5E5769.

Is #bbaed2 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #CC99CC, ΔE2000 9.8 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #bbaed2 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 #bbaed2?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #DCD5E8, #bbaed2 45%, #3B2E52). For more colour, a short hue run to #C79AC2 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #bbaed2 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #bbaed2 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.