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magenta / pink · neutral

#c40cad

a dark, electric magenta / pink · neutral · closest name: Medium Violet Red

Token name suggestion: Shadow Fuchsia

RGB
196, 12, 173
HSL
308°, 89%, 41%
CMYK
0, 94, 12, 23
Luminance
0.1502

#c40cad is a dark electric magenta / pink, 308° on the wheel and 46/100 on the cool side. Put white text on it (5.25:1). As text it scores 5.25:1 on white — safe at any size. Nearest name is Medium Violet Red, nearest Tailwind family is fuchsia.

hsl(308 89% 41%)rgb(196 12 173)Base step 700AA inkNeutral

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #c40cad is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#c40cad
Hue
308°
magenta / pink
Saturation
89%
electric
Lightness
41%
dark
Brightness
77%
HSV value
Perceived
48%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.1502
WCAG relative
Temperature
Neutral
46/100 cool
Color family
Magenta / pink
Tone
Electric
Best ink
White
5.25:1
Closest name
Medium Violet Red
ΔE2000 7.9
Chroma
85.2
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.565
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
fuchsia
500 · ΔE 13.3
Web-safe
#CC0099
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue308° of 360°
Saturation89%
Lightness41%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #c40cad.

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
Red78%
Green2%
Blue20%

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

Every format

HEX#c40cad
HEX (8-digit)#c40cadff
RGBrgb(196, 12, 173)
RGBArgba(196, 12, 173, 1)
HSLhsl(308, 89%, 41%)
HSV / HSBhsv(308, 94%, 77%)
HWBhwb(308 5% 23%)
CMYKcmyk(0%, 94%, 12%, 23%)
LABlab(45.7 76.3 -37.9)
LCHlch(45.7 85.2 333.6)
OKLCHoklch(0.565 0.246 335.0)
XYZ (D65)xyz(30.44, 15.02, 40.82)
Decimal12848301
Display P3color(display-p3 0.769 0.047 0.678)
Web-safe#CC0099

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #c40cad;
background-color: #c40cad;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #c40cad;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#c40cad] bg-[#c40cad]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #c40cad;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.769, green: 0.047, blue: 0.678)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.769, green: 0.047, blue: 0.678, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#C40CAD</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFC40CAD)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFC40CAD)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(173, 12, 196)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(196, 12, 173)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(196, 12, 173)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 196, 12, 173)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.7686f, 0.0471f, 0.6784f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{196,12,173}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #c40cad 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #c40cad 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#78076A, #EED3EB);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #c40cad 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: #FDF2FB;
  --brand-100: #FAE5F8;
  --brand-200: #F8C4F1;
  --brand-300: #F995EC;
  --brand-400: #F560E3;
  --brand-500: #F22CD9;
  --brand-600: #E70ECC;
  --brand-700: #c40cad;
  --brand-800: #9A0988;
  --brand-900: #6F0B63;
  --brand-950: #45073E;
  --brand: #c40cad;
  --brand-ink: #ffffff;
  --brand-surface: #FAF4FA;
  --brand-border: #EDC0E7;
  --brand-hover: #A20A8F;
  --brand-pressed: #810872;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #241422;
    --brand-ink: #EED3EB;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#FDF2FB',
        100: '#FAE5F8',
        200: '#F8C4F1',
        300: '#F995EC',
        400: '#F560E3',
        500: '#F22CD9',
        600: '#E70ECC',
        700: '#c40cad',
        800: '#9A0988',
        900: '#6F0B63',
        950: '#45073E',
        DEFAULT: '#c40cad',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #FDF2FB,
  '100': #FAE5F8,
  '200': #F8C4F1,
  '300': #F995EC,
  '400': #F560E3,
  '500': #F22CD9,
  '600': #E70ECC,
  '700': #c40cad,
  '800': #9A0988,
  '900': #6F0B63,
  '950': #45073E,
);
$brand-base: #c40cad;
$brand-ink: #ffffff;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#FDF2FB", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#FAE5F8", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#F8C4F1", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#F995EC", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#F560E3", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#F22CD9", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#E70ECC", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#c40cad", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#9A0988", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#6F0B63", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#45073E", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #c40cad · 5.25:1
Use #ffffffAA at every size, AAA for large text only.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 5.25:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 4.00:1
AA fail · AA large pass · AAA fail
Reading the other direction: #c40cad as text scores 5.25:1 on white and 4.00:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #FEE7FB at 4.51:1.

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
#c40cad · 5.25:1
AA on whitealready passes
#c40cad
The quick fox
#A20A8F · 7.06:1
AAA on white−7% L
#A20A8F
The quick fox
#D30DBA · 4.54:1
AA on black+3% L
#D30DBA
The quick fox
#F451E0 · 7.10:1
AAA on black+23% L
#F451E0

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #C40CAD 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
#c40cad on white: 5.25:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#c40cad on black: 4.00:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #c40cad as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #c40cad.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White5.25:1AaAa
Slate 505.01:1AaAa
Slate 1004.79:1AaAa
Slate 2004.26:1AaAa
Slate 3003.53:1AaAa
Slate 4002.05:1AaAa
Slate 5001.10:1AaAa
Slate 6001.44:1AaAa
Slate 7001.97:1AaAa
Slate 8002.79:1AaAa
Slate 9003.40:1AaAa
Black4.00:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #085CB1
deuteranopia · #5D75A9
tritanopia · #CE2966

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. #c40cad 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.

#FDF2FB
#FAE5F8
#F8C4F1
#F995EC
#F560E3
#F22CD9
#E70ECC
#c40cad
#9A0988
#6F0B63
#45073E
Base = 700Lightest = 50 · #FDF2FBDarkest = 950 · #45073EText 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 0.062 335.0);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.099 335.0);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.148 335.0);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.192 335.0);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.227 335.0);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.246 335.0);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.246 335.0);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.232 335.0);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.207 335.0);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.172 335.0);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.136 335.0);
}

Colors that work with #c40cad

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#EDC0E7
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#9B4B91
Captions on the surface
Accent#1FC408
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#78076A
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#FEE7FB
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#241422
Dark-mode background
Hover#A20A8F
One step down in lightness
Pressed#810872
Two steps down
Disabled#B58BB0
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#E302C7
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 #c40cad

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
  • Weight59/100
  • 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#0CC423
Analogous left#7F0CC4
Analogous right#C40C51
Split-complement 1#51C40C
Split-complement 2#0CC47F
Triadic 1#ADC40C
Triadic 2#0CADC4
Tetradic#C47F0C
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°308°

#c40cad sits at 308°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red76.9%
Green4.7%
Blue67.8%
R · 0–255
196
0xc4
G · 0–255
12
0x0c
B · 0–255
173
0xad

CMYK percentages

Cyan0.0%
Magenta93.9%
Yellow11.7%
Key (black)23.1%

Total ink coverage is 129%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#c40cad text on a black background

contrast 4.00:1

Card sample

#c40cad text on a white background

contrast 5.25:1

Card sample

#c40cad on grey

4.79:1

#c40cad on its own surface

4.84:1

#c40cad on its dark surface

3.34:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #c40cad;
Background color
Panel with #c40cad background
background-color: #c40cad;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #c40cad;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(196, 12, 173, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(196, 12, 173, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #c40cad;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #c40cad, #C40C32);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #c40cad, #C4140C);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #c40cad;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #c40cad;
caret-color: #c40cad;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #c40cad;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #FEE7FB;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #c40cad;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#c40cad 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #c40cad 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(196, 12, 173, 0.5)
rgb(196 12 173 / 50%)
#c40cad80
hsl(308 89% 41% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #c40cad 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#c40cad1a#F9E7F7
20%#c40cad33#F3CEEF
40%#c40cad66#E79EDE
60%#c40cad99#DC6DCE
80%#c40cadcc#D03DBD

Gradients from #c40cad

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, #F11CD7, #c40cad 45%, #78076A);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #c40cad, #A70A1E);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #c40cad, #0CC423);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #F339DC 0%, #c40cad 45%, #78076A 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%, #8B13F1 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #E10E4B 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #78076A 0%, transparent 65%), #c40cad;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #c40cad

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.

#c40cad 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 4.00:1 — lift it to #D30DBA 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.

#c40cad, answered

What color is #c40cad?

#c40cad is a dark electric magenta / pink, closest to Medium Violet Red (ΔE2000 7.9). It sits at 308° on the hue wheel with 89% saturation and 41% lightness, which reads as neutral.

What is the RGB value of #c40cad?

rgb(196, 12, 173) — 196 red, 12 green and 173 blue out of 255, or 76.9% / 4.7% / 67.8% by channel.

What is #c40cad in HSL and HSV?

hsl(308, 89%, 41%) and hsv(308, 94%, 77%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #c40cad a light or a dark color?

It is a dark color. Relative luminance is 0.1502 and perceived brightness is 48%, so white text on it reaches 5.25:1.

Should I use black or white text on #c40cad?

White. It scores 5.25:1 against #c40cad, versus 4.00:1 for black — AA at any size.

Is #c40cad accessible on a white background?

#c40cad on white scores 5.25:1, which clears AA at every size but not AAA.

What is the complementary color of #c40cad?

#0CC423 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #51C40C and #0CC47F, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #c40cad?

For interface work: #FAF4FA as the surface, #EDC0E7 for borders, #9B4B91 for secondary text, #1FC408 as an accent and #78076A for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #7F0CC4 and #C40C51 stays calm, while #0CC423 is the loudest partner.

What is #c40cad in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(0%, 94%, 12%, 23%). 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 #c40cad 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 #C40C6A; nudged cooler, #990AC6.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #c40cad?

The fuchsia family — its 500 step is #d946ef, ΔE2000 13.3 away. That is a visible difference, so define #c40cad as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #c40cad in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#c40cad] or text-[#c40cad], 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 #c40cad with 50% opacity?

rgba(196, 12, 173, 0.5), or #c40cad80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #E286D6; over black, #620657.

Is #c40cad a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #CC0099, ΔE2000 4.3 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #c40cad 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 #c40cad?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #F11CD7, #c40cad 45%, #78076A). For more colour, a short hue run to #A70A1E keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #c40cad in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #c40cad at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.