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violet · cool

#c46eef

a light, electric violet · cool · closest name: Orchid

Token name suggestion: Meadow Thistle

RGB
196, 110, 239
HSL
280°, 80%, 68%
CMYK
18, 54, 0, 6
Luminance
0.2912

#c46eef is a light electric violet, 280° on the wheel and 61/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (6.82:1). As text it scores 3.08:1 on white — large text only. Nearest name is Orchid, nearest Tailwind family is fuchsia.

hsl(280 80% 68%)rgb(196 110 239)Base step 400AA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #c46eef is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#c46eef
Hue
280°
violet
Saturation
80%
electric
Lightness
68%
light
Brightness
94%
HSV value
Perceived
62%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.2912
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
61/100 cool
Color family
Violet
Tone
Electric
Best ink
Black
6.82:1
Closest name
Orchid
ΔE2000 7.1
Chroma
75.5
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.686
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
fuchsia
500 · ΔE 6.6
Web-safe
#CC66FF
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue280° of 360°
Saturation80%
Lightness68%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #c46eef.

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
Red40%
Green38%
Blue21%

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

Every format

HEX#c46eef
HEX (8-digit)#c46eefff
RGBrgb(196, 110, 239)
RGBArgba(196, 110, 239, 1)
HSLhsl(280, 80%, 68%)
HSV / HSBhsv(280, 54%, 94%)
HWBhwb(280 43% 6%)
CMYKcmyk(18%, 54%, 0%, 6%)
LABlab(60.9 55.1 -51.5)
LCHlch(60.9 75.5 316.9)
OKLCHoklch(0.686 0.198 313.1)
XYZ (D65)xyz(43.92, 29.12, 84.95)
Decimal12873455
Display P3color(display-p3 0.769 0.431 0.937)
Web-safe#CC66FF

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #c46eef;
background-color: #c46eef;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #c46eef;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#c46eef] bg-[#c46eef]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #c46eef;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.769, green: 0.431, blue: 0.937)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.769, green: 0.431, blue: 0.937, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#C46EEF</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFC46EEF)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFC46EEF)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(239, 110, 196)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(196, 110, 239)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(196, 110, 239)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 196, 110, 239)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.7686f, 0.4314f, 0.9373f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{196,110,239}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #c46eef 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #c46eef 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#510D73, #E5D3EE);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #c46eef 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: #F9F3FC;
  --brand-100: #F3E6F9;
  --brand-200: #E6C6F5;
  --brand-300: #D69AF4;
  --brand-400: #c46eef;
  --brand-500: #AD35E9;
  --brand-600: #9B18DC;
  --brand-700: #8114B8;
  --brand-800: #671093;
  --brand-900: #4C106A;
  --brand-950: #300A42;
  --brand: #c46eef;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F8F4FA;
  --brand-border: #DEC0ED;
  --brand-hover: #B74EEB;
  --brand-pressed: #AA2EE8;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #1F1424;
    --brand-ink: #E5D3EE;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F9F3FC',
        100: '#F3E6F9',
        200: '#E6C6F5',
        300: '#D69AF4',
        400: '#c46eef',
        500: '#AD35E9',
        600: '#9B18DC',
        700: '#8114B8',
        800: '#671093',
        900: '#4C106A',
        950: '#300A42',
        DEFAULT: '#c46eef',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F9F3FC,
  '100': #F3E6F9,
  '200': #E6C6F5,
  '300': #D69AF4,
  '400': #c46eef,
  '500': #AD35E9,
  '600': #9B18DC,
  '700': #8114B8,
  '800': #671093,
  '900': #4C106A,
  '950': #300A42,
);
$brand-base: #c46eef;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F9F3FC", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#F3E6F9", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#E6C6F5", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#D69AF4", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#c46eef", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#AD35E9", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#9B18DC", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#8114B8", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#671093", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#4C106A", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#300A42", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #c46eef · 6.82:1
Use #000000AA at every size, AAA for large text only.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 3.08:1
AA fail · AA large pass · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 6.82:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA fail
Reading the other direction: #c46eef as text scores 3.08:1 on white and 6.82:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #510D73 at 4.12:1.

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
#AF3BE9 · 4.54:1
AA on white−11% L
#AF3BE9
The quick fox
#8916C3 · 7.08:1
AAA on white−26% L
#8916C3
The quick fox
#c46eef · 6.82:1
AA on blackalready passes
#c46eef
The quick fox
#C672EF · 7.05:1
AAA on black+1% L
#C672EF

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #C46EEF 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
#c46eef on white: 3.08:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#c46eef on black: 6.82:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #c46eef as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #c46eef.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White3.08:1AaAa
Slate 502.94:1AaAa
Slate 1002.81:1AaAa
Slate 2002.50:1AaAa
Slate 3002.07:1AaAa
Slate 4001.20:1AaAa
Slate 5001.55:1AaAa
Slate 6002.46:1AaAa
Slate 7003.36:1AaAa
Slate 8004.75:1AaAa
Slate 9005.80:1AaAa
Black6.82:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #4C8EF3
deuteranopia · #6995EC
tritanopia · #C084A4

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. #c46eef 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.

#F9F3FC
#F3E6F9
#E6C6F5
#D69AF4
#c46eef
#AD35E9
#9B18DC
#8114B8
#671093
#4C106A
#300A42
Base = 400Lightest = 50 · #F9F3FCDarkest = 950 · #300A42Text step on white = 500
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 0.049 313.1);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.079 313.1);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.119 313.1);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.154 313.1);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.182 313.1);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.198 313.1);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.198 313.1);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.186 313.1);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.166 313.1);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.138 313.1);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.109 313.1);
}

Colors that work with #c46eef

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#F8F4FA
Tinted page background
Border#DEC0ED
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#804B9B
Captions on the surface
Accent#75BC10
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#510D73
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#F6E8FC
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#1F1424
Dark-mode background
Hover#B74EEB
One step down in lightness
Pressed#AA2EE8
Two steps down
Disabled#E8E1EC
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#CE79F8
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 #c46eef

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

Works well for
  • Headings from 24px up on white
  • Text and icons on dark surfaces
  • Primary buttons and calls to action
  • Focus rings, active and selected states
  • Card and section backgrounds
  • Brand accents, badges and data highlights
Use with care
  • Small text on white — under 4.5:1
  • Full-page backgrounds — tiring over long sessions
  • White text placed on it
  • Pairing with a same-lightness hue — edges vibrate
Minimum size as text on white
24px / 18.66px bold
Safe as a fill behind white type
No — use #510D73
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.

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.

At this chroma the association is amplified — it will dominate anything placed beside it, so give it space and use it sparingly. 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
  • FormalityLow
  • EnergyHigh
  • Weight32/100
  • 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#99EF6E
Analogous left#836EEF
Analogous right#EF6ED9
Split-complement 1#D9EF6E
Split-complement 2#6EEF83
Triadic 1#EFC46E
Triadic 2#6EEFC4
Tetradic#EF836E
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°280°

#c46eef sits at 280°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red76.9%
Green43.1%
Blue93.7%
R · 0–255
196
0xc4
G · 0–255
110
0x6e
B · 0–255
239
0xef

CMYK percentages

Cyan18.0%
Magenta54.0%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)6.3%

Total ink coverage is 78%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#c46eef text on a black background

contrast 6.82:1

Card sample

#c46eef text on a white background

contrast 3.08:1

Card sample

#c46eef on grey

2.81:1

#c46eef on its own surface

2.83:1

#c46eef on its dark surface

5.76:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #c46eef;
Background color
Panel with #c46eef background
background-color: #c46eef;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #c46eef;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(196, 110, 239, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(196, 110, 239, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #c46eef;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #c46eef, #EF6EC4);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #c46eef, #EF6EA4);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #c46eef;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #c46eef;
caret-color: #c46eef;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #c46eef;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #F6E8FC;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #c46eef;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#c46eef 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #c46eef 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, 110, 239, 0.5)
rgb(196 110 239 / 50%)
#c46eef80
hsl(280 80% 68% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #c46eef 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#c46eef1a#F9F1FD
20%#c46eef33#F3E2FC
40%#c46eef66#E7C5F9
60%#c46eef99#DCA8F5
80%#c46eefcc#D08BF2

Gradients from #c46eef

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, #DAA5F5, #c46eef 45%, #510D73);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #c46eef, #EC52AC);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #c46eef, #99EF6E);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #E6C1F8 0%, #c46eef 45%, #510D73 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F8F4FA, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #A39CF4 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #F289D8 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #510D73 0%, transparent 65%), #c46eef;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #c46eef

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.

#c46eef 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

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

Usable as-is on a dark surface at 6.82:1.

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.

#c46eef, answered

What color is #c46eef?

#c46eef is a light electric violet, closest to Orchid (ΔE2000 7.1). It sits at 280° on the hue wheel with 80% saturation and 68% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #c46eef?

rgb(196, 110, 239) — 196 red, 110 green and 239 blue out of 255, or 76.9% / 43.1% / 93.7% by channel.

What is #c46eef in HSL and HSV?

hsl(280, 80%, 68%) and hsv(280, 54%, 94%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #c46eef a light or a dark color?

It is a mid-tone. Relative luminance is 0.2912 and perceived brightness is 62%, so black text on it reaches 6.82:1.

Should I use black or white text on #c46eef?

Black. It scores 6.82:1 against #c46eef, versus 3.08:1 for white — AA at any size.

Is #c46eef accessible on a white background?

#c46eef on white scores 3.08:1, which only clears AA for large text — 18.66px bold or 24px regular and up. Darken it to #AF3BE9 to reach 4.5:1, or #8916C3 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #c46eef?

#99EF6E sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #D9EF6E and #6EEF83, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #c46eef?

For interface work: #F8F4FA as the surface, #DEC0ED for borders, #804B9B for secondary text, #75BC10 as an accent and #510D73 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #836EEF and #EF6ED9 stays calm, while #99EF6E is the loudest partner.

What is #c46eef in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(18%, 54%, 0%, 6%). 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 #c46eef 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 #EF6EEB; nudged cooler, #946CF1.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #c46eef?

The fuchsia family — its 500 step is #d946ef, ΔE2000 6.6 away. That is a visible difference, so define #c46eef as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #c46eef in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#c46eef] or text-[#c46eef], 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 #c46eef with 50% opacity?

rgba(196, 110, 239, 0.5), or #c46eef80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #E2B7F7; over black, #623778.

Is #c46eef a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #CC66FF, ΔE2000 2.6 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #c46eef 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 chroma the effect is amplified — it will dominate whatever sits beside it.

What gradient works with #c46eef?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #DAA5F5, #c46eef 45%, #510D73). For more colour, a short hue run to #EC52AC keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #c46eef in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #c46eef at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.