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violet · cool

#c8acea

a light, vivid violet · cool · closest name: Plum

Token name suggestion: Drift Iris

RGB
200, 172, 234
HSL
267°, 60%, 80%
CMYK
15, 27, 0, 8
Luminance
0.4772

#c8acea is a light vivid violet, 267° on the wheel and 68/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (10.54:1). As text it scores 1.99:1 on white — use #8F57D4 instead. Nearest name is Plum, nearest Tailwind family is fuchsia.

hsl(267 60% 80%)rgb(200 172 234)Base step 300AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #c8acea is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#c8acea
Hue
267°
violet
Saturation
60%
vivid
Lightness
80%
light
Brightness
92%
HSV value
Perceived
74%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.4772
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
68/100 cool
Color family
Violet
Tone
Vivid
Best ink
Black
10.54:1
Closest name
Plum
ΔE2000 7.5
Chroma
35.0
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.790
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
fuchsia
500 · ΔE 21.9
Web-safe
#CC99FF
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue267° of 360°
Saturation60%
Lightness80%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #c8acea.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool68% 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
Red26%
Green62%
Blue12%

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

Every format

HEX#c8acea
HEX (8-digit)#c8aceaff
RGBrgb(200, 172, 234)
RGBArgba(200, 172, 234, 1)
HSLhsl(267, 60%, 80%)
HSV / HSBhsv(267, 26%, 92%)
HWBhwb(267 67% 8%)
CMYKcmyk(15%, 27%, 0%, 8%)
LABlab(74.7 21.9 -27.3)
LCHlch(74.7 35.0 308.7)
OKLCHoklch(0.790 0.091 305.0)
XYZ (D65)xyz(53.42, 47.73, 84.22)
Decimal13151466
Display P3color(display-p3 0.784 0.675 0.918)
Web-safe#CC99FF

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #c8acea;
background-color: #c8acea;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #c8acea;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#c8acea] bg-[#c8acea]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #c8acea;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.784, green: 0.675, blue: 0.918)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.784, green: 0.675, blue: 0.918, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#C8ACEA</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFC8ACEA)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFC8ACEA)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(234, 172, 200)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(200, 172, 234)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(200, 172, 234)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 200, 172, 234)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.7843f, 0.6745f, 0.9176f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{200,172,234}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #c8acea 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #c8acea 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#3C1A66, #DFD3EE);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #c8acea 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: #F7F4FB;
  --brand-100: #EFE9F7;
  --brand-200: #DCCCEF;
  --brand-300: #c8acea;
  --brand-400: #A679DD;
  --brand-500: #884CD2;
  --brand-600: #7331C3;
  --brand-700: #6029A3;
  --brand-800: #4D2182;
  --brand-900: #3A1C5F;
  --brand-950: #24113B;
  --brand: #c8acea;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F7F4FA;
  --brand-border: #D4C0ED;
  --brand-hover: #B58FE3;
  --brand-pressed: #A273DC;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #1B1424;
    --brand-ink: #DFD3EE;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F7F4FB',
        100: '#EFE9F7',
        200: '#DCCCEF',
        300: '#c8acea',
        400: '#A679DD',
        500: '#884CD2',
        600: '#7331C3',
        700: '#6029A3',
        800: '#4D2182',
        900: '#3A1C5F',
        950: '#24113B',
        DEFAULT: '#c8acea',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F7F4FB,
  '100': #EFE9F7,
  '200': #DCCCEF,
  '300': #c8acea,
  '400': #A679DD,
  '500': #884CD2,
  '600': #7331C3,
  '700': #6029A3,
  '800': #4D2182,
  '900': #3A1C5F,
  '950': #24113B,
);
$brand-base: #c8acea;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F7F4FB", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#EFE9F7", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#DCCCEF", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#c8acea", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#A679DD", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#884CD2", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#7331C3", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#6029A3", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#4D2182", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#3A1C5F", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#24113B", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #c8acea · 10.54:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 1.99:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 10.54:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #c8acea as text scores 1.99:1 on white and 10.54:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #3C1A66 at 6.88:1.

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
#8F57D4 · 4.69:1
AA on white−21% L
#8F57D4
The quick fox
#7231C2 · 7.16:1
AAA on white−32% L
#7231C2
The quick fox
#c8acea · 10.54:1
AA on blackalready passes
#c8acea
The quick fox
#c8acea · 10.54:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#c8acea

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #AA7FDF 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
#c8acea on white: 1.99:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#c8acea on black: 10.54:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #c8acea as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #c8acea.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White1.99:1AaAa
Slate 501.90:1AaAa
Slate 1001.82:1AaAa
Slate 2001.62:1AaAa
Slate 3001.34:1AaAa
Slate 4001.29:1AaAa
Slate 5002.39:1AaAa
Slate 6003.81:1AaAa
Slate 7005.20:1AaAa
Slate 8007.35:1AaAa
Slate 9008.96:1AaAa
Black10.54:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #A0B7ED
deuteranopia · #A6B8E8
tritanopia · #C3B5C2

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. #c8acea 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.

#F7F4FB
#EFE9F7
#DCCCEF
#c8acea
#A679DD
#884CD2
#7331C3
#6029A3
#4D2182
#3A1C5F
#24113B
Base = 300Lightest = 50 · #F7F4FBDarkest = 950 · #24113BText 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 0.023 305.0);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.036 305.0);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.055 305.0);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.071 305.0);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.084 305.0);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.091 305.0);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.091 305.0);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.086 305.0);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.077 305.0);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.064 305.0);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.050 305.0);
}

Colors that work with #c8acea

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#F7F4FA
Tinted page background
Border#D4C0ED
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#6F4B9B
Captions on the surface
Accent#8DA725
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#3C1A66
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#F2EBFA
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#1B1424
Dark-mode background
Hover#B58FE3
One step down in lightness
Pressed#A273DC
Two steps down
Disabled#F5F3F7
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#D2B8F2
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 #c8acea

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

Works well for
  • 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
  • Text of any size on white — fails WCAG AA
  • 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
Not as text
Safe as a fill behind white type
No — use #3C1A66
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #AA7FDF

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.

This is a confident chroma: strong enough to lead a brand, restrained enough to live in an interface all day. 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-high
  • Weight20/100
  • 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#CEEAAC
Analogous left#ACAFEA
Analogous right#E7ACEA
Split-complement 1#EAE7AC
Split-complement 2#AFEAAC
Triadic 1#EAC8AC
Triadic 2#ACEAC8
Tetradic#EAACAF
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°267°

#c8acea sits at 267°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red78.4%
Green67.5%
Blue91.8%
R · 0–255
200
0xc8
G · 0–255
172
0xac
B · 0–255
234
0xea

CMYK percentages

Cyan14.5%
Magenta26.5%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)8.2%

Total ink coverage is 49%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#c8acea text on a black background

contrast 10.54:1

Card sample

#c8acea text on a white background

contrast 1.99:1

Card sample

#c8acea on grey

1.82:1

#c8acea on its own surface

1.83:1

#c8acea on its dark surface

9.00:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #c8acea;
Background color
Panel with #c8acea background
background-color: #c8acea;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #c8acea;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(200, 172, 234, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(200, 172, 234, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #c8acea;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #c8acea, #EAACE3);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #c8acea, #EAACD3);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #c8acea;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #c8acea;
caret-color: #c8acea;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #c8acea;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #F2EBFA;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #c8acea;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#c8acea 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #c8acea 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(200, 172, 234, 0.5)
rgb(200 172 234 / 50%)
#c8acea80
hsl(267 60% 80% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #c8acea 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#c8acea1a#FAF7FD
20%#c8acea33#F4EEFB
40%#c8acea66#E9DEF7
60%#c8acea99#DECDF2
80%#c8aceacc#D3BDEE

Gradients from #c8acea

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, #E8DDF6, #c8acea 45%, #3C1A66);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #c8acea, #E494D4);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #c8acea, #CEEAAC);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #F7F3FC 0%, #c8acea 45%, #3C1A66 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F7F4FA, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #D5D9F4 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #F0C4EF 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #3C1A66 0%, transparent 65%), #c8acea;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #c8acea

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.

#c8acea 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 10.54:1.

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.

#c8acea, answered

What color is #c8acea?

#c8acea is a light vivid violet, closest to Plum (ΔE2000 7.5). It sits at 267° on the hue wheel with 60% saturation and 80% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #c8acea?

rgb(200, 172, 234) — 200 red, 172 green and 234 blue out of 255, or 78.4% / 67.5% / 91.8% by channel.

What is #c8acea in HSL and HSV?

hsl(267, 60%, 80%) and hsv(267, 26%, 92%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #c8acea a light or a dark color?

It is a mid-tone. Relative luminance is 0.4772 and perceived brightness is 74%, so black text on it reaches 10.54:1.

Should I use black or white text on #c8acea?

Black. It scores 10.54:1 against #c8acea, versus 1.99:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #c8acea accessible on a white background?

#c8acea on white scores 1.99:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #8F57D4 to reach 4.5:1, or #7231C2 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #c8acea?

#CEEAAC sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #EAE7AC and #AFEAAC, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #c8acea?

For interface work: #F7F4FA as the surface, #D4C0ED for borders, #6F4B9B for secondary text, #8DA725 as an accent and #3C1A66 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #ACAFEA and #E7ACEA stays calm, while #CEEAAC is the loudest partner.

What is #c8acea in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(15%, 27%, 0%, 8%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #c8acea warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 68 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #DFACEA; nudged cooler, #B0ABEB.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #c8acea?

The fuchsia family — its 500 step is #d946ef, ΔE2000 21.9 away. That is a visible difference, so define #c8acea as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #c8acea in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#c8acea] or text-[#c8acea], 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 #c8acea with 50% opacity?

rgba(200, 172, 234, 0.5), or #c8acea80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #E4D6F5; over black, #645675.

Is #c8acea a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #CC99FF, ΔE2000 7.7 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #c8acea 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 #c8acea?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #E8DDF6, #c8acea 45%, #3C1A66). For more colour, a short hue run to #E494D4 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #c8acea in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #c8acea at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.