Skip to content
violet · cool

#c97ce5

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

Token name suggestion: Linen Iris

RGB
201, 124, 229
HSL
284°, 67%, 69%
CMYK
12, 46, 0, 10
Luminance
0.3249

#c97ce5 is a light vivid violet, 284° on the wheel and 59/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (7.50:1). As text it scores 2.80:1 on white — use #B040D9 instead. Nearest name is Orchid, nearest Tailwind family is fuchsia.

hsl(284 67% 69%)rgb(201 124 229)Base step 400AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #c97ce5 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#c97ce5
Hue
284°
violet
Saturation
67%
vivid
Lightness
69%
light
Brightness
90%
HSV value
Perceived
65%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.3249
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
59/100 cool
Color family
Violet
Tone
Vivid
Best ink
Black
7.50:1
Closest name
Orchid
ΔE2000 5.2
Chroma
62.8
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.707
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
fuchsia
500 · ΔE 9.5
Web-safe
#CC66CC
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue284° of 360°
Saturation67%
Lightness69%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #c97ce5.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool59% 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
Red38%
Green44%
Blue17%

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

Every format

HEX#c97ce5
HEX (8-digit)#c97ce5ff
RGBrgb(201, 124, 229)
RGBArgba(201, 124, 229, 1)
HSLhsl(284, 67%, 69%)
HSV / HSBhsv(284, 46%, 90%)
HWBhwb(284 49% 10%)
CMYKcmyk(12%, 46%, 0%, 10%)
LABlab(63.8 47.2 -41.5)
LCHlch(63.8 62.8 318.7)
OKLCHoklch(0.707 0.167 316.5)
XYZ (D65)xyz(45.44, 32.49, 77.99)
Decimal13204709
Display P3color(display-p3 0.788 0.486 0.898)
Web-safe#CC66CC

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #c97ce5;
background-color: #c97ce5;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #c97ce5;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#c97ce5] bg-[#c97ce5]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #c97ce5;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.788, green: 0.486, blue: 0.898)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.788, green: 0.486, blue: 0.898, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#C97CE5</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFC97CE5)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFC97CE5)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(229, 124, 201)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(201, 124, 229)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(201, 124, 229)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 201, 124, 229)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.7882f, 0.4863f, 0.8980f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{201,124,229}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #c97ce5 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #c97ce5 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#54156A, #E7D3EE);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #c97ce5 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: #F9F3FB;
  --brand-100: #F3E8F8;
  --brand-200: #E7CAF1;
  --brand-300: #D8A1EC;
  --brand-400: #c97ce5;
  --brand-500: #B244DA;
  --brand-600: #A129CC;
  --brand-700: #8622AA;
  --brand-800: #6B1B88;
  --brand-900: #4F1863;
  --brand-950: #310F3E;
  --brand: #c97ce5;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F9F4FA;
  --brand-border: #E1C0ED;
  --brand-hover: #BD5EDF;
  --brand-pressed: #B040D9;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #201424;
    --brand-ink: #E7D3EE;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F9F3FB',
        100: '#F3E8F8',
        200: '#E7CAF1',
        300: '#D8A1EC',
        400: '#c97ce5',
        500: '#B244DA',
        600: '#A129CC',
        700: '#8622AA',
        800: '#6B1B88',
        900: '#4F1863',
        950: '#310F3E',
        DEFAULT: '#c97ce5',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F9F3FB,
  '100': #F3E8F8,
  '200': #E7CAF1,
  '300': #D8A1EC,
  '400': #c97ce5,
  '500': #B244DA,
  '600': #A129CC,
  '700': #8622AA,
  '800': #6B1B88,
  '900': #4F1863,
  '950': #310F3E,
);
$brand-base: #c97ce5;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F9F3FB", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#F3E8F8", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#E7CAF1", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#D8A1EC", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#c97ce5", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#B244DA", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#A129CC", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#8622AA", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#6B1B88", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#4F1863", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#310F3E", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #c97ce5 · 7.50:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 2.80:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 7.50:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #c97ce5 as text scores 2.80:1 on white and 7.50:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #54156A at 4.43:1.

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
#B040D9 · 4.58:1
AA on white−14% L
#B040D9
The quick fox
#8A23AF · 7.14:1
AAA on white−28% L
#8A23AF
The quick fox
#c97ce5 · 7.50:1
AA on blackalready passes
#c97ce5
The quick fox
#c97ce5 · 7.50:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#c97ce5

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #C573E3 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
#c97ce5 on white: 2.80:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#c97ce5 on black: 7.50:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #c97ce5 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #c97ce5.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White2.80:1AaAa
Slate 502.68:1AaAa
Slate 1002.56:1AaAa
Slate 2002.27:1AaAa
Slate 3001.89:1AaAa
Slate 4001.09:1AaAa
Slate 5001.70:1AaAa
Slate 6002.71:1AaAa
Slate 7003.70:1AaAa
Slate 8005.22:1AaAa
Slate 9006.37:1AaAa
Black7.50:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #6996E9
deuteranopia · #7E9DE2
tritanopia · #C88BA6

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. #c97ce5 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.

#F9F3FB
#F3E8F8
#E7CAF1
#D8A1EC
#c97ce5
#B244DA
#A129CC
#8622AA
#6B1B88
#4F1863
#310F3E
Base = 400Lightest = 50 · #F9F3FBDarkest = 950 · #310F3EText 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 0.042 316.5);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.067 316.5);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.100 316.5);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.130 316.5);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.154 316.5);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.167 316.5);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.167 316.5);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.157 316.5);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.140 316.5);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.117 316.5);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.092 316.5);
}

Colors that work with #c97ce5

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#F9F4FA
Tinted page background
Border#E1C0ED
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#854B9B
Captions on the surface
Accent#68AE1E
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#54156A
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#F6EAFB
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#201424
Dark-mode background
Hover#BD5EDF
One step down in lightness
Pressed#B040D9
Two steps down
Disabled#EBE4ED
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#D386EF
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 #c97ce5

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 #54156A
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #C573E3

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
  • Weight31/100
  • 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#98E57C
Analogous left#947CE5
Analogous right#E57CCC
Split-complement 1#CCE57C
Split-complement 2#7CE594
Triadic 1#E5C97C
Triadic 2#7CE5C9
Tetradic#E5947C
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°284°

#c97ce5 sits at 284°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red78.8%
Green48.6%
Blue89.8%
R · 0–255
201
0xc9
G · 0–255
124
0x7c
B · 0–255
229
0xe5

CMYK percentages

Cyan12.2%
Magenta45.9%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)10.2%

Total ink coverage is 68%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#c97ce5 text on a black background

contrast 7.50:1

Card sample

#c97ce5 text on a white background

contrast 2.80:1

Card sample

#c97ce5 on grey

2.56:1

#c97ce5 on its own surface

2.58:1

#c97ce5 on its dark surface

6.32:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #c97ce5;
Background color
Panel with #c97ce5 background
background-color: #c97ce5;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #c97ce5;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(201, 124, 229, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(201, 124, 229, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #c97ce5;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #c97ce5, #E57CBB);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #c97ce5, #E57CA1);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #c97ce5;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #c97ce5;
caret-color: #c97ce5;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #c97ce5;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #F6EAFB;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #c97ce5;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#c97ce5 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #c97ce5 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(201, 124, 229, 0.5)
rgb(201 124 229 / 50%)
#c97ce580
hsl(284 67% 69% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #c97ce5 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#c97ce51a#FAF2FC
20%#c97ce533#F4E5FA
40%#c97ce566#E9CBF5
60%#c97ce599#DFB0EF
80%#c97ce5cc#D496EA

Gradients from #c97ce5

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, #DEAFEF, #c97ce5 45%, #54156A);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #c97ce5, #E062A3);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #c97ce5, #98E57C);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #E9C9F4 0%, #c97ce5 45%, #54156A 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F9F4FA, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #B1A6ED 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #EA95CF 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #54156A 0%, transparent 65%), #c97ce5;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #c97ce5

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.

#c97ce5 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 7.50:1.

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.

#c97ce5, answered

What color is #c97ce5?

#c97ce5 is a light vivid violet, closest to Orchid (ΔE2000 5.2). It sits at 284° on the hue wheel with 67% saturation and 69% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #c97ce5?

rgb(201, 124, 229) — 201 red, 124 green and 229 blue out of 255, or 78.8% / 48.6% / 89.8% by channel.

What is #c97ce5 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(284, 67%, 69%) and hsv(284, 46%, 90%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #c97ce5 a light or a dark color?

It is a mid-tone. Relative luminance is 0.3249 and perceived brightness is 65%, so black text on it reaches 7.50:1.

Should I use black or white text on #c97ce5?

Black. It scores 7.50:1 against #c97ce5, versus 2.80:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #c97ce5 accessible on a white background?

#c97ce5 on white scores 2.80:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #B040D9 to reach 4.5:1, or #8A23AF for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #c97ce5?

#98E57C sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #CCE57C and #7CE594, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #c97ce5?

For interface work: #F9F4FA as the surface, #E1C0ED for borders, #854B9B for secondary text, #68AE1E as an accent and #54156A for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #947CE5 and #E57CCC stays calm, while #98E57C is the loudest partner.

What is #c97ce5 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(12%, 46%, 0%, 10%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #c97ce5 warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 59 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #E57CDA; nudged cooler, #A27AE7.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #c97ce5?

The fuchsia family — its 500 step is #d946ef, ΔE2000 9.5 away. That is a visible difference, so define #c97ce5 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #c97ce5 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#c97ce5] or text-[#c97ce5], 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 #c97ce5 with 50% opacity?

rgba(201, 124, 229, 0.5), or #c97ce580 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #E4BEF2; over black, #653E73.

Is #c97ce5 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #CC66CC, ΔE2000 6.3 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #c97ce5 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 #c97ce5?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #DEAFEF, #c97ce5 45%, #54156A). For more colour, a short hue run to #E062A3 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #c97ce5 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #c97ce5 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.