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violet · cool

#cb8bfd

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

Token name suggestion: Linen Plum

RGB
203, 139, 253
HSL
274°, 97%, 77%
CMYK
20, 45, 0, 1
Luminance
0.3825

#cb8bfd is a light electric violet, 274° on the wheel and 65/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (8.65:1). As text it scores 2.43:1 on white — use #A536FC instead. Nearest name is Violet, nearest Tailwind family is fuchsia.

hsl(274 97% 77%)rgb(203 139 253)Base step 300AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #cb8bfd is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#cb8bfd
Hue
274°
violet
Saturation
97%
electric
Lightness
77%
light
Brightness
99%
HSV value
Perceived
69%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.3825
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
65/100 cool
Color family
Violet
Tone
Electric
Best ink
Black
8.65:1
Closest name
Violet
ΔE2000 7.9
Chroma
65.5
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.744
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
fuchsia
500 · ΔE 12.9
Web-safe
#CC99FF
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue274° of 360°
Saturation97%
Lightness77%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #cb8bfd.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool65% 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
Red33%
Green48%
Blue19%

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

Every format

HEX#cb8bfd
HEX (8-digit)#cb8bfdff
RGBrgb(203, 139, 253)
RGBArgba(203, 139, 253, 1)
HSLhsl(274, 97%, 77%)
HSV / HSBhsv(274, 45%, 99%)
HWBhwb(274 55% 1%)
CMYKcmyk(20%, 45%, 0%, 1%)
LABlab(68.2 44.9 -47.6)
LCHlch(68.2 65.5 313.3)
OKLCHoklch(0.744 0.170 308.7)
XYZ (D65)xyz(51.59, 38.25, 97.58)
Decimal13339645
Display P3color(display-p3 0.796 0.545 0.992)
Web-safe#CC99FF

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #cb8bfd;
background-color: #cb8bfd;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #cb8bfd;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#cb8bfd] bg-[#cb8bfd]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #cb8bfd;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.796, green: 0.545, blue: 0.992)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.796, green: 0.545, blue: 0.992, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#CB8BFD</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFCB8BFD)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFCB8BFD)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(253, 139, 203)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(203, 139, 253)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(203, 139, 253)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 203, 139, 253)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.7961f, 0.5451f, 0.9922f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{203,139,253}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #cb8bfd 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #cb8bfd 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#47027D, #E2D3EE);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #cb8bfd 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: #F8F1FD;
  --brand-100: #F1E4FC;
  --brand-200: #E1C1FB;
  --brand-300: #cb8bfd;
  --brand-400: #B55AFC;
  --brand-500: #9C22FB;
  --brand-600: #8904F1;
  --brand-700: #7203C9;
  --brand-800: #5B03A0;
  --brand-900: #440774;
  --brand-950: #2A0448;
  --brand: #cb8bfd;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F8F4FA;
  --brand-border: #D9C0ED;
  --brand-hover: #BB68FC;
  --brand-pressed: #AC45FC;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #1D1424;
    --brand-ink: #E2D3EE;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F8F1FD',
        100: '#F1E4FC',
        200: '#E1C1FB',
        300: '#cb8bfd',
        400: '#B55AFC',
        500: '#9C22FB',
        600: '#8904F1',
        700: '#7203C9',
        800: '#5B03A0',
        900: '#440774',
        950: '#2A0448',
        DEFAULT: '#cb8bfd',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F8F1FD,
  '100': #F1E4FC,
  '200': #E1C1FB,
  '300': #cb8bfd,
  '400': #B55AFC,
  '500': #9C22FB,
  '600': #8904F1,
  '700': #7203C9,
  '800': #5B03A0,
  '900': #440774,
  '950': #2A0448,
);
$brand-base: #cb8bfd;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F8F1FD", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#F1E4FC", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#E1C1FB", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#cb8bfd", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#B55AFC", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#9C22FB", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#8904F1", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#7203C9", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#5B03A0", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#440774", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#2A0448", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #cb8bfd · 8.65:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 2.43:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 8.65:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #cb8bfd as text scores 2.43:1 on white and 8.65:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #47027D at 5.50:1.

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
#A536FC · 4.63:1
AA on white−17% L
#A536FC
The quick fox
#7D04DC · 7.18:1
AAA on white−33% L
#7D04DC
The quick fox
#cb8bfd · 8.65:1
AA on blackalready passes
#cb8bfd
The quick fox
#cb8bfd · 8.65:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#cb8bfd

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #BE6DFC 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
#cb8bfd on white: 2.43:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#cb8bfd on black: 8.65:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #cb8bfd as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #cb8bfd.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White2.43:1AaAa
Slate 502.32:1AaAa
Slate 1002.22:1AaAa
Slate 2001.97:1AaAa
Slate 3001.64:1AaAa
Slate 4001.06:1AaAa
Slate 5001.96:1AaAa
Slate 6003.12:1AaAa
Slate 7004.27:1AaAa
Slate 8006.03:1AaAa
Slate 9007.35:1AaAa
Black8.65:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #70A4FF
deuteranopia · #80A7FA
tritanopia · #C49DB8

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. #cb8bfd 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.

#F8F1FD
#F1E4FC
#E1C1FB
#cb8bfd
#B55AFC
#9C22FB
#8904F1
#7203C9
#5B03A0
#440774
#2A0448
Base = 300Lightest = 50 · #F8F1FDDarkest = 950 · #2A0448Text 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 0.043 308.7);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.068 308.7);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.102 308.7);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.133 308.7);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.156 308.7);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.170 308.7);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.170 308.7);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.160 308.7);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.143 308.7);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.119 308.7);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.094 308.7);
}

Colors that work with #cb8bfd

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#D9C0ED
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#784B9B
Captions on the surface
Accent#8CCC00
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#47027D
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#F4E6FF
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#1D1424
Dark-mode background
Hover#BB68FC
One step down in lightness
Pressed#AC45FC
Two steps down
Disabled#F5F3F7
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#D49EFF
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 #cb8bfd

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 #47027D
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #BE6DFC

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
  • Weight23/100
  • 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#BDFD8B
Analogous left#928BFD
Analogous right#FD8BF6
Split-complement 1#F6FD8B
Split-complement 2#8BFD92
Triadic 1#FDCB8B
Triadic 2#8BFDCB
Tetradic#FD928B
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°274°

#cb8bfd sits at 274°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red79.6%
Green54.5%
Blue99.2%
R · 0–255
203
0xcb
G · 0–255
139
0x8b
B · 0–255
253
0xfd

CMYK percentages

Cyan19.8%
Magenta45.1%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)0.8%

Total ink coverage is 66%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#cb8bfd text on a black background

contrast 8.65:1

Card sample

#cb8bfd text on a white background

contrast 2.43:1

Card sample

#cb8bfd on grey

2.22:1

#cb8bfd on its own surface

2.23:1

#cb8bfd on its dark surface

7.34:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #cb8bfd;
Background color
Panel with #cb8bfd background
background-color: #cb8bfd;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #cb8bfd;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(203, 139, 253, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(203, 139, 253, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #cb8bfd;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #cb8bfd, #FD8BE3);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #cb8bfd, #FD8BC7);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #cb8bfd;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #cb8bfd;
caret-color: #cb8bfd;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #cb8bfd;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #F4E6FF;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #cb8bfd;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#cb8bfd 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #cb8bfd 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(203, 139, 253, 0.5)
rgb(203 139 253 / 50%)
#cb8bfd80
hsl(274 97% 77% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #cb8bfd 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#cb8bfd1a#FAF3FF
20%#cb8bfd33#F5E8FF
40%#cb8bfd66#EAD1FE
60%#cb8bfd99#E0B9FE
80%#cb8bfdcc#D5A2FD

Gradients from #cb8bfd

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, #E6C7FE, #cb8bfd 45%, #47027D);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #cb8bfd, #FC6DD0);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #cb8bfd, #BDFD8B);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #F4E5FF 0%, #cb8bfd 45%, #47027D 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%, #BDBFFE 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #FEA9F1 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #47027D 0%, transparent 65%), #cb8bfd;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #cb8bfd

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.

#cb8bfd 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 8.65:1.

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.

#cb8bfd, answered

What color is #cb8bfd?

#cb8bfd is a light electric violet, closest to Violet (ΔE2000 7.9). It sits at 274° on the hue wheel with 97% saturation and 77% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #cb8bfd?

rgb(203, 139, 253) — 203 red, 139 green and 253 blue out of 255, or 79.6% / 54.5% / 99.2% by channel.

What is #cb8bfd in HSL and HSV?

hsl(274, 97%, 77%) and hsv(274, 45%, 99%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #cb8bfd a light or a dark color?

It is a mid-tone. Relative luminance is 0.3825 and perceived brightness is 69%, so black text on it reaches 8.65:1.

Should I use black or white text on #cb8bfd?

Black. It scores 8.65:1 against #cb8bfd, versus 2.43:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #cb8bfd accessible on a white background?

#cb8bfd on white scores 2.43:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #A536FC to reach 4.5:1, or #7D04DC for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #cb8bfd?

#BDFD8B sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #F6FD8B and #8BFD92, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #cb8bfd?

For interface work: #F8F4FA as the surface, #D9C0ED for borders, #784B9B for secondary text, #8CCC00 as an accent and #47027D for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #928BFD and #FD8BF6 stays calm, while #BDFD8B is the loudest partner.

What is #cb8bfd in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(20%, 45%, 0%, 1%). 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 #cb8bfd warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 65 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #F58BFD; nudged cooler, #A18AFE.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #cb8bfd?

The fuchsia family — its 500 step is #d946ef, ΔE2000 12.9 away. That is a visible difference, so define #cb8bfd as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #cb8bfd in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#cb8bfd] or text-[#cb8bfd], 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 #cb8bfd with 50% opacity?

rgba(203, 139, 253, 0.5), or #cb8bfd80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #E5C5FE; over black, #66467F.

Is #cb8bfd a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #CC99FF, ΔE2000 3.4 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #cb8bfd 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 #cb8bfd?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #E6C7FE, #cb8bfd 45%, #47027D). For more colour, a short hue run to #FC6DD0 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #cb8bfd in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #cb8bfd at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.