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violet · cool

#dfd8ea

a pale, soft violet · cool · closest name: Lavender

Token name suggestion: Chalk Iris

RGB
223, 216, 234
HSL
263°, 30%, 88%
CMYK
5, 8, 0, 8
Luminance
0.7074

#dfd8ea is a pale soft violet, 263° on the wheel and 67/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (15.15:1). As text it scores 1.39:1 on white — use #8267AD instead. Nearest name is Lavender, nearest Tailwind family is zinc.

hsl(263 30% 88%)rgb(223 216 234)Base step 200AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #dfd8ea is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#dfd8ea
Hue
263°
violet
Saturation
30%
soft
Lightness
88%
pale
Brightness
92%
HSV value
Perceived
86%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.7074
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
67/100 cool
Color family
Violet
Tone
Soft
Best ink
Black
15.15:1
Closest name
Lavender
ΔE2000 4.1
Chroma
9.8
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.893
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
zinc
500 · ΔE 31.8
Web-safe
#CCCCFF
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue263° of 360°
Saturation30%
Lightness88%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #dfd8ea.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool67% 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
Red22%
Green69%
Blue8%

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

Every format

HEX#dfd8ea
HEX (8-digit)#dfd8eaff
RGBrgb(223, 216, 234)
RGBArgba(223, 216, 234, 1)
HSLhsl(263, 30%, 88%)
HSV / HSBhsv(263, 8%, 92%)
HWBhwb(263 85% 8%)
CMYKcmyk(5%, 8%, 0%, 8%)
LABlab(87.4 5.7 -8.0)
LCHlch(87.4 9.8 305.5)
OKLCHoklch(0.893 0.025 303.5)
XYZ (D65)xyz(69.84, 70.74, 87.80)
Decimal14670058
Display P3color(display-p3 0.875 0.847 0.918)
Web-safe#CCCCFF

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #dfd8ea;
background-color: #dfd8ea;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #dfd8ea;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#dfd8ea] bg-[#dfd8ea]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #dfd8ea;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.875, green: 0.847, blue: 0.918)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.875, green: 0.847, blue: 0.918, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#DFD8EA</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFDFD8EA)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFDFD8EA)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(234, 216, 223)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(223, 216, 234)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(223, 216, 234)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 223, 216, 234)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.8745f, 0.8471f, 0.9176f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{223,216,234}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #dfd8ea 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #dfd8ea 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#3B2D53, #DED7EA);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #dfd8ea 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: #F7F6F9;
  --brand-100: #EFECF3;
  --brand-200: #dfd8ea;
  --brand-300: #C3B6D8;
  --brand-400: #A592C4;
  --brand-500: #876DB0;
  --brand-600: #72569F;
  --brand-700: #5F4785;
  --brand-800: #4C396A;
  --brand-900: #392C4E;
  --brand-950: #241C31;
  --brand: #dfd8ea;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F7F5FA;
  --brand-border: #D3CAE2;
  --brand-hover: #CCC1DD;
  --brand-pressed: #B9A9D1;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #1A1424;
    --brand-ink: #DED7EA;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F7F6F9',
        100: '#EFECF3',
        200: '#dfd8ea',
        300: '#C3B6D8',
        400: '#A592C4',
        500: '#876DB0',
        600: '#72569F',
        700: '#5F4785',
        800: '#4C396A',
        900: '#392C4E',
        950: '#241C31',
        DEFAULT: '#dfd8ea',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F7F6F9,
  '100': #EFECF3,
  '200': #dfd8ea,
  '300': #C3B6D8,
  '400': #A592C4,
  '500': #876DB0,
  '600': #72569F,
  '700': #5F4785,
  '800': #4C396A,
  '900': #392C4E,
  '950': #241C31,
);
$brand-base: #dfd8ea;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F7F6F9", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#EFECF3", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#dfd8ea", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#C3B6D8", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#A592C4", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#876DB0", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#72569F", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#5F4785", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#4C396A", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#392C4E", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#241C31", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #dfd8ea · 15.15:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 1.39:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 15.15:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #dfd8ea as text scores 1.39:1 on white and 15.15:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #3B2D53 at 8.98:1.

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
#8267AD · 4.67:1
AA on white−34% L
#8267AD
The quick fox
#644B8C · 7.17:1
AAA on white−46% L
#644B8C
The quick fox
#dfd8ea · 15.15:1
AA on blackalready passes
#dfd8ea
The quick fox
#dfd8ea · 15.15:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#dfd8ea

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #9E88BF 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
#dfd8ea on white: 1.39:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#dfd8ea on black: 15.15:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #dfd8ea as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #dfd8ea.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White1.39:1AaAa
Slate 501.33:1AaAa
Slate 1001.27:1AaAa
Slate 2001.12:1AaAa
Slate 3001.07:1AaAa
Slate 4001.85:1AaAa
Slate 5003.43:1AaAa
Slate 6005.47:1AaAa
Slate 7007.47:1AaAa
Slate 80010.55:1AaAa
Slate 90012.88:1AaAa
Black15.15:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #D5DBEB
deuteranopia · #D6DBE9
tritanopia · #DDDADE

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. #dfd8ea is pinned to step 200; the rest hold its hue and let saturation ease off at the extremes so the pale end never turns neon.

#F7F6F9
#EFECF3
#dfd8ea
#C3B6D8
#A592C4
#876DB0
#72569F
#5F4785
#4C396A
#392C4E
#241C31
Base = 200Lightest = 50 · #F7F6F9Darkest = 950 · #241C31Text 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 0.006 303.5);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.010 303.5);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.015 303.5);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.020 303.5);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.023 303.5);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.025 303.5);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.025 303.5);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.024 303.5);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.021 303.5);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.018 303.5);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.014 303.5);
}

Colors that work with #dfd8ea

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#F7F5FA
Tinted page background
Border#D3CAE2
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#6B5095
Captions on the surface
Accent#7E8844
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#3B2D53
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#F1EEF6
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#1A1424
Dark-mode background
Hover#CCC1DD
One step down in lightness
Pressed#B9A9D1
Two steps down
Disabled#F4F3F7
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#E9E2F3
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 #dfd8ea

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

Works well for
  • Text and icons on dark surfaces
  • Charts, tags and secondary surfaces
  • Card and section backgrounds
  • Brand accents, badges and data highlights
Use with care
  • Text of any size on white — fails WCAG AA
  • 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 #3B2D53
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #9E88BF

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.

The muted chroma softens the association — it reads considered rather than loud, which suits long-form and data-heavy screens. The high lightness makes it recede — a surface colour rather than a statement.

Worth knowing

Deep violets swallow detail on screens with poor gamma; check it on a cheap laptop panel.

Reads as
  • FormalityMedium
  • EnergyMedium
  • Weight12/100
  • 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#E3EAD8
Analogous left#D8DAEA
Analogous right#E8D8EA
Split-complement 1#EAE8D8
Split-complement 2#DAEAD8
Triadic 1#EADFD8
Triadic 2#D8EADF
Tetradic#EAD8DA
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°263°

#dfd8ea sits at 263°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red87.5%
Green84.7%
Blue91.8%
R · 0–255
223
0xdf
G · 0–255
216
0xd8
B · 0–255
234
0xea

CMYK percentages

Cyan4.7%
Magenta7.7%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)8.2%

Total ink coverage is 21%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#dfd8ea text on a black background

contrast 15.15:1

Card sample

#dfd8ea text on a white background

contrast 1.39:1

Card sample

#dfd8ea on grey

1.27:1

#dfd8ea on its own surface

1.28:1

#dfd8ea on its dark surface

12.95:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #dfd8ea;
Background color
Panel with #dfd8ea background
background-color: #dfd8ea;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #dfd8ea;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(223, 216, 234, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(223, 216, 234, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #dfd8ea;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #dfd8ea, #EAD8E9);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #dfd8ea, #EAD8E4);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #dfd8ea;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #dfd8ea;
caret-color: #dfd8ea;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #dfd8ea;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #F1EEF6;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #dfd8ea;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#dfd8ea 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #dfd8ea 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(223, 216, 234, 0.5)
rgb(223 216 234 / 50%)
#dfd8ea80
hsl(263 30% 88% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #dfd8ea 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#dfd8ea1a#FCFBFD
20%#dfd8ea33#F9F7FB
40%#dfd8ea66#F2EFF7
60%#dfd8ea99#ECE8F2
80%#dfd8eacc#E5E0EE

Gradients from #dfd8ea

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, #F4F2F8, #dfd8ea 45%, #3B2D53);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #dfd8ea, #DFC4DB);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #dfd8ea, #E3EAD8);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #F7F5FA 0%, #dfd8ea 45%, #3B2D53 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F7F5FA, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #F9FAFC 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #F4ECF5 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #3B2D53 0%, transparent 65%), #dfd8ea;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #dfd8ea

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.

#dfd8ea 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

Very light tints can drop out on uncoated stock; check it at 100% size before signing off.

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 15.15:1.

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.

#dfd8ea, answered

What color is #dfd8ea?

#dfd8ea is a pale soft violet, closest to Lavender (ΔE2000 4.1). It sits at 263° on the hue wheel with 30% saturation and 88% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #dfd8ea?

rgb(223, 216, 234) — 223 red, 216 green and 234 blue out of 255, or 87.5% / 84.7% / 91.8% by channel.

What is #dfd8ea in HSL and HSV?

hsl(263, 30%, 88%) and hsv(263, 8%, 92%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #dfd8ea a light or a dark color?

It is a light color. Relative luminance is 0.7074 and perceived brightness is 86%, so black text on it reaches 15.15:1.

Should I use black or white text on #dfd8ea?

Black. It scores 15.15:1 against #dfd8ea, versus 1.39:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #dfd8ea accessible on a white background?

#dfd8ea on white scores 1.39:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #8267AD to reach 4.5:1, or #644B8C for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #dfd8ea?

#E3EAD8 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #EAE8D8 and #DAEAD8, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #dfd8ea?

For interface work: #F7F5FA as the surface, #D3CAE2 for borders, #6B5095 for secondary text, #7E8844 as an accent and #3B2D53 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #D8DAEA and #E8D8EA stays calm, while #E3EAD8 is the loudest partner.

What is #dfd8ea in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(5%, 8%, 0%, 8%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #dfd8ea warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 67 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #E6D8EA; nudged cooler, #D8D7EB.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #dfd8ea?

The zinc family — its 500 step is #71717a, ΔE2000 31.8 away. That is a visible difference, so define #dfd8ea as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #dfd8ea in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#dfd8ea] or text-[#dfd8ea], 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 #dfd8ea with 50% opacity?

rgba(223, 216, 234, 0.5), or #dfd8ea80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #EFECF5; over black, #706C75.

Is #dfd8ea a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #CCCCFF, ΔE2000 10.6 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #dfd8ea 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 moderate chroma the association is present but not shouted.

What gradient works with #dfd8ea?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #F4F2F8, #dfd8ea 45%, #3B2D53). For more colour, a short hue run to #DFC4DB keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #dfd8ea in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #dfd8ea at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.