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violet · cool

#ac8ce2

a light, vivid violet · cool · closest name: Medium Purple

Token name suggestion: Drift Iris

RGB
172, 140, 226
HSL
262°, 60%, 72%
CMYK
24, 38, 0, 11
Luminance
0.3302

#ac8ce2 is a light vivid violet, 262° on the wheel and 71/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (7.60:1). As text it scores 2.76:1 on white — use #895BD6 instead. Nearest name is Medium Purple, nearest Tailwind family is purple.

hsl(262 60% 72%)rgb(172 140 226)Base step 400AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #ac8ce2 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#ac8ce2
Hue
262°
violet
Saturation
60%
vivid
Lightness
72%
light
Brightness
89%
HSV value
Perceived
63%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.3302
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
71/100 cool
Color family
Violet
Tone
Vivid
Best ink
Black
7.60:1
Closest name
Medium Purple
ΔE2000 9
Chroma
49.1
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.703
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
purple
500 · ΔE 14.2
Web-safe
#9999CC
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue262° of 360°
Saturation60%
Lightness72%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #ac8ce2.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool71% 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
Red27%
Green57%
Blue17%

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

Every format

HEX#ac8ce2
HEX (8-digit)#ac8ce2ff
RGBrgb(172, 140, 226)
RGBArgba(172, 140, 226, 1)
HSLhsl(262, 60%, 72%)
HSV / HSBhsv(262, 38%, 89%)
HWBhwb(262 55% 11%)
CMYKcmyk(24%, 38%, 0%, 11%)
LABlab(64.2 29.5 -39.3)
LCHlch(64.2 49.1 306.8)
OKLCHoklch(0.703 0.127 300.3)
XYZ (D65)xyz(40.12, 33.02, 76.20)
Decimal11308258
Display P3color(display-p3 0.675 0.549 0.886)
Web-safe#9999CC

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #ac8ce2;
background-color: #ac8ce2;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #ac8ce2;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#ac8ce2] bg-[#ac8ce2]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #ac8ce2;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.675, green: 0.549, blue: 0.886)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.675, green: 0.549, blue: 0.886, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#AC8CE2</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFAC8CE2)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFAC8CE2)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(226, 140, 172)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(172, 140, 226)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(172, 140, 226)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 172, 140, 226)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.6745f, 0.5490f, 0.8863f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{172,140,226}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #ac8ce2 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #ac8ce2 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#361A66, #DDD3EE);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #ac8ce2 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: #F6F4FB;
  --brand-100: #EEE9F7;
  --brand-200: #D9CCEF;
  --brand-300: #BEA5E8;
  --brand-400: #ac8ce2;
  --brand-500: #7E4CD2;
  --brand-600: #6831C3;
  --brand-700: #5629A3;
  --brand-800: #452182;
  --brand-900: #351C5F;
  --brand-950: #21113B;
  --brand: #ac8ce2;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F7F4FA;
  --brand-border: #D0C0ED;
  --brand-hover: #9770DB;
  --brand-pressed: #8353D4;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #1A1424;
    --brand-ink: #DDD3EE;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F6F4FB',
        100: '#EEE9F7',
        200: '#D9CCEF',
        300: '#BEA5E8',
        400: '#ac8ce2',
        500: '#7E4CD2',
        600: '#6831C3',
        700: '#5629A3',
        800: '#452182',
        900: '#351C5F',
        950: '#21113B',
        DEFAULT: '#ac8ce2',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F6F4FB,
  '100': #EEE9F7,
  '200': #D9CCEF,
  '300': #BEA5E8,
  '400': #ac8ce2,
  '500': #7E4CD2,
  '600': #6831C3,
  '700': #5629A3,
  '800': #452182,
  '900': #351C5F,
  '950': #21113B,
);
$brand-base: #ac8ce2;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F6F4FB", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#EEE9F7", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#D9CCEF", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#BEA5E8", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#ac8ce2", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#7E4CD2", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#6831C3", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#5629A3", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#452182", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#351C5F", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#21113B", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #ac8ce2 · 7.60:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 2.76:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 7.60:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #ac8ce2 as text scores 2.76:1 on white and 7.60:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #361A66 at 5.08:1.

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
#895BD6 · 4.63:1
AA on white−12% L
#895BD6
The quick fox
#6C33CB · 7.06:1
AAA on white−22% L
#6C33CB
The quick fox
#ac8ce2 · 7.60:1
AA on blackalready passes
#ac8ce2
The quick fox
#ac8ce2 · 7.60:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#ac8ce2

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #A684E0 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
#ac8ce2 on white: 2.76:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#ac8ce2 on black: 7.60:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #ac8ce2 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #ac8ce2.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White2.76:1AaAa
Slate 502.64:1AaAa
Slate 1002.52:1AaAa
Slate 2002.24:1AaAa
Slate 3001.86:1AaAa
Slate 4001.08:1AaAa
Slate 5001.72:1AaAa
Slate 6002.74:1AaAa
Slate 7003.75:1AaAa
Slate 8005.30:1AaAa
Slate 9006.46:1AaAa
Black7.60:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #779BE5
deuteranopia · #7D9BE0
tritanopia · #A29AAC

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. #ac8ce2 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.

#F6F4FB
#EEE9F7
#D9CCEF
#BEA5E8
#ac8ce2
#7E4CD2
#6831C3
#5629A3
#452182
#351C5F
#21113B
Base = 400Lightest = 50 · #F6F4FBDarkest = 950 · #21113BText 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 0.032 300.3);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.051 300.3);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.076 300.3);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.099 300.3);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.117 300.3);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.127 300.3);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.127 300.3);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.119 300.3);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.106 300.3);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.089 300.3);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.070 300.3);
}

Colors that work with #ac8ce2

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#D0C0ED
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#684B9B
Captions on the surface
Accent#98A725
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#361A66
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#F0EBFA
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#1A1424
Dark-mode background
Hover#9770DB
One step down in lightness
Pressed#8353D4
Two steps down
Disabled#EEECF3
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#B696EC
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 #ac8ce2

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 #361A66
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #A684E0

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
  • Weight28/100
  • 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#C2E28C
Analogous left#8C97E2
Analogous right#D78CE2
Split-complement 1#E2D78C
Split-complement 2#97E28C
Triadic 1#E2AC8C
Triadic 2#8CE2AC
Tetradic#E28C97
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°262°

#ac8ce2 sits at 262°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red67.5%
Green54.9%
Blue88.6%
R · 0–255
172
0xac
G · 0–255
140
0x8c
B · 0–255
226
0xe2

CMYK percentages

Cyan23.9%
Magenta38.1%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)11.4%

Total ink coverage is 73%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#ac8ce2 text on a black background

contrast 7.60:1

Card sample

#ac8ce2 text on a white background

contrast 2.76:1

Card sample

#ac8ce2 on grey

2.52:1

#ac8ce2 on its own surface

2.54:1

#ac8ce2 on its dark surface

6.50:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #ac8ce2;
Background color
Panel with #ac8ce2 background
background-color: #ac8ce2;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #ac8ce2;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(172, 140, 226, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(172, 140, 226, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #ac8ce2;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #ac8ce2, #E28CDF);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #ac8ce2, #E28CC9);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #ac8ce2;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #ac8ce2;
caret-color: #ac8ce2;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #ac8ce2;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #F0EBFA;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #ac8ce2;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#ac8ce2 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #ac8ce2 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(172, 140, 226, 0.5)
rgb(172 140 226 / 50%)
#ac8ce280
hsl(262 60% 72% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #ac8ce2 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#ac8ce21a#F7F4FC
20%#ac8ce233#EEE8F9
40%#ac8ce266#DED1F3
60%#ac8ce299#CDBAEE
80%#ac8ce2cc#BDA3E8

Gradients from #ac8ce2

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, #CFBDEE, #ac8ce2 45%, #361A66);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #ac8ce2, #DC74CF);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #ac8ce2, #C2E28C);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #E1D5F5 0%, #ac8ce2 45%, #361A66 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%, #B5C1EC 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #E5A5E8 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #361A66 0%, transparent 65%), #ac8ce2;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #ac8ce2

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.

#ac8ce2 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 7.60:1.

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.

#ac8ce2, answered

What color is #ac8ce2?

#ac8ce2 is a light vivid violet, closest to Medium Purple (ΔE2000 9). It sits at 262° on the hue wheel with 60% saturation and 72% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #ac8ce2?

rgb(172, 140, 226) — 172 red, 140 green and 226 blue out of 255, or 67.5% / 54.9% / 88.6% by channel.

What is #ac8ce2 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(262, 60%, 72%) and hsv(262, 38%, 89%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #ac8ce2 a light or a dark color?

It is a mid-tone. Relative luminance is 0.3302 and perceived brightness is 63%, so black text on it reaches 7.60:1.

Should I use black or white text on #ac8ce2?

Black. It scores 7.60:1 against #ac8ce2, versus 2.76:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #ac8ce2 accessible on a white background?

#ac8ce2 on white scores 2.76:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #895BD6 to reach 4.5:1, or #6C33CB for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #ac8ce2?

#C2E28C sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #E2D78C and #97E28C, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #ac8ce2?

For interface work: #F7F4FA as the surface, #D0C0ED for borders, #684B9B for secondary text, #98A725 as an accent and #361A66 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #8C97E2 and #D78CE2 stays calm, while #C2E28C is the loudest partner.

What is #ac8ce2 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(24%, 38%, 0%, 11%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #ac8ce2 warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 71 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #CC8CE2; nudged cooler, #8B8BE3.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #ac8ce2?

The purple family — its 500 step is #a855f7, ΔE2000 14.2 away. That is a visible difference, so define #ac8ce2 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #ac8ce2 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#ac8ce2] or text-[#ac8ce2], 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 #ac8ce2 with 50% opacity?

rgba(172, 140, 226, 0.5), or #ac8ce280 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #D6C6F1; over black, #564671.

Is #ac8ce2 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #9999CC, ΔE2000 8.3 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #ac8ce2 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 #ac8ce2?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #CFBDEE, #ac8ce2 45%, #361A66). For more colour, a short hue run to #DC74CF keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #ac8ce2 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #ac8ce2 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.