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violet · cool

#af2cea

a balanced, electric violet · cool · closest name: Dark Orchid

Token name suggestion: Signal Iris

RGB
175, 44, 234
HSL
281°, 82%, 55%
CMYK
25, 81, 0, 8
Luminance
0.1686

#af2cea is a balanced electric violet, 281° on the wheel and 60/100 on the cool side. Put white text on it (4.80:1). As text it scores 4.80:1 on white — safe at any size. Nearest name is Dark Orchid, nearest Tailwind family is purple.

hsl(281 82% 55%)rgb(175 44 234)Base step 500AA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #af2cea is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#af2cea
Hue
281°
violet
Saturation
82%
electric
Lightness
55%
balanced
Brightness
92%
HSV value
Perceived
50%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.1686
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
60/100 cool
Color family
Violet
Tone
Electric
Best ink
White
4.80:1
Closest name
Dark Orchid
ΔE2000 5.3
Chroma
103.5
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.587
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
purple
500 · ΔE 6.9
Web-safe
#9933FF
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue281° of 360°
Saturation82%
Lightness55%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #af2cea.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool60% 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
Red54%
Green11%
Blue35%

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

Every format

HEX#af2cea
HEX (8-digit)#af2ceaff
RGBrgb(175, 44, 234)
RGBArgba(175, 44, 234, 1)
HSLhsl(281, 82%, 55%)
HSV / HSBhsv(281, 81%, 92%)
HWBhwb(281 17% 8%)
CMYKcmyk(25%, 81%, 0%, 8%)
LABlab(48.1 76.7 -69.5)
LCHlch(48.1 103.5 317.8)
OKLCHoklch(0.587 0.265 311.9)
XYZ (D65)xyz(33.43, 16.86, 79.32)
Decimal11480298
Display P3color(display-p3 0.686 0.173 0.918)
Web-safe#9933FF

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #af2cea;
background-color: #af2cea;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #af2cea;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#af2cea] bg-[#af2cea]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #af2cea;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.686, green: 0.173, blue: 0.918)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.686, green: 0.173, blue: 0.918, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#AF2CEA</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFAF2CEA)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFAF2CEA)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(234, 44, 175)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(175, 44, 234)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(175, 44, 234)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 175, 44, 234)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.6863f, 0.1725f, 0.9176f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{175,44,234}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #af2cea 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #af2cea 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#540C74, #E6D3EE);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #af2cea 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: #F9F2FC;
  --brand-100: #F3E6F9;
  --brand-200: #E7C6F6;
  --brand-300: #D899F5;
  --brand-400: #C566F0;
  --brand-500: #af2cea;
  --brand-600: #A016DF;
  --brand-700: #8612BA;
  --brand-800: #6B0F94;
  --brand-900: #4F0F6B;
  --brand-950: #310943;
  --brand: #af2cea;
  --brand-ink: #ffffff;
  --brand-surface: #F9F4FA;
  --brand-border: #DFC0ED;
  --brand-hover: #9F16DC;
  --brand-pressed: #8713BC;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #1F1424;
    --brand-ink: #E6D3EE;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F9F2FC',
        100: '#F3E6F9',
        200: '#E7C6F6',
        300: '#D899F5',
        400: '#C566F0',
        500: '#af2cea',
        600: '#A016DF',
        700: '#8612BA',
        800: '#6B0F94',
        900: '#4F0F6B',
        950: '#310943',
        DEFAULT: '#af2cea',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F9F2FC,
  '100': #F3E6F9,
  '200': #E7C6F6,
  '300': #D899F5,
  '400': #C566F0,
  '500': #af2cea,
  '600': #A016DF,
  '700': #8612BA,
  '800': #6B0F94,
  '900': #4F0F6B,
  '950': #310943,
);
$brand-base: #af2cea;
$brand-ink: #ffffff;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F9F2FC", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#F3E6F9", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#E7C6F6", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#D899F5", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#C566F0", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#af2cea", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#A016DF", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#8612BA", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#6B0F94", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#4F0F6B", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#310943", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$value": "#ffffff", "$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#ffffff on #af2cea · 4.80:1
Use #ffffffAA at every size, AAA for large text only.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 4.80:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 4.37:1
AA fail · AA large pass · AAA fail
Reading the other direction: #af2cea as text scores 4.80:1 on white and 4.37:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #F6E8FD at 4.09:1.

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
#af2cea · 4.80:1
AA on whitealready passes
#af2cea
The quick fox
#8B13C0 · 7.11:1
AAA on white−13% L
#8B13C0
The quick fox
#B131EA · 4.50:1
AA on black+1% L
#B131EA
The quick fox
#C972F1 · 7.16:1
AAA on black+15% L
#C972F1

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #AF2CEA 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
#af2cea on white: 4.80:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#af2cea on black: 4.37:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #af2cea as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #af2cea.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White4.80:1AaAa
Slate 504.59:1AaAa
Slate 1004.39:1AaAa
Slate 2003.90:1AaAa
Slate 3003.24:1AaAa
Slate 4001.87:1AaAa
Slate 5001.01:1AaAa
Slate 6001.58:1AaAa
Slate 7002.16:1AaAa
Slate 8003.04:1AaAa
Slate 9003.72:1AaAa
Black4.37:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #006CEF
deuteranopia · #0074E6
tritanopia · #A85E8E

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. #af2cea is pinned to step 500; the rest hold its hue and let saturation ease off at the extremes so the pale end never turns neon.

#F9F2FC
#F3E6F9
#E7C6F6
#D899F5
#C566F0
#af2cea
#A016DF
#8612BA
#6B0F94
#4F0F6B
#310943
Base = 500Lightest = 50 · #F9F2FCDarkest = 950 · #310943Text 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 0.066 311.9);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.106 311.9);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.159 311.9);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.207 311.9);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.244 311.9);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.265 311.9);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.265 311.9);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.249 311.9);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.222 311.9);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.185 311.9);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.146 311.9);
}

Colors that work with #af2cea

Not a palette — a role sheet. Each swatch answers one question you will hit while building the component.

Text on it#ffffff
White wins here
Surface#F9F4FA
Tinted page background
Border#DFC0ED
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#824B9B
Captions on the surface
Accent#71BE0E
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#540C74
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#F6E8FD
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#1F1424
Dark-mode background
Hover#9F16DC
One step down in lightness
Pressed#8713BC
Two steps down
Disabled#C8B6D0
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#BA34F6
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 #af2cea

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

Works well for
  • Body text and links on white
  • Primary buttons and calls to action
  • Focus rings, active and selected states
  • Brand accents, badges and data highlights
  • Chart series and data categories
Use with care
  • Full-page backgrounds — tiring over long sessions
  • Pairing with a same-lightness hue — edges vibrate
Minimum size as text on white
Any size
Safe as a fill behind white type
Yes
Safe as a 1px border on white
Yes

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 mid lightness keeps it versatile in both themes.

Worth knowing

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

Reads as
  • FormalityLow
  • EnergyHigh
  • Weight46/100
  • 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#67EA2C
Analogous left#502CEA
Analogous right#EA2CC6
Split-complement 1#C6EA2C
Split-complement 2#2CEA50
Triadic 1#EAAF2C
Triadic 2#2CEAAF
Tetradic#EA502C
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°281°

#af2cea sits at 281°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red68.6%
Green17.3%
Blue91.8%
R · 0–255
175
0xaf
G · 0–255
44
0x2c
B · 0–255
234
0xea

CMYK percentages

Cyan25.2%
Magenta81.2%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)8.2%

Total ink coverage is 115%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#af2cea text on a black background

contrast 4.37:1

Card sample

#af2cea text on a white background

contrast 4.80:1

Card sample

#af2cea on grey

4.39:1

#af2cea on its own surface

4.43:1

#af2cea on its dark surface

3.69:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #af2cea;
Background color
Panel with #af2cea background
background-color: #af2cea;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #af2cea;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(175, 44, 234, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(175, 44, 234, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #af2cea;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #af2cea, #EA2CA6);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #af2cea, #EA2C77);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #af2cea;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #af2cea;
caret-color: #af2cea;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #af2cea;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #F6E8FD;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #af2cea;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#af2cea 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #af2cea 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(175, 44, 234, 0.5)
rgb(175 44 234 / 50%)
#af2cea80
hsl(281 82% 55% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #af2cea 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#af2cea1a#F7EAFD
20%#af2cea33#EFD5FB
40%#af2cea66#DFABF7
60%#af2cea99#CF80F2
80%#af2ceacc#BF56EE

Gradients from #af2cea

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, #C464F0, #af2cea 45%, #540C74);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #af2cea, #E11688);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #af2cea, #67EA2C);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #CF7FF2 0%, #af2cea 45%, #540C74 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%, #6A5AEF 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #ED48C0 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #540C74 0%, transparent 65%), #af2cea;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #af2cea

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.

#af2cea 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
ButtonsLinksFocus statesCharts
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

Too dim on dark surfaces at 4.37:1 — lift it to #B131EA for body text, or reserve it for fills.

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.

#af2cea, answered

What color is #af2cea?

#af2cea is a balanced electric violet, closest to Dark Orchid (ΔE2000 5.3). It sits at 281° on the hue wheel with 82% saturation and 55% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #af2cea?

rgb(175, 44, 234) — 175 red, 44 green and 234 blue out of 255, or 68.6% / 17.3% / 91.8% by channel.

What is #af2cea in HSL and HSV?

hsl(281, 82%, 55%) and hsv(281, 81%, 92%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #af2cea a light or a dark color?

It is a dark color. Relative luminance is 0.1686 and perceived brightness is 50%, so white text on it reaches 4.80:1.

Should I use black or white text on #af2cea?

White. It scores 4.80:1 against #af2cea, versus 4.37:1 for black — AA at any size.

Is #af2cea accessible on a white background?

#af2cea on white scores 4.80:1, which clears AA at every size but not AAA.

What is the complementary color of #af2cea?

#67EA2C sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #C6EA2C and #2CEA50, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #af2cea?

For interface work: #F9F4FA as the surface, #DFC0ED for borders, #824B9B for secondary text, #71BE0E as an accent and #540C74 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #502CEA and #EA2CC6 stays calm, while #67EA2C is the loudest partner.

What is #af2cea in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(25%, 81%, 0%, 8%). 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 #af2cea warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 60 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #EA2CDF; nudged cooler, #692AEC.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #af2cea?

The purple family — its 500 step is #a855f7, ΔE2000 6.9 away. That is a visible difference, so define #af2cea as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #af2cea in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#af2cea] or text-[#af2cea], 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 #af2cea with 50% opacity?

rgba(175, 44, 234, 0.5), or #af2cea80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #D796F5; over black, #581675.

Is #af2cea a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #9933FF, ΔE2000 4.6 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #af2cea 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 #af2cea?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #C464F0, #af2cea 45%, #540C74). For more colour, a short hue run to #E11688 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #af2cea in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #af2cea at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.