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violet · neutral

#b331ce

a balanced, vivid violet · neutral · closest name: Dark Orchid

Token name suggestion: Signal Amethyst

RGB
179, 49, 206
HSL
290°, 62%, 50%
CMYK
13, 76, 0, 19
Luminance
0.1624

#b331ce is a balanced vivid violet, 290° on the wheel and 56/100 on the cool side. Put white text on it (4.94:1). As text it scores 4.94:1 on white — safe at any size. Nearest name is Dark Orchid, nearest Tailwind family is purple.

hsl(290 62% 50%)rgb(179 49 206)Base step 600AA inkNeutral

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #b331ce is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#b331ce
Hue
290°
violet
Saturation
62%
vivid
Lightness
50%
balanced
Brightness
81%
HSV value
Perceived
49%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.1624
WCAG relative
Temperature
Neutral
56/100 cool
Color family
Violet
Tone
Vivid
Best ink
White
4.94:1
Closest name
Dark Orchid
ΔE2000 5
Chroma
89.5
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.577
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
purple
500 · ΔE 9.2
Web-safe
#CC33CC
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue290° of 360°
Saturation62%
Lightness50%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #b331ce.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool56% cool

Reads neutral. Warm and cool siblings keep the same lightness, so you can swap one in without redoing your contrast maths.

Luminance by channel
Red59%
Green14%
Blue27%

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

Every format

HEX#b331ce
HEX (8-digit)#b331ceff
RGBrgb(179, 49, 206)
RGBArgba(179, 49, 206, 1)
HSLhsl(290, 62%, 50%)
HSV / HSBhsv(290, 76%, 81%)
HWBhwb(290 19% 19%)
CMYKcmyk(13%, 76%, 0%, 19%)
LABlab(47.3 70.8 -54.8)
LCHlch(47.3 89.5 322.3)
OKLCHoklch(0.577 0.239 320.0)
XYZ (D65)xyz(30.83, 16.24, 59.89)
Decimal11743694
Display P3color(display-p3 0.702 0.192 0.808)
Web-safe#CC33CC

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #b331ce;
background-color: #b331ce;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #b331ce;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#b331ce] bg-[#b331ce]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #b331ce;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.702, green: 0.192, blue: 0.808)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.702, green: 0.192, blue: 0.808, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#B331CE</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFB331CE)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFB331CE)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(206, 49, 179)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(179, 49, 206)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(179, 49, 206)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 179, 49, 206)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.7020f, 0.1922f, 0.8078f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{179,49,206}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #b331ce 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #b331ce 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#5A1867, #E9D3EE);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #b331ce 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: #FAF4FB;
  --brand-100: #F5E8F7;
  --brand-200: #EACCF0;
  --brand-300: #DEA4E9;
  --brand-400: #CD77DF;
  --brand-500: #BC4AD4;
  --brand-600: #b331ce;
  --brand-700: #8F27A5;
  --brand-800: #731F84;
  --brand-900: #541B60;
  --brand-950: #34113C;
  --brand: #b331ce;
  --brand-ink: #ffffff;
  --brand-surface: #F9F4FA;
  --brand-border: #E5C0ED;
  --brand-hover: #9A2AB1;
  --brand-pressed: #812394;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #221424;
    --brand-ink: #E9D3EE;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#FAF4FB',
        100: '#F5E8F7',
        200: '#EACCF0',
        300: '#DEA4E9',
        400: '#CD77DF',
        500: '#BC4AD4',
        600: '#b331ce',
        700: '#8F27A5',
        800: '#731F84',
        900: '#541B60',
        950: '#34113C',
        DEFAULT: '#b331ce',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #FAF4FB,
  '100': #F5E8F7,
  '200': #EACCF0,
  '300': #DEA4E9,
  '400': #CD77DF,
  '500': #BC4AD4,
  '600': #b331ce,
  '700': #8F27A5,
  '800': #731F84,
  '900': #541B60,
  '950': #34113C,
);
$brand-base: #b331ce;
$brand-ink: #ffffff;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#FAF4FB", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#F5E8F7", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#EACCF0", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#DEA4E9", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#CD77DF", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#BC4AD4", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#b331ce", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#8F27A5", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#731F84", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#541B60", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#34113C", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #b331ce · 4.94:1
Use #ffffffAA at every size, AAA for large text only.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 4.94:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 4.25:1
AA fail · AA large pass · AAA fail
Reading the other direction: #b331ce as text scores 4.94:1 on white and 4.25:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #F7EAFA at 4.26:1.

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
#b331ce · 4.94:1
AA on whitealready passes
#b331ce
The quick fox
#8F27A5 · 7.00:1
AAA on white−10% L
#8F27A5
The quick fox
#B83DD1 · 4.63:1
AA on black+3% L
#B83DD1
The quick fox
#CB73DE · 7.05:1
AAA on black+16% L
#CB73DE

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #B331CE 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
#b331ce on white: 4.94:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#b331ce on black: 4.25:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #b331ce as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #b331ce.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White4.94:1AaAa
Slate 504.73:1AaAa
Slate 1004.51:1AaAa
Slate 2004.01:1AaAa
Slate 3003.33:1AaAa
Slate 4001.93:1AaAa
Slate 5001.04:1AaAa
Slate 6001.53:1AaAa
Slate 7002.09:1AaAa
Slate 8002.96:1AaAa
Slate 9003.61:1AaAa
Black4.25:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #0067D2
deuteranopia · #4074CB
tritanopia · #B3527F

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. #b331ce is pinned to step 600; the rest hold its hue and let saturation ease off at the extremes so the pale end never turns neon.

#FAF4FB
#F5E8F7
#EACCF0
#DEA4E9
#CD77DF
#BC4AD4
#b331ce
#8F27A5
#731F84
#541B60
#34113C
Base = 600Lightest = 50 · #FAF4FBDarkest = 950 · #34113CText 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 0.060 320.0);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.096 320.0);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.143 320.0);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.186 320.0);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.220 320.0);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.239 320.0);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.239 320.0);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.225 320.0);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.201 320.0);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.167 320.0);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.131 320.0);
}

Colors that work with #b331ce

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#E5C0ED
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#8D4B9B
Captions on the surface
Accent#5BA923
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#5A1867
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#F7EAFA
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#221424
Dark-mode background
Hover#9A2AB1
One step down in lightness
Pressed#812394
Two steps down
Disabled#C2A8C7
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#C136DE
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 #b331ce

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.

This is a confident chroma: strong enough to lead a brand, restrained enough to live in an interface all day. 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
  • FormalityMedium
  • EnergyMedium-high
  • Weight50/100
  • TemperatureNeutral
  • 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#4CCE31
Analogous left#6531CE
Analogous right#CE319A
Split-complement 1#9ACE31
Split-complement 2#31CE65
Triadic 1#CEB331
Triadic 2#31CEB3
Tetradic#CE6531
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°290°

#b331ce sits at 290°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red70.2%
Green19.2%
Blue80.8%
R · 0–255
179
0xb3
G · 0–255
49
0x31
B · 0–255
206
0xce

CMYK percentages

Cyan13.1%
Magenta76.2%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)19.2%

Total ink coverage is 109%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#b331ce text on a black background

contrast 4.25:1

Card sample

#b331ce text on a white background

contrast 4.94:1

Card sample

#b331ce on grey

4.51:1

#b331ce on its own surface

4.56:1

#b331ce on its dark surface

3.56:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #b331ce;
Background color
Panel with #b331ce background
background-color: #b331ce;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #b331ce;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(179, 49, 206, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(179, 49, 206, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #b331ce;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #b331ce, #CE3180);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #b331ce, #CE3159);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #b331ce;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #b331ce;
caret-color: #b331ce;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #b331ce;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #F7EAFA;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #b331ce;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#b331ce 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #b331ce 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(179, 49, 206, 0.5)
rgb(179 49 206 / 50%)
#b331ce80
hsl(290 62% 50% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #b331ce 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#b331ce1a#F7EAFA
20%#b331ce33#F0D6F5
40%#b331ce66#E1ADEB
60%#b331ce99#D183E2
80%#b331cecc#C25AD8

Gradients from #b331ce

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, #C562DA, #b331ce 45%, #5A1867);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #b331ce, #B52B65);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #b331ce, #4CCE31);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #CE7BE0 0%, #b331ce 45%, #5A1867 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%, #795AD8 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #D44A9B 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #5A1867 0%, transparent 65%), #b331ce;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #b331ce

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.

#b331ce 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

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

Too dim on dark surfaces at 4.25:1 — lift it to #B83DD1 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.

#b331ce, answered

What color is #b331ce?

#b331ce is a balanced vivid violet, closest to Dark Orchid (ΔE2000 5). It sits at 290° on the hue wheel with 62% saturation and 50% lightness, which reads as neutral.

What is the RGB value of #b331ce?

rgb(179, 49, 206) — 179 red, 49 green and 206 blue out of 255, or 70.2% / 19.2% / 80.8% by channel.

What is #b331ce in HSL and HSV?

hsl(290, 62%, 50%) and hsv(290, 76%, 81%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #b331ce a light or a dark color?

It is a dark color. Relative luminance is 0.1624 and perceived brightness is 49%, so white text on it reaches 4.94:1.

Should I use black or white text on #b331ce?

White. It scores 4.94:1 against #b331ce, versus 4.25:1 for black — AA at any size.

Is #b331ce accessible on a white background?

#b331ce on white scores 4.94:1, which clears AA at every size but not AAA.

What is the complementary color of #b331ce?

#4CCE31 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #9ACE31 and #31CE65, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #b331ce?

For interface work: #F9F4FA as the surface, #E5C0ED for borders, #8D4B9B for secondary text, #5BA923 as an accent and #5A1867 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #6531CE and #CE319A stays calm, while #4CCE31 is the loudest partner.

What is #b331ce in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(13%, 76%, 0%, 19%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #b331ce warm or cool?

Neutral — it scores 56 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #CE31AF; nudged cooler, #792ED1.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #b331ce?

The purple family — its 500 step is #a855f7, ΔE2000 9.2 away. That is a visible difference, so define #b331ce as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #b331ce in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#b331ce] or text-[#b331ce], 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 #b331ce with 50% opacity?

rgba(179, 49, 206, 0.5), or #b331ce80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #D998E7; over black, #5A1967.

Is #b331ce a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #CC33CC, ΔE2000 5.3 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #b331ce 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 #b331ce?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #C562DA, #b331ce 45%, #5A1867). For more colour, a short hue run to #B52B65 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #b331ce in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #b331ce at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.