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violet · cool

#b59ef1

a light, vivid violet · cool · closest name: Plum

Token name suggestion: Linen Thistle

RGB
181, 158, 241
HSL
257°, 75%, 78%
CMYK
25, 34, 0, 6
Luminance
0.4063

#b59ef1 is a light vivid violet, 257° on the wheel and 74/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (9.13:1). As text it scores 2.30:1 on white — use #825BE7 instead. Nearest name is Plum, nearest Tailwind family is purple.

hsl(257 75% 78%)rgb(181 158 241)Base step 300AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #b59ef1 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#b59ef1
Hue
257°
violet
Saturation
75%
vivid
Lightness
78%
light
Brightness
95%
HSV value
Perceived
69%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.4063
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
74/100 cool
Color family
Violet
Tone
Vivid
Best ink
Black
9.13:1
Closest name
Plum
ΔE2000 11.5
Chroma
46.2
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.751
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
purple
500 · ΔE 18.4
Web-safe
#CC99FF
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue257° of 360°
Saturation75%
Lightness78%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #b59ef1.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool74% 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
Red24%
Green60%
Blue16%

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

Every format

HEX#b59ef1
HEX (8-digit)#b59ef1ff
RGBrgb(181, 158, 241)
RGBArgba(181, 158, 241, 1)
HSLhsl(257, 75%, 78%)
HSV / HSBhsv(257, 34%, 95%)
HWBhwb(257 62% 5%)
CMYKcmyk(25%, 34%, 0%, 6%)
LABlab(69.9 25.5 -38.6)
LCHlch(69.9 46.2 303.5)
OKLCHoklch(0.751 0.119 296.1)
XYZ (D65)xyz(47.16, 40.63, 88.56)
Decimal11902705
Display P3color(display-p3 0.710 0.620 0.945)
Web-safe#CC99FF

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #b59ef1;
background-color: #b59ef1;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #b59ef1;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#b59ef1] bg-[#b59ef1]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #b59ef1;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.710, green: 0.620, blue: 0.945)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.710, green: 0.620, blue: 0.945, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#B59EF1</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFB59EF1)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFB59EF1)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(241, 158, 181)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(181, 158, 241)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(181, 158, 241)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 181, 158, 241)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.7098f, 0.6196f, 0.9451f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{181,158,241}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #b59ef1 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #b59ef1 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#2A106F, #DAD3EE);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #b59ef1 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: #F5F3FC;
  --brand-100: #ECE7F9;
  --brand-200: #D4C8F4;
  --brand-300: #b59ef1;
  --brand-400: #8F6CEA;
  --brand-500: #693BE3;
  --brand-600: #521FD6;
  --brand-700: #441AB2;
  --brand-800: #36158F;
  --brand-900: #2A1367;
  --brand-950: #1A0C41;
  --brand: #b59ef1;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F6F4FA;
  --brand-border: #CCC0ED;
  --brand-hover: #9D7FEC;
  --brand-pressed: #855FE8;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #181424;
    --brand-ink: #DAD3EE;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F5F3FC',
        100: '#ECE7F9',
        200: '#D4C8F4',
        300: '#b59ef1',
        400: '#8F6CEA',
        500: '#693BE3',
        600: '#521FD6',
        700: '#441AB2',
        800: '#36158F',
        900: '#2A1367',
        950: '#1A0C41',
        DEFAULT: '#b59ef1',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F5F3FC,
  '100': #ECE7F9,
  '200': #D4C8F4,
  '300': #b59ef1,
  '400': #8F6CEA,
  '500': #693BE3,
  '600': #521FD6,
  '700': #441AB2,
  '800': #36158F,
  '900': #2A1367,
  '950': #1A0C41,
);
$brand-base: #b59ef1;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F5F3FC", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#ECE7F9", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#D4C8F4", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#b59ef1", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#8F6CEA", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#693BE3", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#521FD6", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#441AB2", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#36158F", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#2A1367", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#1A0C41", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #b59ef1 · 9.13:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 2.30:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 9.13:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #b59ef1 as text scores 2.30:1 on white and 9.13:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #2A106F at 6.51:1.

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
#825BE7 · 4.57:1
AA on white−15% L
#825BE7
The quick fox
#602EE1 · 7.06:1
AAA on white−25% L
#602EE1
The quick fox
#b59ef1 · 9.13:1
AA on blackalready passes
#b59ef1
The quick fox
#b59ef1 · 9.13:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#b59ef1

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #A083ED 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
#b59ef1 on white: 2.30:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#b59ef1 on black: 9.13:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #b59ef1 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #b59ef1.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White2.30:1AaAa
Slate 502.20:1AaAa
Slate 1002.10:1AaAa
Slate 2001.87:1AaAa
Slate 3001.55:1AaAa
Slate 4001.11:1AaAa
Slate 5002.07:1AaAa
Slate 6003.29:1AaAa
Slate 7004.50:1AaAa
Slate 8006.36:1AaAa
Slate 9007.76:1AaAa
Black9.13:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #89ABF4
deuteranopia · #8CAAEF
tritanopia · #A9ACBD

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. #b59ef1 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.

#F5F3FC
#ECE7F9
#D4C8F4
#b59ef1
#8F6CEA
#693BE3
#521FD6
#441AB2
#36158F
#2A1367
#1A0C41
Base = 300Lightest = 50 · #F5F3FCDarkest = 950 · #1A0C41Text 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 0.030 296.1);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.048 296.1);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.072 296.1);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.093 296.1);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.110 296.1);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.119 296.1);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.119 296.1);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.112 296.1);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.100 296.1);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.084 296.1);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.066 296.1);
}

Colors that work with #b59ef1

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#F6F4FA
Tinted page background
Border#CCC0ED
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#614B9B
Captions on the surface
Accent#B2B616
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#2A106F
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#EEE9FC
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#181424
Dark-mode background
Hover#9D7FEC
One step down in lightness
Pressed#855FE8
Two steps down
Disabled#F4F3F7
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#C0ABF8
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 #b59ef1

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 #2A106F
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #A083ED

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
  • Weight22/100
  • 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#DAF19E
Analogous left#9EB0F1
Analogous right#DE9EF1
Split-complement 1#F1DE9E
Split-complement 2#B0F19E
Triadic 1#F1B59E
Triadic 2#9EF1B5
Tetradic#F19EB0
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°257°

#b59ef1 sits at 257°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red71.0%
Green62.0%
Blue94.5%
R · 0–255
181
0xb5
G · 0–255
158
0x9e
B · 0–255
241
0xf1

CMYK percentages

Cyan24.9%
Magenta34.4%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)5.5%

Total ink coverage is 65%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#b59ef1 text on a black background

contrast 9.13:1

Card sample

#b59ef1 text on a white background

contrast 2.30:1

Card sample

#b59ef1 on grey

2.10:1

#b59ef1 on its own surface

2.11:1

#b59ef1 on its dark surface

7.84:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #b59ef1;
Background color
Panel with #b59ef1 background
background-color: #b59ef1;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #b59ef1;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(181, 158, 241, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(181, 158, 241, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #b59ef1;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #b59ef1, #EC9EF1);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #b59ef1, #F19EE1);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #b59ef1;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #b59ef1;
caret-color: #b59ef1;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #b59ef1;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #EEE9FC;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #b59ef1;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#b59ef1 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #b59ef1 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(181, 158, 241, 0.5)
rgb(181 158 241 / 50%)
#b59ef180
hsl(257 75% 78% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #b59ef1 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#b59ef11a#F8F5FE
20%#b59ef133#F0ECFC
40%#b59ef166#E1D8F9
60%#b59ef199#D3C5F7
80%#b59ef1cc#C4B1F4

Gradients from #b59ef1

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, #DED3F9, #b59ef1 45%, #2A106F);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #b59ef1, #ED83EA);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #b59ef1, #DAF19E);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #F2EEFD 0%, #b59ef1 45%, #2A106F 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F6F4FA, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #CAD8F7 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #ECB9F5 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #2A106F 0%, transparent 65%), #b59ef1;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #b59ef1

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.

#b59ef1 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 9.13:1.

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.

#b59ef1, answered

What color is #b59ef1?

#b59ef1 is a light vivid violet, closest to Plum (ΔE2000 11.5). It sits at 257° on the hue wheel with 75% saturation and 78% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #b59ef1?

rgb(181, 158, 241) — 181 red, 158 green and 241 blue out of 255, or 71% / 62% / 94.5% by channel.

What is #b59ef1 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(257, 75%, 78%) and hsv(257, 34%, 95%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #b59ef1 a light or a dark color?

It is a mid-tone. Relative luminance is 0.4063 and perceived brightness is 69%, so black text on it reaches 9.13:1.

Should I use black or white text on #b59ef1?

Black. It scores 9.13:1 against #b59ef1, versus 2.30:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #b59ef1 accessible on a white background?

#b59ef1 on white scores 2.30:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #825BE7 to reach 4.5:1, or #602EE1 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #b59ef1?

#DAF19E sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #F1DE9E and #B0F19E, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #b59ef1?

For interface work: #F6F4FA as the surface, #CCC0ED for borders, #614B9B for secondary text, #B2B616 as an accent and #2A106F for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #9EB0F1 and #DE9EF1 stays calm, while #DAF19E is the loudest partner.

What is #b59ef1 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(25%, 34%, 0%, 6%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #b59ef1 warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 74 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #D39EF1; nudged cooler, #9DA4F2.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #b59ef1?

The purple family — its 500 step is #a855f7, ΔE2000 18.4 away. That is a visible difference, so define #b59ef1 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #b59ef1 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#b59ef1] or text-[#b59ef1], 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 #b59ef1 with 50% opacity?

rgba(181, 158, 241, 0.5), or #b59ef180 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #DACFF8; over black, #5B4F79.

Is #b59ef1 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #CC99FF, ΔE2000 5.4 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #b59ef1 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 #b59ef1?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #DED3F9, #b59ef1 45%, #2A106F). For more colour, a short hue run to #ED83EA keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #b59ef1 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #b59ef1 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.