Photo in the color Dark violet
Pictured: Dark violet
rgb(148, 0, 211)
#9400D3

Dark Violet #9400D3 RGB Color Code

CSS keyword darkviolet.

Dark Violet (#9400D3) is a very vivid, medium purple. In RGB it is made of 58% red, 0% green and 83% blue (R 148, G 0, B 211). The blue channel is the strongest. In HSL it has a hue of 282°, 100% saturation and 41% lightness. Its relative luminance is 0.110, so white text is easier to read on top of it. For print, a rough CMYK match is 30% cyan, 100% magenta, 0% yellow and 17% black. Check it against your printer's ICC profile before you print. It is a cool color. It goes well with warm oranges and reds for contrast. For a calm, matching look, use nearby cool tones.

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ConverterPalette generatorContrast checkerGradient builderUI previewSimilar names

Dark Violet color codes

#9400D3 in every common color format. Click a value to copy it.

FormatValueNotesCopy
HEX #9400D3 Valid CSS
CSS name darkviolet Valid CSS
RGB rgb(148, 0, 211) Valid CSS
HSL hsl(282, 100%, 41%) Valid CSS
HSV / HSB hsv(282, 100%, 83%) Not a CSS format
HWB hwb(282 0% 17%) Valid CSS
CMYK cmyk(30%, 100%, 0%, 17%) Approximate (no ICC profile)
OKLCH oklch(51.49% 0.2607 309.81) Valid CSS
OKLab oklab(51.49% 0.1669 -0.2002) Valid CSS
CIELAB lab(38.79% 70.43 -71.24) D50, as in CSS
CIELCH lch(38.79% 100.18 314.67) Valid CSS
Display P3 color(display-p3 0.5307 0.0988 0.7967) Valid CSS
XYZ (D65) color(xyz-d65 0.2397 0.11 0.6249) Valid CSS
Decimal 9699539 Integer (0xRRGGBB)

CMYK here is a rough screen match without an ICC profile. See CMYK and print. Relative luminance: 0.1100. Nearest web-safe color: #9900CC.

Mix Dark Violet with other colors

See what #9400D3 makes with red paint, under a green light, printed with cyan ink and in a digital blend with blue. Click a picture to change the colors and amounts in the color mixer.

PaintDark Violet and red paintOpen in the color mixer
LightDark Violet and green lightOpen in the color mixer
PrintDark Violet and cyan inkOpen in the color mixer
DigitalDark Violet blended with blueOpen in the color mixer

Use Dark Violet in your code

Ready to paste into CSS, Sass, Tailwind, iOS, Android and Flutter. Click the icon to copy a line.

WhereCodeCopy
CSS variable--dark-violet: #9400D3;
Sass variable$dark-violet: #9400D3;
Tailwind CSS v4@theme { --color-dark-violet: #9400D3; }
Tailwind CSS v3 configcolors: { 'dark-violet': '#9400D3' }
SwiftUIColor(red: 0.58, green: 0, blue: 0.827)
UIKitUIColor(red: 0.58, green: 0, blue: 0.827, alpha: 1)
Android XML<color name="dark_violet">#FF9400D3</color>
Flutter and Jetpack ComposeColor(0xFF9400D3)

Accessibility and contrast

White text works best on #9400D3 (6.56:1, AA). Here is how #9400D3 does as a text color:

Large heading text
Body text at 16px. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
6.56:1 on white
APCA Lc 80
AA
Large heading text
Body text at 16px. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
3.20:1 on black
APCA Lc -22
AA LargeTry #AC34EE

Check this color against any background in the contrast checker. WCAG ratios and APCA Lc values measure different things, so one can't stand in for the other. Learn more.

How people with color blindness see Dark Violet

#9400D3 next to its complement and its two triadic colors, as seen with each type of color blindness.

  • Normal visionhow most people see it
  • Protanopiano red cones, about 1% of men
  • Deuteranopiano green cones, the most common type
  • Tritanopiano blue cones, very rare
  • Achromatopsiano color at all, very rare

#9400D3 stays easy to tell apart from its complement and triadic colors for the common types of color blindness. Try your own colors in the color blindness simulator.

About the color Dark Violet

A keyword from the X11 list

Dark violet is a CSS color keyword, written as darkviolet. Its code #9400D3 comes from the X11 color list of the Unix world. Early web browsers copied that list, and the W3C later made it part of CSS.

The Wikipedia article on shades of violet treats it as pigment violet. That is the violet you got from paints and colored pencils in the 1950s. Brighter violet pigments only became common for artists in the 1970s.

Darker than violet? Not really

The names can mislead you. In CSS, violet is a pale pinkish lilac, so darkviolet is much stronger and more saturated, not just a deeper copy of it. Two neighbors in the CSS list are dark orchid, which is a bit grayer, and blue-violet, which leans toward blue. French violet is almost the same shade.

White text works

White text on dark violet has a contrast ratio of 6.56 to 1. That passes the WCAG level AA rule for normal text. Try other text colors on it with the contrast checker.

Dark Violet in a user interface

A sample app screen with #9400D3 as the main color, on a light and a dark theme.

Light theme

Dark theme

Buttons and bars use #9400D3 as it is. On the dark theme, #9400D3 is too hard to read as text (2.71:1), so links, the badge and outline text use #B945FC there (4.50:1). Build a full color scheme around it in the UI color preview.

Color harmonies for Dark Violet

These schemes turn the hue of #9400D3 around the color wheel. Each swatch links to its own page.

Complementary

Two colors on opposite sides of the wheel. This gives the most contrast.

Open palette
this#9400D3#3FD300

Analogous

Hues that sit next to each other and look good together.

Open palette
#2B00D3this#9400D3#D300A9

Triadic

Three hues spaced evenly around the wheel. Bold, but still balanced.

Open palette
this#9400D3#D39400#00D394

Split complementary

A base color plus the two hues on each side of its opposite. Strong contrast that clashes less.

Open palette
this#9400D3#A9D300#00D32B

Tetradic (rectangle)

Two pairs of opposite colors. Let one color lead and use the others less.

Open palette
this#9400D3#D3003F#3FD300#00D394

Square

Four hues 90° apart, spread evenly around the wheel.

Open palette
this#9400D3#D32B00#3FD300#00A9D3

Monochromatic

One hue at different levels of lightness and saturation.

Open palette
#480066#8200B9#B70DFF#CF60FF#E8B3FF

Gradients with Dark Violet

Four CSS gradients made from #9400D3. Copy the code, or open one in the gradient generator to change it.

Soft tint

From a pale tint to the full color.

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #EAD6FA, #9400D3);

Edit in the gradient generator

Deep shade

The color fading into a dark shade.

background: linear-gradient(180deg, #9400D3, #26003A);

Edit in the gradient generator

Analogous

Its two neighbors on the color wheel.

background: linear-gradient(135deg, #2B00D3, #9400D3, #D300A9);

Edit in the gradient generator

Triadic

A bold blend with a triadic color, through a clean middle.

background: linear-gradient(135deg, #9400D3, #AF6A93, #D39400);

Edit in the gradient generator

Shades, tints and tones of Dark Violet

Shades are darker, tints are lighter and tones are grayer. We make them in OKLCH so the steps look even. Hover a step to see its code, or click it to open it.

Design system scale (50 to 950)

Dark Violet sits at step 600. Export the full scale as CSS variables or Tailwind tokens from the picker.

  1. 50
    FAF4FF
  2. 100
    F4E7FF
  3. 200
    E9CEFF
  4. 300
    DAA9FF
  5. 400
    C978FF
  6. 500
    B540F7
  7. 600
    9400D3
  8. 700
    7B00B0
  9. 800
    61008C
  10. 900
    480069
  11. 950
    2A093D

Closest RAL, Tailwind and CSS colors

The nearest match to #9400D3 in three color systems that designers and builders use.

RAL ClassicRAL 4008 Signal violet#904684, rough match (ΔE 15.3)Tailwind CSSpurple-700 #7E22CE, very close (ΔE 4.6)CSS color namesdarkviolet #9400D3, exact match (ΔE 0.0)

ΔE is the distance in OKLab: under 2 is hard to see, over 10 is a clearly different color. Browse all RAL colors, the Tailwind palette or the 148 CSS color names. RAL values on screens are only a guide, so check a real color chart before you order paint.

The named colors that look closest to this one (ΔE in OKLab). Browse all shades of purple or search the color library.