Photo in the color Old lavender
Pictured: Old lavender
rgb(121, 104, 120)
#796878

Old Lavender #796878 RGB Color Code

Old Lavender (#796878) is a medium tinted gray. In RGB it is made of 47% red, 41% green and 47% blue (R 121, G 104, B 120). The red channel is the strongest. In HSL it has a hue of 304°, 8% saturation and 44% lightness. Its relative luminance is 0.153, so white text is easier to read on top of it. For print, a rough CMYK match is 0% cyan, 14% magenta, 1% yellow and 53% 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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Old Lavender color codes

#796878 in every common color format. Click a value to copy it.

FormatValueNotesCopy
HEX #796878 Valid CSS
RGB rgb(121, 104, 120) Valid CSS
HSL hsl(304, 8%, 44%) Valid CSS
HSV / HSB hsv(304, 14%, 47%) Not a CSS format
HWB hwb(304 41% 53%) Valid CSS
CMYK cmyk(0%, 14%, 1%, 53%) Approximate (no ICC profile)
OKLCH oklch(53.89% 0.0321 327.86) Valid CSS
OKLab oklab(53.89% 0.0272 -0.0171) Valid CSS
CIELAB lab(46.06% 9.26 -6.35) D50, as in CSS
CIELCH lch(46.06% 11.22 325.57) Valid CSS
Display P3 color(display-p3 0.4635 0.4103 0.4665) Valid CSS
XYZ (D65) color(xyz-d65 0.1622 0.1532 0.1987) Valid CSS
Decimal 7956600 Integer (0xRRGGBB)

CMYK here is a rough screen match without an ICC profile. See CMYK and print. Relative luminance: 0.1532. Nearest web-safe color: #666666.

Mix Old Lavender with other colors

See what #796878 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.

PaintOld Lavender and red paintOpen in the color mixer
LightOld Lavender and green lightOpen in the color mixer
PrintOld Lavender and cyan inkOpen in the color mixer
DigitalOld Lavender blended with blueOpen in the color mixer

Use Old Lavender in your code

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

WhereCodeCopy
CSS variable--old-lavender: #796878;
Sass variable$old-lavender: #796878;
Tailwind CSS v4@theme { --color-old-lavender: #796878; }
Tailwind CSS v3 configcolors: { 'old-lavender': '#796878' }
SwiftUIColor(red: 0.475, green: 0.408, blue: 0.471)
UIKitUIColor(red: 0.475, green: 0.408, blue: 0.471, alpha: 1)
Android XML<color name="old_lavender">#FF796878</color>
Flutter and Jetpack ComposeColor(0xFF796878)

Accessibility and contrast

White text works best on #796878 (5.17:1, AA). Here is how #796878 does as a text color:

Large heading text
Body text at 16px. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
5.17:1 on white
APCA Lc 76
AA
Large heading text
Body text at 16px. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
4.06:1 on black
APCA Lc -26
AA LargeTry #806F7F

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 Old Lavender

#796878 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

#796878 has almost no hue, so it looks much the same with every type of color blindness. Only its lightness counts. Try your own colors in the color blindness simulator.

About the color Old Lavender

The fourth lavender

Old lavender is a dark, grayish violet. Maerz and Paul's A Dictionary of Color of 1930 listed three main lavenders and then added old lavender as a darker gray one. The book dates it as a color name in English to 1924. The code #796878 comes from the ISCC-NBS list, which calls it grayish purple, as the Wikipedia article on lavender shows.

Far from the CSS lavender

The CSS keyword lavender is #E6E6FA, an almost white tint. Old lavender is much darker and grayer. Lavender gray is a lighter cousin from the same 1930 book.

Old Lavender in a user interface

A sample app screen with #796878 as the main color, on a light and a dark theme.

Light theme

Dark theme

Buttons and bars use #796878 as it is. On the dark theme, #796878 is too hard to read as text (3.44:1), so links, the badge and outline text use #8C7B8B there (4.50:1). Build a full color scheme around it in the UI color preview.

Color harmonies for Old Lavender

These schemes turn the hue of #796878 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#796878#687969

Analogous

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

Open palette
#726879this#796878#796870

Triadic

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

Open palette
this#796878#787968#687879

Split complementary

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

Open palette
this#796878#707968#687972

Tetradic (rectangle)

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

Open palette
this#796878#796968#687969#687879

Square

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

Open palette
this#796878#797268#687969#687079

Monochromatic

One hue at different levels of lightness and saturation.

Open palette
#372F36#635563#8F7D8E#B5A9B5#DCD6DB

Gradients with Old Lavender

Four CSS gradients made from #796878. 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, #E3DFE3, #796878);

Edit in the gradient generator

Deep shade

The color fading into a dark shade.

background: linear-gradient(180deg, #796878, #1D181D);

Edit in the gradient generator

Analogous

Its two neighbors on the color wheel.

background: linear-gradient(135deg, #726879, #796878, #796870);

Edit in the gradient generator

Triadic

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

background: linear-gradient(135deg, #796878, #797170, #787968);

Edit in the gradient generator

Shades, tints and tones of Old Lavender

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)

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

  1. 50
    FBF4FB
  2. 100
    F3E9F2
  3. 200
    E2D6E2
  4. 300
    CBBBCA
  5. 400
    AE9DAD
  6. 500
    918090
  7. 600
    796878
  8. 700
    5F505E
  9. 800
    4A3E49
  10. 900
    362D36
  11. 950
    201B20

Closest RAL, Tailwind and CSS colors

The nearest match to #796878 in three color systems that designers and builders use.

RAL ClassicRAL 4012 Pearl blackberry#6B6880, very close (ΔE 2.5)Tailwind CSSzinc-500 #71717A, very close (ΔE 2.7)CSS color namesdimgray #696969, very close (ΔE 3.7)

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 gray or search the color library.