Complementary
Two colors from opposite sides of the wheel. They make each other look more vivid, which is why the pairing is used for anything that needs to stand out.
Purple screen
A purple screen is a display filled edge to edge with purple, produced by lighting the red and blue subpixels with little or no green. It is used for mood and accent lighting, as a backdrop for photography and streaming, and to test the red and blue channels together.
Quick colors, then fill the screen
Or a gradient
Or let it move
#7A5CFFrgb(122, 92, 255) · hsl(251, 100%, 68%)
- Mood and accent lighting
- Streaming and photography backdrops
- Testing red and blue channels together
- Atmospheric wash for a room
Purple color codes
Every value for #7A5CFF, ready to paste. Click any code to copy it.
| Channel | Decimal | Share | Hex | Octal | Binary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Red | 122 | 47.84% | 7A | 172 | 01111010 |
| Green | 92 | 36.08% | 5C | 134 | 01011100 |
| Blue | 255 | 100% | FF | 377 | 11111111 |
The nearest web-safe color is #6666FF, from the 216-color palette browsers agreed on before displays could be trusted with more.
Shades, tints and tones
Every step is generated from #7A5CFF. Click a swatch to copy its hex.
Shades of purple
A shade is the base color with black mixed in. Shades read as deeper and more dramatic, and they are what you reach for when a color needs to recede or carry weight.
Tints of purple
A tint is the base color with white mixed in. Tints turn pastel as they lighten, which makes them useful for backgrounds and for anything that has to sit behind text.
Tones of purple
A tone is the base color with grey mixed in. Tones lose the shout without losing the hue, and they are usually what separates a considered palette from a loud one.
The purple scale
The same color as the 50 to 950 ladder every CSS framework uses, with #7A5CFF at 500. Click a step to copy its hex, or take the whole scale as variables for a design system.
Color schemes built on purple
Harmonies are positions on the color wheel rather than matters of taste, which is why they keep working across very different designs.
Analogous
Three neighbours on the wheel. Nothing competes, so the result reads calm and settled, closer to how colour behaves in nature.
Split complementary
The base plus the two colors either side of its complement. It keeps most of the contrast while being much easier to balance.
Triadic
Three colors spaced evenly around the wheel. Strong and lively, and usually best with one dominant color and two accents.
Tetradic
Two complementary pairs, forming a rectangle on the wheel. The richest scheme available, and the hardest to keep from shouting.
Monochromatic
One hue at different lightness levels. Effortlessly cohesive, and the safest way to build a palette around a brand color.
Colors close to #7A5CFF
Near neighbours, for when this color is almost right. Each one shifts hue, saturation or lightness by a small step.
Purple color palettes
Five-color palettes built around #7A5CFF, each following a different scheme. Click any swatch to copy it, or open the generator to build your own.
Analogous
Complementary
Triadic
Monochromatic
Open the palette generator to lock the colors you like and regenerate the rest.
Contrast and readability
Whether purple works as text, and what to put on top of it when it is the background. Ratios follow WCAG 2.1, where 4.5 is the bar for body text and 3 for large text.
Purple text on white background
4.37:1 · Large text onlyLarge text at 24 pixels
Body text at 16 pixels. A flat field of color removes every variable, which is what makes it useful for judging a display.
- Body AA
- Body AAA
- Large AA
- Large AAA
Purple text on black background
4.8:1 · GoodLarge text at 24 pixels
Body text at 16 pixels. A flat field of color removes every variable, which is what makes it useful for judging a display.
- Body AA
- Body AAA
- Large AA
- Large AAA
Used the other way round, #7A5CFF as a background takes #000000 text. That is the higher-contrast of the two, and it is what the tool picks automatically for any chrome sitting on your color.
Purple reads better on a black background of the two. Contrast is a property of the pair, not of one color, so a color that fails here can still be perfectly usable against a different partner.
About purple
What this color does, where it works, and what it reveals about the screen showing it.
What purple is
Red and blue lit together with green held back. There is no purple wavelength the way there is a red or a green one. Your eye interprets the combination of the longest and shortest wavelengths as a color that does not exist in the spectrum.
Where it works
Streaming setups, gaming rooms and product photography. A purple wash behind a desk has become close to a default look, and there are practical reasons for that rather than just fashion.
How it reads
Purple has meant royalty and expense for two thousand years, because the dye was ruinously hard to make. It still reads as premium, creative and slightly synthetic, which is exactly why technology brands reach for it.
On a display
A useful combined test of the red and blue channels, and a genuine stress test in general. Saturated purples sit near the edge of what most panels can produce, so this is where a display gives up first, with banding or a drift toward blue across the screen.
Why streamers use it
It separates a subject from the background without looking like a studio, and it sits far enough from skin tones that it does not muddy a face the way green or yellow can, while being much less clinical than plain blue.
Getting it right
Put the screen behind and to one side, out of frame, and turn the brightness down until it reads as a glow rather than a light source. Saturated purple at full output is a lot. The effect you want arrives at about a fifth of it.
Common questions
- How does a display produce purple?
- By lighting the red and blue subpixels while keeping green low or off. There is no purple wavelength in the same sense as red or green; your eye interprets the combination of long and short wavelengths as purple.
- Why is purple so popular for streaming setups?
- It reads as modern and atmospheric on camera, it separates a person from the background without looking like a studio, and it flatters most skin tones better than green or blue. A purple wash behind a desk has become close to a default look.
- Can a purple screen test my monitor?
- It is a useful combined check on the red and blue channels. A pixel with a fault in either one will drift noticeably toward the other color against a uniform purple field.
- What is the difference between purple and violet here?
- In everyday use they are interchangeable. Strictly, violet is a single short wavelength at the end of the visible spectrum, while purple is a mixture of red and blue. Everything a screen shows you is the second kind.
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