Byzantium Color Codes
Byzantium is a dark, muted magenta with the hex code #702963, RGB values of 112, 41, 99 and an HSL value of hsl(311, 46%, 30%).
| HEX | #702963 |
|---|---|
| RGB | 112, 41, 99 |
| HSL | hsl(311, 46%, 30%) |
| HSV | 311°, 63%, 44% |
| CMYK | 0%, 63%, 12%, 56% |
| LAB | 29.24, 38.87, -19.03 |
| CIELCHuv | 29.24, 44.22, 319.33° |
- Nearest Pantone
- PMS 255 C ΔE 3.1 · approximate
- Nearest CSS name
-
darkslateblueΔE 26.4
Source Wikipedia, List of colors (cites ISCC-NBS)
Byzantium Color Hex Code
The Byzantium color hex code is #702963. Those six digits are three pairs, 70 for red, 29 for green and 63 for blue, which is the same triplet a browser reads from the CSS value below.
#702963
Byzantium Color RGB Code
The Byzantium RGB code is rgb(112, 41, 99). Red carries the most light at 112 of 255, which is what puts this color where it sits on the wheel.
rgb(112, 41, 99)
Byzantium Color HSV Code
The Byzantium HSV code is 311°, 63%, 44%. Read it as a hue of 311 degrees, 63% saturation and 44% value, which is the form most color pickers use because moving one number changes one thing.
311°, 63%, 44%
Byzantium Color CIELChuv Code
The Byzantium CIELCHuv code is 29.24, 44.22, 319.33°. Unlike hex or RGB this one is perceptual: lightness 29 means dark to the eye rather than to the screen, and chroma 44 is how far it sits from grey.
29.24, 44.22, 319.33°
Tonal scale
What are Byzantium Color Palettes?
A shade mixes toward black, a tint toward white, a tone toward grey. Every step keeps the hue and is copy-ready.
Shades, toward black
Tints, toward white
Tones, toward grey
Palettes
What are Byzantium Color Palette Codes?
Each of these is a hue rotation from #702963. They are generated, not curated, so they are exact.
Complementary
Half a turn away is #297036, a dark, muted green. This is the widest separation the wheel offers, and the reason complementary pairs are the default for anything that must stand out. Neither is especially saturated, so this pairing stays calm enough for large areas of both.
Analogous
Either side sit #592970 and #702940, 30 degrees out. Low tension by construction: useful when you need several related tones that still feel like one choice.
Triadic
#637029 and #296370 complete an even 120 degree split. Three fully independent hues, so one has to lead: keep this base dominant and let the other two appear in small quantities.
Split-complementary
Instead of the direct complement, this takes the two hues either side of it: #407029 and #297059. Almost the same contrast, without the edge shimmer a true complementary pair produces at high saturation.
Tetradic
Two complementary pairs forming a rectangle: this base with #297036, and #705A29 with #294070. The richest of the five and the hardest to balance, so treat this base as the lead and hold the other three well back.
Accessibility
Contrast checker: is Byzantium accessible?
Measured against white and against black, with a separate verdict for each element type. Small text, large text and UI components have different thresholds, so one pass or fail for the whole color would be wrong roughly a third of the time.
White background
9.61:19.61
contrast ratio on white background
| Element | AA | AAA |
|---|---|---|
| Small text needs 4.5:1 / 7:1 | Passes | Passes |
| Large text needs 3:1 / 4.5:1 | Passes | Passes |
| UI component needs 3:1 | Passes | n/a |
Black background
2.19:12.19
contrast ratio on black background
| Element | AA | AAA |
|---|---|---|
| Small text needs 4.5:1 / 7:1 | Fails | Fails |
| Large text needs 3:1 / 4.5:1 | Fails | Fails |
| UI component needs 3:1 | Fails | n/a |
Byzantium clears WCAG AA against white at 9.61:1, so it is safe for body copy as well as headings. Text placed on it should be white, which gives 9.61:1.
Color vision
How Byzantium looks with color blindness
Around 300 million people see color differently from the way it is specified. Each card shows the actual color beside how it appears, and how common that form of vision is.
Protanopia
About 1% of men#5A5959
Byzantium changes substantially here. ΔE 43.9
No working red cones. Reds darken sharply and drift toward the same muddy olive as green.
Deuteranopia
About 1% of men#5D6156
Byzantium changes substantially here. ΔE 50.6
No working green cones. With the milder deuteranomaly at nearer 6% of men, this is by far the most common form, and the one worth designing around.
Tritanopia
About 1 in 10,000#6E504E
Byzantium changes substantially here. ΔE 37.4
No working blue cones. Blues shift toward green and yellows toward pink. Rare, and unlike the others it is not sex-linked, so it affects men and women equally.
Achromatopsia
About 1 in 30,000#454545
Byzantium changes substantially here. ΔE 43.3
No color vision at all. Also a fair proxy for how the color survives a greyscale print or a failing screen.
To a deuteranope, the most common form, Byzantium reads as #5D6156. That is a shift of ΔE 50.6, so it is a different color to roughly one man in sixteen. The widest shift is under deuteranopia, at ΔE 50.6. The rule this leads to needs no simulator: never let color be the only thing carrying a message. Add a label, an icon, or a clear difference in lightness, and the problem disappears for everyone.
Snippets
Using Byzantium in code
:root {
--byzantium: #702963;
}
.example {
color: var(--byzantium);
}// tailwind.config.js
theme: {
extend: {
colors: {
'byzantium': '#702963',
},
},
}// SwiftUI takes 0–1 components, not 0–255.
let byzantium = Color(
red: 0.439,
green: 0.161,
blue: 0.388
)<!-- res/values/colors.xml -->
<color name="byzantium">#702963</color>// Flutter wants ARGB: FF for full opacity, then the hex.
const byzantium = Color(0xFF702963);