Pastel Purple Color Codes

Pastel Purple is a mid-tone, desaturated purple with the hex code #B39EB5, RGB values of 179, 158, 181 and an HSL value of hsl(295, 13%, 66%).

HEX	#B39EB5
RGB	179, 158, 181
HSL	hsl(295, 13%, 66%)
HSV	295°, 13%, 71%
CMYK	1%, 13%, 0%, 29%
LAB	67.56, 11.88, -9.05
CIELCHuv	67.56, 18.75, 304.25°

Nearest Pantone: PMS 666 C ΔE 4.4 · approximate
Nearest CSS name: thistle ΔE 12.6

Community source color-name-list, community color-name index

Pastel Purple Color Hex Code

The Pastel Purple color hex code is #B39EB5. Those six digits are three pairs, B3 for red, 9E for green and B5 for blue, which is the same triplet a browser reads from the CSS value below.

#B39EB5

Pastel Purple Color RGB Code

The Pastel Purple RGB code is rgb(179, 158, 181). Blue carries the most light at 181 of 255, which is what puts this color where it sits on the wheel.

rgb(179, 158, 181)

Pastel Purple Color HSV Code

The Pastel Purple HSV code is 295°, 13%, 71%. Read it as a hue of 295 degrees, 13% saturation and 71% value, which is the form most color pickers use because moving one number changes one thing.

295°, 13%, 71%

Pastel Purple Color CIELChuv Code

The Pastel Purple CIELCHuv code is 67.56, 18.75, 304.25°. Unlike hex or RGB this one is perceptual: lightness 68 means light to the eye rather than to the screen, and chroma 19 is how far it sits from grey.

67.56, 18.75, 304.25°

Tonal scale

What are Pastel Purple 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

Open in the shades & tints generator →

Palettes

What are Pastel Purple Color Palette Codes?

Each of these is a hue rotation from #B39EB5. They are generated, not curated, so they are exact.

Complementary

Half a turn away is #A0B59E, a light, desaturated 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 #A89EB5 and #B59EAC, 30 degrees out. Low tension by construction: useful when you need several related tones that still feel like one choice.

Triadic

#B5B39E and #9EB5B3 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: #ACB59E and #9EB5A8. 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 #A0B59E, and #B5A89E with #9EACB5. The richest of the five and the hardest to balance, so treat the darkest of the four as the lead and hold the other three well back.

See these on the color wheel →

Accessibility

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

2.48:1

2.48

contrast ratio on white 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

Black background

8.47:1

8.47

contrast ratio on black 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

At 2.48:1 against white, Pastel Purple is a fill color rather than a text color. Use it for surfaces, borders and large display type, and set the copy in ink. Text placed on it should be black, which gives 8.47:1. With very little saturation it behaves as a neutral, which makes it a good background or a supporting tone alongside a stronger accent.

Check Pastel Purple against another color →

Color vision

How Pastel Purple 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

actual

#AAAAB0

Pastel Purple shifts noticeably here. ΔE 12.5

No working red cones. Reds darken sharply and drift toward the same muddy olive as green.

Deuteranopia

About 1% of men

actual

#ACADAF

Pastel Purple shifts noticeably here. ΔE 14.6

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

actual

#B2ACAB

Pastel Purple shifts noticeably here. ΔE 14.7

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

actual

#A4A4A4

Pastel Purple shifts noticeably here. ΔE 14.9

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, Pastel Purple reads as #ACADAF. That is a shift of ΔE 14.6, so it is a different color to roughly one man in sixteen. The widest shift is under tritanopia, at ΔE 14.7. 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.

Simulate a whole palette →

Snippets

Using Pastel Purple in code

:root {
  --pastel-purple: #B39EB5;
}

.example {
  color: var(--pastel-purple);
}

// tailwind.config.js
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      'pastel-purple': '#B39EB5',
    },
  },
}

// SwiftUI takes 0–1 components, not 0–255.
let pastelPurple = Color(
    red: 0.702,
    green: 0.620,
    blue: 0.710
)

<!-- res/values/colors.xml -->
<color name="pastel_purple">#B39EB5</color>

// Flutter wants ARGB: FF for full opacity, then the hex.
const pastelPurple = Color(0xFFB39EB5);

Meaning

What is the Meaning of Pastel Purple Color?

Pastel Purple reads as softness and nostalgia. It is muted enough to work as a background rather than a signal, and at 13% saturation with a perceptual lightness of 68 it behaves as a warm-leaning color, which is the practical reason it turns up where it does.

What are Other Names of Pastel Purple Color?

The closest CSS keyword is Thistle (#D8BFD8), though it is not a match: Delta-E 12.6 means the difference is visible side by side. For print the nearest Pantone is PMS 666 C at #A893AD. The name Pastel Purple comes from the community color-name index rather than a standards body, so you will meet it under other names elsewhere.

How is Pastel Purple Color Made?

On a screen Pastel Purple is made by additive light: 179 red, 158 green and 181 blue out of 255, with blue leading and 158 as the floor. In print it is subtractive instead, mixed as 1%, 13%, 0%, 29%. Starting from the pure hue at 295 degrees, Pastel Purple is a tone, so it is that hue knocked back with grey.