Amethyst
#9966CCPurple family
About Amethyst
Amethyst (#9966CC) is a medium, moderately saturated purple. Purple blends red's passion with blue's calm, and has long been linked to royalty, creativity and mystery, giving this shade a distinctive, elevated feel.
Psychology
Purple sparks imagination and is associated with luxury, spirituality and creativity. It feels mysterious and premium, and because it appears less often in nature it tends to stand out and feel special.
Applications
Purple suits beauty, gaming, spirituality, education and premium or creative brands. It works beautifully for gradients and accents, from soft lavenders for calm wellness brands to deep violets for luxury and tech.
History
Tyrian purple, extracted from sea snails, was so costly in antiquity that it became the color of emperors and royalty. Purple became affordable only after William Henry Perkin accidentally synthesized mauveine dye in 1856.
Meaning
Purple symbolizes royalty, wisdom, spirituality and ambition across many cultures. It can also evoke magic and mystery, and lighter lavenders carry a soft, calming femininity.
Why use this color
Use purple to convey creativity, luxury or a touch of magic. It is ideal for brands that want to feel imaginative and premium, and for interfaces that need an elegant, distinctive accent.
Accessibility
Against white, #9966CC has a 4.1:1 contrast ratio; against black it is 5.1:1. Black text on #9966CC meets WCAG AA for normal text.
Fun facts
- Tyrian purple was made from the mucus of thousands of sea snails.
- The first synthetic dye, mauveine, was a purple discovered by accident in 1856.
- Purple is one of the least common colors in nature, which adds to its sense of rarity.
Shades, tints & tones
Variations
Ten lightness steps plus Amethyst's tints, shades and tones — every swatch copies its hex on click.
Lightness scale
Tints (toward white)
Shades (toward black)
Tones (toward gray)
Color theory
Color harmonies
Proven schemes built around Amethyst. Each swatch is one click from your clipboard.
Complementary
Analogous
Triadic
Split-complementary
Tetradic
Monochromatic
Accessibility
Blindness simulator
See how Amethyst is perceived with common types of color vision deficiency.
Normal vision
Standard trichromatic vision, shown for reference.
Protanopia
Red-blind. Reds look darker and can be confused with greens and browns.
Deuteranopia
Green-blind. Greens look muted and can be confused with reds and browns.
Tritanopia
Blue-blind. Blues look greenish and yellows fade toward pink.
Achromatopsia
Complete color blindness. Everything is seen in shades of gray.
WCAG
Contrast checker
How Amethyst performs against black and white text, with WCAG AA and AAA ratings.
The ratio is identical whether Amethyst is used as the text or the background.
Open the full checkerReady to use
Color palettes
Curated palettes that put Amethyst to work, with copy-all support for each.
Complementary
Roughly 180° across the wheel from #9966CC (hue 270°) sits #99cc66, held together by the #d9c9e8 tint and the neutrals #f4f4f5 and #18181b.
Analogous
#9966CC with its two closest neighbours, #6666cc and #cc66cc, for a 50%-saturation run that stays inside one family; #d9c9e8 and #592d86 add depth without breaking it.
Triadic
#9966CC plus #cc9966 and #66cc99, a triangle that sits 120° apart at every corner, with #f4f4f5 and #18181b doing the quiet work underneath.
Monochromatic
One hue at 5 lightness steps: #f5f0fa through #0f0817, starting from #9966CC at 60% lightness.
Amethyst (#9966CC) is a purple-family color. Use its values, variations, harmonies and palettes above to put it to work in your next design.
Frequently asked questions
Amethyst is #9966CC — rgb(153, 102, 204) / hsl(270, 50%, 60%). Amethyst (#9966CC) is a medium, moderately saturated purple. Purple blends red's passion with blue's calm, and has long been linked to royalty, creativity and mystery, giving this shade a distinctive, elevated feel.
Good to know
- Amethyst is one of 609 named colors in the library.
- Its complementary hue sits 180° away on the color wheel: #99cc66.
More color tools
Next steps for Amethyst: each of these picks the value up where this page leaves off, so nothing gets retyped or re-uploaded.