Purple-Grey Color Palette – HEX, RGB & Design Inspiration
Color Details
HEX: #8B8589
RGB: 139, 133, 137
HEX: #989898
RGB: 152, 152, 152
HEX: #838996
RGB: 131, 137, 150
HEX: #979AAA
RGB: 151, 154, 170
HEX: #4C516D
RGB: 76, 81, 109
Text on White/Black Backgrounds
Color Pair Combinations (10 total)
WCAG Contrast Standards:
- AAA (7:1): Enhanced contrast for maximum readability
- AA (4.5:1): Minimum for normal text (under 18pt)
- AA Large (3:1): Acceptable for large text (18pt+ or 14pt+ bold)
- Fail: Below WCAG standards, not recommended for text
Recommended Text Colors
Horizontal (Left to Right)
background: linear-gradient(to right, #8B8589 0%, #989898 25%, #838996 50%, #979AAA 75%, #4C516D 100%);Vertical (Top to Bottom)
background: linear-gradient(to bottom, #8B8589 0%, #989898 25%, #838996 50%, #979AAA 75%, #4C516D 100%);Diagonal (Top Left to Bottom Right)
background: linear-gradient(to bottom right, #8B8589 0%, #989898 25%, #838996 50%, #979AAA 75%, #4C516D 100%);Usage Tips:
- Copy the CSS code and paste directly into your stylesheets
- Linear gradients work great for backgrounds and hero sections
- Radial gradients are perfect for spotlights and focus effects
- Conic gradients create eye-catching loading spinners and progress indicators
- Smooth transitions ensure seamless color blending
Normal Vision
No color vision deficiency
Color Swatches
#8B8589
#989898
#838996
#979AAA
#4C516D
Full Palette View
How people with Normal Vision see it:
Overall Mood & Feel
Calm, professional, and trustworthy
Emotional Impact
Calming and contemplative, promoting feelings of trust, stability, and peace. The balanced lightness creates versatility across different contexts
Psychological Effect
This 5-color palette creates a calm, professional, and trustworthy. The combination works together to create memorable visual experiences that influence consumer perception, decision-making, and brand recall. The rich variety provides versatility while maintaining cohesive emotional messaging across touchpoints.
Brand Personality Traits
Perfect For These Industries
Target Audience
Affluent consumers seeking premium, high-quality products and experiences
Individual Color Psychology
#8B8589
Neutral and balanced
Emotions Evoked
Personality Traits
Brand Traits
Ideal Industries
Marketing Use
Provides balance and neutrality. Doesn't compete for attention. Professional and timeless. Can appear dull if not balanced with other colors.
Cultural Meanings
Color Harmony Analysis
Palette Mood
Temperature
This palette combines balanced moods with warm and neutral and cool tones, making it versatile for various design applications.
Professional Implementation Guide
This complementary purple-grey palette features 5 carefully selected cool tones that create a calm and professional aesthetic. With low contrast levels and muted saturation, this palette is optimized for corporate branding and business websites.
Web Design & Development
For web development, implement this palette with CSS variables for easy theme switching. Consider adding darker variants for better text readability.
- Apply the 60-30-10 rule for visual hierarchy
- Use accent colors for CTAs and hover states
- Maintain consistent color usage across all pages
- Test responsive behavior on multiple devices
Mobile App Interfaces
In mobile applications, these cool tones provide excellent battery efficiency on OLED screens. Use the subtle color variations to define clear touch targets.
- Design both light and dark mode variants
- Consider thumb-reach zones for color placement
- Test under direct sunlight and low light
- Use color to indicate interactive elements
Brand Identity Systems
Build a cohesive brand identity by designating specific colors for specific purposes. Establish your primary brand color from the most distinctive shade and create comprehensive brand guidelines specifying exact usage scenarios.
- Define primary, secondary, and accent colors
- Create usage rules for marketing materials
- Specify minimum sizes and clear space
- Document do's and don'ts for consistency
Frontend Development
Developers can integrate this palette efficiently using modern CSS techniques. Export as CSS variables for maximum flexibility, allowing theme switching and dynamic color updates without rewriting stylesheets.
- Use CSS custom properties for theming
- Implement semantic color naming conventions
- Create utility classes for rapid prototyping
- Consider CSS-in-JS for component-scoped colors
Print Design
For print materials, convert to CMYK using #8B8589 as the dominant color for headers and #4C516D for accents. These colors translate well to print with minimal adjustment.
- Add to your design software color library
- Create swatches for quick color access
- Use CMYK values for print production
- Request color proofs before final print
Marketing Campaigns
Marketing materials benefit from consistent color usage that reinforces brand recognition. Apply this palette across email campaigns, landing pages, advertisements, and social media for maximum impact and memorability.
- Maintain color consistency across channels
- A/B test color variations for conversion
- Consider cultural color associations
- Align colors with campaign messaging
Strategic Color Distribution
Professional designers follow the 60-30-10 rule for balanced color distribution. Here's how to apply this principle with the Purple-Grey:
Dominant Color
#8B8589Use #8B8589 as your primary color for backgrounds, main content areas. This gray tone should occupy about 60% of your design space.
Secondary Color
#838996Apply #838996 as your secondary color for subtle backgrounds and card components. Allocate approximately 30% of your layout to this color.
Accent Color
#4C516DReserve #4C516D for accent elements like buttons, links, and important highlights. This blue accent should be used sparingly (10% of design) to draw attention to key actions.
Professional Best Practices
✓ Smart Usage Tips
- •Add white or black text overlays to improve readability on colored backgrounds
- •Add warm accent colors to create focal points and prevent designs from feeling too cold
- •Test your palette across different devices and lighting conditions before finalizing
✗ Common Mistakes to Avoid
- •Don't use all colors equally—establish clear visual hierarchy through color weight
- •Avoid low-contrast text combinations that strain readability
- •Don't rely solely on color to convey meaning (use icons, text, and patterns too)
- •Avoid inconsistent color usage across different pages or screens
- •Don't assume screen colors match print output—always request physical proofs
Palette Overview & Statistics
5
Total Colors
4
Associated Tags
6
Categories
3726
Community Likes
Color Analysis & Technical Guide
Detailed breakdown of each color's role, characteristics, and optimal applications. This complementary palette creates a calm and professional aesthetic perfect for corporate branding and business websites.
Individual Color Breakdown
Each color in this cool palette has been analyzed for its properties and ideal usage scenarios. The low contrast and muted saturation ensure harmonious visual relationships.
#8B8589
GRAY
#8B8589 serves as the primary/dominant color in this palette. This medium gray (muted) brings neutrality and balance Use it for headers, navigation bars, and brand elements.
Light toneH: 320°S: 3%L: 53%#989898
GRAY
#989898 serves as the secondary/supporting color in this palette. This medium gray (muted) brings neutrality and balance Use it for cards, borders, section dividers, and supporting UI components.
Light toneH: 0°S: 0%L: 60%#838996
GRAY
#838996 serves as the secondary/supporting color in this palette. This medium gray (muted) brings neutrality and balance Use it for cards, borders, section dividers, and supporting UI components.
Light toneH: 221°S: 8%L: 55%#979AAA
BLUE
#979AAA serves as the secondary/supporting color in this palette. This medium blue (muted) brings trust and tranquility Use it for cards, borders, section dividers, and supporting UI components.
Light toneH: 231°S: 10%L: 63%#4C516D
BLUE
#4C516D serves as the accent/highlight color in this palette. This medium blue (muted) brings professionalism and depth Use it for call-to-action buttons, links, important notifications, and interactive elements.
Dark toneH: 231°S: 18%L: 36%
Palette Characteristics
This palette exhibits distinct characteristics that make it particularly suitable for specific design applications and industries.
Cool tones convey professionalism, trust, and calmness. Ideal for corporate and tech applications.
Low contrast creates subtle, sophisticated aesthetics but requires careful attention to text legibility.
Muted saturation offers sophistication and reduces visual fatigue, ideal for content-heavy applications.
Balanced brightness provides flexibility for both light and dark design elements.
💡 Pro Tips for This Palette
- Perfect for: corporate branding, business websites. The complementary color relationship creates natural visual flow.
- Mood & Psychology: This palette evokes a calm and professional feeling, making it ideal for brands seeking to convey those qualities.
- Accessibility: Test text combinations carefully with contrast checkers to ensure accessibility compliance.
- Extensions: Create tints (add white) and shades (add black) to expand this 5-color palette into a comprehensive design system.
- Cultural Context: Cool tones are generally perceived as professional worldwide but always research cultural color meanings.
Export Formats
Explore Purple-Grey Palette
The Purple-Grey color palette is a masterful blend of soothing hues that evoke a sense of serenity and sophistication, making it an ideal choice for designers seeking to create a calming and professional visual identity. This carefully curated selection of colors has a profound emotional impact, conjuring feelings of balance and stability, while also inspiring creativity and focus. At the heart of this palette lies a range of muted, grey-toned shades, including 8B8589, a gentle, weathered grey that serves as a versatile foundation for the entire palette.
As we delve deeper into the Purple-Grey palette, we find a rich tapestry of blues and plums, each with its own unique character and role to play. The 989898 shade, for instance, is a soft, silvery grey that adds a touch of subtlety and nuance, while 838996 brings a deeper, cooler tone that injects a sense of sophistication and refinement. Meanwhile, 979AAA introduces a hint of blue undertones, subtly shifting the palette's emotional resonance and creating a sense of continuity with the 4C516D shade, a rich, plum-like color that adds depth and warmth to the overall scheme. This thoughtful balance of colors creates a harmonious visual flow, making the Purple-Grey palette a joy to work with.
In practical terms, the Purple-Grey palette is a versatile and effective choice for a wide range of design applications, from websites and apps to branding and marketing materials. Its calming, professional aesthetic makes it particularly well-suited to corporate and tech industries, where clarity and sophistication are essential. Designers can use this palette to create a sense of cohesion and visual flow, whether they're developing a new website, crafting a brand identity, or designing marketing materials. The palette's muted, soothing colors also make it an excellent choice for digital products, such as mobile apps and software interfaces, where user experience and engagement are paramount.
The Purple-Grey palette also has a profound psychological impact, influencing viewer perception and behavior in subtle yet powerful ways. The palette's muted, calming colors have a soothing effect on the viewer, creating a sense of relaxation and reducing stress. At the same time, the palette's professional, corporate aesthetic conveys a sense of authority and expertise, inspiring trust and confidence in the viewer. By leveraging these psychological effects, designers can create visual experiences that engage, inform, and persuade, whether they're working on a website, app, or marketing campaign. The 8B8589 and 989898 shades, in particular, have a calming effect, while the 838996 and 4C516D shades add a sense of sophistication and depth.
For designers looking to get the most out of the Purple-Grey palette, there are several pro tips to keep in mind. To create a sense of contrast and visual interest, consider pairing the palette's muted greys with brighter, more saturated colors, such as coral or indigo. The 979AAA shade, with its subtle blue undertones, is particularly well-suited to pairing with these brighter colors, creating a sense of continuity and flow. When working with the Purple-Grey palette, it's also essential to consider the principles of color harmony and balance, using the 60-30-10 rule to create a sense of visual equilibrium and stability. By following these guidelines and experimenting with different combinations of colors, designers can unlock the full potential of the Purple-Grey palette, creating visual experiences that are both beautiful and effective.
Palette Image
Below is the generated palette image showing all colors in a vertical layout. Perfect for sharing on social media or using as a reference.
Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you need to know about using and implementing the purple-grey palette effectively in your projects.