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Colors · value from the xkcd color survey (2010)

Neon purple color: hex code #BC13FE, RGB and palettes

Neon purple is #BC13FE (RGB 188, 19, 254), the xkcd survey value: an electric, saturated violet. Both white and black text pass on it, white at 4.50:1 and black at 4.66:1, but only just.

By Paul Gunder. Every value is computed from published standards; see how ColorPlum works.

Updated

ColorPlum swatchNeon purplemedium, vivid violet
HEX
#BC13FE
RGB
rgb(188, 19, 254)
HSL
hsl(283, 99%, 54%)

Best text on it: black at 4.66:1

Copy codes as
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Every code for Neon purple

  • HEX#BC13FE
  • RGBrgb(188, 19, 254)
  • HSLhsl(283, 99%, 54%)
  • HSV283°, 93%, 100%
  • CMYK26%, 93%, 0%, 0%
  • Lablab(49.1% 80.7 -78.5)
  • OKLCHoklch(60.8% 0.297 312.1)
  • Decimal12325886

Tints, shades and tones

From white to black in 10% steps, with Neon purple in the middle. Tap a code to copy it.

  1. 90%#F8E7FF
  2. 80%#F2D0FF
  3. 70%#EBB8FF
  4. 60%#E4A1FF
  5. 50%#DE89FF
  6. 40%#D771FE
  7. 30%#D05AFE
  8. 20%#C942FE
  9. 10%#C32BFE
  10. Base#BC13FE
  11. 10%#A911E5
  12. 20%#960FCB
  13. 30%#840DB2
  14. 40%#710B98
  15. 50%#5E0A7F
  16. 60%#4B0866
  17. 70%#38064C
  18. 80%#260433
  19. 90%#130219

Tones (mixed with gray)

  1. 10%#B61EF1
  2. 20%#B029E5
  3. 30%#AA34D8
  4. 40%#A43FCC
  5. 50%#9E4ABF
  6. 60%#9854B2
  7. 70%#925FA6
  8. 80%#8C6A99
  9. 90%#86758D

Matching colors

Complementary
Analogous
Triadic
Split complementary
Tetradic (square)
Monochromatic
  • #560177
  • #8D01C4
  • #BC13FE
  • #D25FFE
  • #E7ABFF

Neon purple in 3D color space

OKLab, the space ColorPlum does its math in: lightness runs up the pole, hue goes around it and saturation grows outward. The faint shell is every color a screen can show (saturation is drawn wider than lightness so hues separate). Drag to turn it.

Neon purple with its complement, its triad and its tint and shade
  • Neon purple
  • Triad #FEBC13
  • Triad #13FEBC
  • Complement
  • 50% tint
  • 50% shade

Neon purple in use

New collectionAutumn edit

Card body text stays dark for reading; neon purple carries the header and the button.

Shop nowTag

Headline in Neon purple

A paragraph with a link set in this color, which is dark enough for text on white.

How it looks with color-vision deficiency

A simulation (Machado and colleagues, 2009) of how the color and its complement read without one type of cone.

  • Typical color vision#BC13FE
  • Protanopia (no red cones)#0070FF
  • Deuteranopia (no green cones)#0079FA
  • Tritanopia (no blue cones)#B45E97

Contrast and readability

PairingRatioWCAG 2.2
as text on white4.50:1AA AA large AAA
as text on black4.66:1AA AA large AAA
white text on it4.50:1AA AA large AAA
black text on it4.66:1AA AA large AAA
on your background3.93:1AA AA large AAA

Export

:root {
  --neon-purple: #bc13fe;
  --neon-purple-rgb: 188 19 254;
  --neon-purple-on: #000000;
}
On this page

Neon purple is the purple of glowing signs and club lighting: bright, saturated and a bit unreal. No CSS keyword matches it, so the page shows #BC13FE, taken from the xkcd survey. People in that survey saw colors on their own screens and typed a name, and this is the shade most often called neon purple.

What the code contains

The RGB values are 188, 19, 254: strong red, almost no green and nearly full blue. In HSL that is hue 283°, 99% saturation, 54% lightness. The CMYK figures, 26%, 93%, 0%, 0%, understate how bright it looks, because ink cannot reach this intensity and a printed version will be duller. The decimal value is 12325886. In OKLCH the chroma is 0.297, a very high number that explains why it seems to glow.

Its nearest neighbors are in the survey itself: "bright purple" (#BE03FD) is just 0.6 away in OKLab, "bright violet" (#AD0AFD) is 3.1 and "hot purple" (#CB00F5) is 3.4. The CSS list has nothing within 9.7. The closest CSS names are darkorchid (#9932CC), darkviolet (#9400D3) and mediumorchid, and every one of them is darker or duller. If you need a CSS keyword fallback, darkviolet is the nearest in spirit, but it won't glow.

Contrast: a color in the middle

Neon purple has a rare property: it sits almost exactly where white and black text are equally readable.

  • White text on it: 4.50:1.
  • Black text on it: 4.66:1.
  • As text: the same two values in reverse, 4.50:1 on white and 4.66:1 on black. On a near-black such as #0A0A14 it falls to 4.37:1.

Both clear the AA line for normal text by a hair, so there is no safety margin; anti-aliasing and small font weights can still make thin text look weak. For anything small, step away from the pure color. White on the shade #840DB2 gives 7.83:1, and white on #5E0A7F reaches 11.50:1. A pale tint such as #F2D0FF with a dark shade #38064C as text is 11.73:1.

The complement is a bright green, #55FE13, and the triadic partners are amber (#FEBC13) and aqua (#13FEBC). Blue-violet #4713FE and pink #FE13CA are the analogous neighbors.

Worked example

You are putting together the slide deck for a student music night. Use a very dark purple-black, #130219, as the slide background, and choose neon purple only for accents: the big number on each title slide, and a thin underline. On that background the purple measures 4.43:1, fine for large display numbers. The body text and speaker names go in white, never in the neon itself. A single call-to-action slide has a solid neon purple button, and its label is set in black at 4.66:1 and bold. Keeping purple to accents means the deck stays easy to read from the back of the room.

Other bright shades are neon blue and magenta, and for a pale version, lavender. Build a scheme around this violet with the color palette generator.

Sources

  1. xkcd, Color survey results: the 954 most common color names (Randall Munroe, 2010; checked 2026-11-10) xkcd.com
  2. xkcd, Color survey results (blog post by Randall Munroe, 2010; checked 2026-11-10) blog.xkcd.com
  3. W3C, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2: contrast minimum (checked 2026-11-10) w3.org