Purple and Gold color palette
goldenrod · 0.025
The 1.88:1 here is the first thing to plan around. Purple #A855F7 and gold #D4AF37 are both vivid, but they sit close in perceived lightness, so one will not read cleanly on top of the other. Treat them as partners, not as text-on-background.
That closeness is also what makes the pair feel rich. A vibrant cool purple meeting a warm metallic gold, with 147 degrees apart, gives you the regal, slightly theatrical mood used in award branding, music posters, and editorial web headers.
For real layouts, separate them with white, black, or deep navy so each color keeps its punch. Their midpoint blend is a muted dusty pink (#BA8DAD), useful as a quiet secondary tone.
See Purple and Gold in use
better
Purple Tailwind scale (50-900)
Gold Tailwind scale (50-900)
Purple to Gold blend
A continuous interpolation from Purple to Gold, sampled into the 10 steps below. Tap any swatch to copy its hex.
Why Purple and Gold blend best in OKLab
The same two colors blended three ways. This site uses OKLab, which keeps the blend smooth and evenly lit. The other two are shown so you can see what to avoid: sRGB darkens and muddies the middle, and HSL detours through colors that are not in your palette.
Accessibility
Do not place Purple text on Gold (or the reverse) for body copy. For readable text, pair a dark scale step such as purple-800 or gold-900 with a light one like gold-50.
Contrast pairing grid
Rows are Purple steps, columns are Gold steps. Each mark is a Purple step shown on a Gold step: a check means it clears WCAG AA for text (4.5:1). If you can read the mark, the pairing is legible.
| 50 | 100 | 200 | 300 | 400 | 500 | 600 | 700 | 800 | 900 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50 | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 100 | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 200 | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 300 | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 400 | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 500 | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| 600 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| 700 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| 800 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| 900 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
✓ passes AA ✗ fails AA
Copy for Tailwind
Tailwind v4 — @theme (paste into your CSS)
@theme {
--color-purple-50: #F9F6FF;
--color-purple-100: #F4ECFF;
--color-purple-200: #EBDCFF;
--color-purple-300: #DEC6FF;
--color-purple-400: #CEA7FF;
--color-purple-500: #A855F7;
--color-purple-600: #8944CA;
--color-purple-700: #673199;
--color-purple-800: #3B1A5A;
--color-purple-900: #170727;
--color-gold-50: #FCFAF4;
--color-gold-100: #FAF6E9;
--color-gold-200: #F6EED8;
--color-gold-300: #EFE3BE;
--color-gold-400: #E7D49B;
--color-gold-500: #D4AF37;
--color-gold-600: #AD8F2B;
--color-gold-700: #836B1E;
--color-gold-800: #4C3D0E;
--color-gold-900: #201803;
}
Tailwind v3 — tailwind.config.js
// tailwind.config.js
module.exports = {
theme: {
extend: {
colors: {
'purple': {
50: '#F9F6FF',
100: '#F4ECFF',
200: '#EBDCFF',
300: '#DEC6FF',
400: '#CEA7FF',
500: '#A855F7',
600: '#8944CA',
700: '#673199',
800: '#3B1A5A',
900: '#170727',
},
'gold': {
50: '#FCFAF4',
100: '#FAF6E9',
200: '#F6EED8',
300: '#EFE3BE',
400: '#E7D49B',
500: '#D4AF37',
600: '#AD8F2B',
700: '#836B1E',
800: '#4C3D0E',
900: '#201803',
},
},
},
},
};
CSS variables
:root {
--purple-50: #F9F6FF;
--purple-100: #F4ECFF;
--purple-200: #EBDCFF;
--purple-300: #DEC6FF;
--purple-400: #CEA7FF;
--purple-500: #A855F7;
--purple-600: #8944CA;
--purple-700: #673199;
--purple-800: #3B1A5A;
--purple-900: #170727;
--gold-50: #FCFAF4;
--gold-100: #FAF6E9;
--gold-200: #F6EED8;
--gold-300: #EFE3BE;
--gold-400: #E7D49B;
--gold-500: #D4AF37;
--gold-600: #AD8F2B;
--gold-700: #836B1E;
--gold-800: #4C3D0E;
--gold-900: #201803;
}SCSS variables
$purple-50: #F9F6FF; $purple-100: #F4ECFF; $purple-200: #EBDCFF; $purple-300: #DEC6FF; $purple-400: #CEA7FF; $purple-500: #A855F7; $purple-600: #8944CA; $purple-700: #673199; $purple-800: #3B1A5A; $purple-900: #170727; $gold-50: #FCFAF4; $gold-100: #FAF6E9; $gold-200: #F6EED8; $gold-300: #EFE3BE; $gold-400: #E7D49B; $gold-500: #D4AF37; $gold-600: #AD8F2B; $gold-700: #836B1E; $gold-800: #4C3D0E; $gold-900: #201803;
JSON tokens
{
"purple": {
"50": "#F9F6FF",
"100": "#F4ECFF",
"200": "#EBDCFF",
"300": "#DEC6FF",
"400": "#CEA7FF",
"500": "#A855F7",
"600": "#8944CA",
"700": "#673199",
"800": "#3B1A5A",
"900": "#170727"
},
"gold": {
"50": "#FCFAF4",
"100": "#FAF6E9",
"200": "#F6EED8",
"300": "#EFE3BE",
"400": "#E7D49B",
"500": "#D4AF37",
"600": "#AD8F2B",
"700": "#836B1E",
"800": "#4C3D0E",
"900": "#201803"
}
}How we name colors
There is no single official authority for naming colors. We use the common, widely recognized name as the primary label for each color (here, Purple and Gold); many common names are themselves W3C CSS named colors. For transparency we also show the nearest W3C CSS named color and the perceptual distance, ΔE, measured in OKLab. A small ΔE means the name is essentially exact; a larger one means it is the closest standard name rather than a perfect match.
Sources: W3C CSS Color Module Level 4 and the open color-name-list dataset, used to verify every color sits near a recognized name.