Inspect Plum (#DDA0DD) in HEX, RGB, HSL, LCH and OKLCH, check its contrast, and copy the value you need.
Plum
#DDA0DD
Black text reads best on this background, at 10.15:1.
Plum is one of the 148 CSS named colors, and resolves to #DDA0DD in every browser. In numbers that is rgb(221, 160, 221) and hsl(300, 47%, 75%). Perceptually it is a light, moderately saturated color: OKLCH puts its lightness at 78% and its chroma at 0.108. It sits in the purples at 327 degrees of OKLCH hue, and reads as a cool color.
White text only reaches 2.07:1 here, so black text is the safer pairing at 10.15:1. That combination of lightness and chroma makes it a workable mid-tone, the kind of value that lands in the middle of a shade scale.
The closest CSS named colors to Plum, measured with CIEDE2000, are Violet (#EE82EE), Orchid (#DA70D6), Thistle (#D8BFD8). If Plum is not quite right, those are the nearest keywords to try before reaching for a custom value.
HEX
#DDA0DD
RGB
rgb(221, 160, 221)
HSL
hsl(300, 47%, 75%)
HWB
hwb(300 63% 13%)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 28%, 0%, 13%)
LAB
lab(73.33 30.64 -21.8)
LCH
lch(73.33 37.6 324.58)
OKLCH
oklch(78.33% 0.1078 326.54)
WCAG asks for 4.5:1 between body text and its background. On #DDA0DD white text measures 2.07:1 and black text 10.15:1, so black clears it and white does not.
White text on Plum
WCAG 2.2
2.07:1
APCA
Lc 44
Fails AA body text
Fails AAA body text
Fails AA large text
Black text on Plum
WCAG 2.2
10.15:1
APCA
Lc 63
Passes AA body text
Passes AAA body text
Passes AA large text
Check Plum against any other color in the contrast checker.
Plum sits at 78% OKLCH lightness. Holding its hue and chroma and moving only that value carries it up to #FFF5FF and down to #0F0010, which keeps the family recognizable instead of letting it drift toward gray the way a plain HSL ramp does.
#EAACEA
20% lighter
#F7B9F7
40% lighter
#FFCAFF
60% lighter
#FFE0FE
80% lighter
#FFF5FF
100% lighter
#B277B2
20% darker
#885189
40% darker
#602B62
60% darker
#3B053D
80% darker
#0F0010
100% darker
Build a full accessible scale from #DDA0DD in the shade generator.
Hues rotated around #DDA0DD in OKLCH, then pulled back into the sRGB gamut. Each swatch is labelled with the nearest CSS named color so you have a keyword to start from.
Plum sits at 327 degrees. Rotating it a half turn lands on 147 degrees, the hue directly opposite. It is the strongest pairing you can make without changing lightness, and the one most likely to vibrate if you use both at full chroma.
The neighbors of Plum at 297 and 357 degrees. They stay close enough to read as the same family, which is what you want for hover states, secondary surfaces and gradients.
327, 87 and 207 degrees divide the wheel into thirds. Balanced enough to carry a whole palette without one color dominating the other two.
Instead of the complement at 147 degrees, this pair flanks it at 117 and 177. You keep most of the contrast of a complementary pairing while losing the harshness.
Explore more combinations around Plum on the color wheel.
The biggest shift is under achromatopsia, where #DDA0DD reads as #B1B1B1, 23 CIEDE2000 units away. If Plum is the only thing marking a state or a series, roughly one viewer in twelve will miss it.
Protanopia
#9DADE0
Deuteranopia
#A9B4DA
Tritanopia
#E2A4B3
Achromatopsia
#B1B1B1
The nearest CSS keywords to #DDA0DD, ranked by perceptual distance rather than by how close their hex digits happen to look.