Helio#BE00FF, a vivid purple
Helio in RGB, HSL, OKLCH & more
Ready to ship: every line pastes straight into your codebase, and the whole file copies at once.
ART is Rhapsody's perceptual model. How ART works
Why is it called Helio?
Helio's meaning, origin, and pronunciation, with sources.
Anchor: A62 · one of the 72 anchor hues of ART
Origin: Greek: the sun, via a flower that turns to face it
Meaning: A clipping of heliotrope, "turning toward the sun"
HEE-lee-oh · /ˈhiːlioʊ/
Proto-Indo-European *sóh₂wl̥, the root behind Latin sol and English sun → Greek hēlios, "sun" → hēliotropion, "turning toward the sun," the name of the plant whose flowers track the sun across the sky → heliotrope, the pale purple of its blooms, a color name from the 1880s → shortened, here, to helio.
So the wheel's softest purple is, at root, the sun itself, named for a flower's habit of devotion.
One oddity for collectors: heliotrope is also the old name for bloodstone, a green-and-red gem. That makes it a rare case of one word naming two completely unrelated colors. Even inside a single language, a color word can lead a double life.
etymonline s.v. heliotrope, helio-. Etymological dictionaries + scholarly sources. Audio: synthesized (en_US-lessac-medium).
Shades of Helio, lighter and darker
For hover states, washed backgrounds, and dark surfaces that still read as #BE00FF. 13 steps, spaced evenly by eye, with the color itself sitting at its natural depth, helio-600.
Tints (light surfaces; dark text passes on every one)
Midtones (the color at full strength, for brand & accent work)
Shades (dark surfaces; light text passes on every one)
Most tools mix. Rhapsody measures.
Paste any color. The whole system comes back, contrast-checked before you see it.
The window on the right was generated from #BE00FF, like this whole page.
Is Helio accessible? Contrast with white & black
Strong contrast makes your work readable by everyone, and meets the WCAG standard accessibility law points at. AA is the floor; AAA is the tier worth aiming for in body text. Black text on #BE00FF passes AA. For AAA, use its scale. Every strip below is one surface, and the marks are the steps that reach AAA on it.
Rows are text, columns are background · 64 of 210 pairings reach WCAG 2.2 AAA, shown here.
Ship the audit, not screenshots.
Run #BE00FF against the colors you actually ship, every pairing and any target, and export it: exact ratios, the AA tier, APCA, in one file.
The audit on the right was calibrated from #BE00FF, like this whole page.
Helio in CMYK: one value for files, one per press
This color shifts further than a press run can hold, so expect a visible difference. The pairs below show where each standard lands.
In CMYK, #BE00FF is . That is the value design tools and file formats use when no press is involved.
On press (what each standard prints)
shifts ΔE00 20.7, 8.3× the 2.5 a run varies by
shifts ΔE00 19.5, 7.8× the 2.5 a run varies by
shifts ΔE00 19.4, 7.8× the 2.5 a run varies by
shifts ΔE00 17.5, 7.0× the 2.5 a run varies by
shifts ΔE00 17.1, 6.8× the 2.5 a run varies by
Press values computed through the ICC characterization data each standard proofs against. Each CMYK above is the closest that standard can get.
No surprises at the printer.
Run any color through the major press standards: FOGRA51, GRACoL, Japan Color, FOGRA39. It's coming soon. Create a free account and you'll get a note the moment it's live.
The strip shows this page's tints and shades on screen, then through a standard GRACoL 2013 conversion.
Colors similar to Helio
A clipping of heliotrope, "turning toward the sun"
Here are other colors similar to Helio along with accessible text pairings and whether or not they're print-safe. Explore The Purples
| Bright Purple | Bright Purple | #BE03FD | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Neon Purple | Neon Purple | #BC13FE | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Mauve | Mauve | #CD00FF | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Hot Purple | Hot Purple | #CB00F5 | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Vibrant Purple | Vibrant Purple | #AD03DE | white text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Asteria | Asteria | #DC00FF | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Purple/Pink | Purple/Pink | #D725DE | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Fuchsia | Fuchsia | #EB00FF | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Heliotrope | Heliotrope | #D94FF5 | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Bright Lilac | Bright Lilac | #C95EFB | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Bright Lavender | Bright Lavender | #C760FF | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Dark Orchid | Dark Orchid | #9932CC | white text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Dark Violet | Dark Violet | #9400D3 | white text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Pinkish Purple | Pinkish Purple | #D648D7 | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Medium Orchid | Medium Orchid | #BA55D3 | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Pink/Purple | Pink/Purple | #EF1DE7 | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Purple Pink | Purple Pink | #E03FD8 | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Barney | Barney | #AC1DB8 | white text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Pink Purple | Pink Purple | #DB4BDA | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Orchid | Orchid | #FB00FF | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Fuchsia Pink | Fuchsia Pink | #C154C1 | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Easter Purple | Easter Purple | #C071FE | black text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Purply | Purply | #983FB2 | white text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Light Purple | Light Purple | #BF77F6 | black text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Ugly Purple | Ugly Purple | #A442A0 | white text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Violet Pink | Violet Pink | #FB5FFC | black text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Light Magenta | Light Magenta | #FA5FF7 | black text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Violet Eggplant | Violet Eggplant | #991199 | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Pink Flamingo | Pink Flamingo | #FF66FF | black text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Purply Pink | Purply Pink | #F075E6 | black text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Liliac | Liliac | #C48EFD | black text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Dark Magenta | Dark Magenta | #8B008B | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Seance | Seance | #731E8F | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Purple | Purple | #800080 | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
Colors that go with Helio
The complementary color, straight across the wheel, is a vivid green #77E167. Rhapsody's pick is the split complement, just to one side of it, a livelier pair.
The accent is for the moments that need attention, the harmony for the ones that need calm; the neutral carries the text and surfaces in between.
Take Helio with you
The work on this page doesn't stay here. Save a card and the color arrives in your file, your deck or your board already decided.
Your system is already built.
Rhapsody built it before you even asked: the scale, the neutrals, the utilities, every pairing calibrated.
This page's whole theme is built from one color. Palette does the same for yours: every step calibrated, every pairing checked, press included.
Every color on this page was calibrated, not mixed.
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