What color does red and blue make?
Equal parts red and blue produce purple (a muted violet) (#8c53a2 (Slate Blue)). The blend is computed in the Oklab color space, so the steps between the two colors look evenly spaced to your eye rather than to the raw channel math.
#8c53a2 - HEX
- #8c53a2
- RGB
- rgb(140, 83, 162)
- HSL
- hsl(283, 32%, 48%)
- CMYK
- cmyk(14%, 49%, 0%, 36%)
color-mix(in oklab, #ff0000 50%, #0000ff) Red to Blue: every ratio
How much of each color you use moves the answer along the blend path. The perceptual midpoint is the 50/50 row; the others show what a 3:1 ratio does in either direction.
Lighter and darker versions
Tint the mix toward white or shade it toward black and you get a small palette that all clearly belongs to the same family:
#a87dba Tint #c5a8d1 50/50 mix #8c53a2 Shade #331b3c Darker #5d366d Paint vs. screen: why the medium matters
Red and blue are both primaries of light. Add them on a screen and the blend leans magenta-purple; mix red and blue paint and you get a murkier violet, because pigments subtract light instead of adding it — the more paint you combine, the darker and grayer the result.
About these two colors
Red #ff0000 — A primary of both light and paint — the color of blood, stop signs, and urgency.
Blue #0000ff — A primary of both light and paint, sitting between cyan and violet on the wheel.
Want to blend these with different colors entirely? Open the full color mixer, or convert #8c53a2 to RGB, HSL or CMYK.
Related mixes
See all color mixes for the full directory.
Frequently asked questions
Does red and blue make purple?
Yes — equal parts give purple (a muted violet), around #8c53a2. The exact shade depends on your ratio: red-heavy mixes lean toward #c6496d and blue-heavy mixes toward #5147d2.
What is the HEX code for red and blue mixed?
A 50/50 perceptual mix is #8c53a2 (Slate Blue). If you need it in CSS, the mixer above generates a ready-to-paste color-mix() snippet: color-mix(in oklab, #ff0000 50%, #0000ff).
What does red and blue make in paint vs. on a screen?
Red and blue are both primaries of light. Add them on a screen and the blend leans magenta-purple; mix red and blue paint and you get a murkier violet, because pigments subtract light instead of adding it — the more paint you combine, the darker and grayer the result.
How do I make the purple mix lighter or darker?
Mix the result with white to tint it — 50% white gives about #c5a8d1 — or with black to shade it, where 50% black gives about #331b3c. The strip above shows the full run from lighter to darker.