#949697

sRGB: 148 / 150 / 151

Restless currents shimmer beneath moonlight
Shimmering rivers blossom beneath falling stars
Rising tides embrace the coming dawn

#949697 belongs to the azure family. Its hex code tells a screen to mix 148 red, 150 green and 151 blue on a scale of 0 to 255. On the HSL wheel, hue is a position around a circle: 200.0° lands in the azure region. Its 1.4% saturation makes it close to gray at this lightness. HSL lightness is 58.6% on a scale from black (0%) to white (100%). Of black and white lettering, black has the clearer light-to-dark separation on this background (7.07:1), which helps the shapes of letters stand out.

Color conversions

sRGB (8-bit): 148, 150, 151
HSL: 200.00°, 1.42%, 58.63%
HSV / HSB: 200.00°, 1.99%, 59.22%
CMYK (approx.): 1.99%, 0.66%, 0.00%, 40.78%
CIE XYZ (D65, Y = 100 for white): 28.704, 30.343, 33.624
CIELAB (D65, 2° observer): 61.949, -0.529, -0.780
WCAG relative luminance: 0.30343
24-bit decimal: 9737879

CMYK uses a profile-free approximation. Printed output depends on the press, ink and paper. Lab uses a D65 white point.

Text contrast

Contrast tells you how clearly lettering separates from #949697 in light and dark. The ratio compares relative luminance, a measure of light weighted for human vision. Identical colors give 1:1 and black against white gives 21:1. A ratio of 2.99:1 falls just below the 3:1 AA minimum for large text. Body text needs at least 4.5:1 because its finer strokes are harder to distinguish.

Black text: 7.07:1

Normal text: AAA
Large text: AAA

White text: 2.97:1

Normal text: Fail
Large text: Fail

AA and AAA are WCAG accessibility levels. AAA sets a higher bar: 7:1 for normal text and 4.5:1 for large text. Large text begins at 18 pt regular or 14 pt bold. Ratings use the unrounded ratio.

Reference: WCAG text contrast guidance

Palettes & scales

Harmonies rotate the hue. Scales mix the starting color with white, black or middle gray in 20% steps in encoded sRGB.

Complementary

#979594 sits half a turn (180°) from #949697 on the HSL wheel. Keeping saturation and lightness steady while crossing to the opposite hue gives you a contrasting accent. Check text contrast separately before using the pair for lettering.

#949697 #979594

Analogous

#949797 and #949597 sit 30° to either side of #949697. The three hues are neighbors on the wheel, so you can change the color of a border or highlight while keeping it close to the original.

#949797 #949697 #949597

Triadic

#949697, #979496 and #969794 are spaced 120° apart, forming a triangle on the wheel. Try one for the main color and the other two for accents.

#949697 #979496 #969794

Split complementary

Start at #949697 and look across the wheel. #979495 and #979794 sit 30° to either side of its exact opposite, giving you two different accent choices.

#949697 #979495 #979794

Square

Starting with #949697, each quarter turn (90°) takes you to the next hue: #979497, #979594, then #959794. Across the square, #949697 pairs with #979594, and #979497 with #959794.

#949697 #979497 #979594 #959794

Tetradic

#949697 and #979594 are opposites, as are #959497 and #969794. Together they form a rectangle on the wheel, with alternating gaps of 60° and 120°.

#949697 #959497 #979594 #969794

Tints

Mixing #949697 with white in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #A9ABAC, keeps 80% of the original. By #EAEAEA, the mixture is 80% white.

#949697 #A9ABAC #BFC0C1 #D4D5D5 #EAEAEA #FFFFFF

Shades

Mixing #949697 with black in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #767879, keeps 80% of the original. By #1E1E1E, the mixture is 80% black.

#949697 #767879 #595A5B #3B3C3C #1E1E1E #000000

Tones

Mixing #949697 with middle gray in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #909292, keeps 80% of the original. By #848485, the mixture is 80% middle gray.

#949697 #909292 #8C8D8E #888989 #848485 #808080

Copy color codes

Hex, RGB and HSL are three ways to write this screen color. Paste any of them into a CSS color property.

Hex

#949697

RGB

rgb(148 150 151)

HSL

hsl(200.000 1.422% 58.627%)

CSS example

.color-sample {
  background-color: #949697;
  color: #000000;
}

Channel breakdown

RGB

#949697 uses 148 red, 150 green and 151 blue. Each bar shows how much of that channel’s 0–255 range the screen uses.

Red 58.0%

Green 58.8%

Blue 59.2%

CMYK

A simple CMYK estimate for #949697 is 2.0% cyan, 0.7% magenta, 0.0% yellow and 40.8% black. These are ink amounts; a printer profile is needed to predict the result on paper.

Cyan 2.0%

Magenta 0.7%

Yellow 0.0%

Black 40.8%

Nearby colors

The nearest shorthand match is #999999. Its matching digit pairs let you write it as #999 in CSS. For a modern design, keep #949697 when you want an exact match. Use its web-safe neighbor, #999999, when matching a legacy palette of 216 colors.

Nearest shorthand: #999999 Nearest web-safe: #999999

Gradient to complement

#949697 #959697 #959696 #969696 #969595 #979595 #979594

Color vision previews

Compare how #949697 appears in each simulation. When two chart lines or status indicators become hard to tell apart, a label, shape or line pattern gives readers another way to distinguish them. Individual perception varies.

Protanopia

A red–green color vision deficiency. Without a distinct response from long-wavelength cones, some reds and greens can look alike, and reds can appear darker.

#959697

Deuteranopia

A red–green color vision deficiency. Without a distinct response from medium-wavelength cones, some greens can be difficult to distinguish from reds or browns.

#959597

Tritanopia

A blue–yellow color vision deficiency. Without a distinct response from short-wavelength cones, blue can resemble green, and yellow can resemble pink.

#939696

Protanomaly (50%)

An altered long-wavelength cone response can make reds appear dimmer and harder to distinguish from greens. This swatch shows the model’s halfway setting.

#959697

Deuteranomaly (50%)

An altered medium-wavelength cone response can reduce the visible difference between reds and greens. This swatch shows the model’s halfway setting.

#959697

Tritanomaly (50%)

An altered short-wavelength cone response can make blue harder to distinguish from green. This swatch shows the model’s halfway setting.

#949697

Grayscale (luminance)

This design check removes hue and preserves relative luminance so you can compare light and dark areas.

#969696

Partial grayscale (50% blend)

This design check mixes the original color halfway toward its grayscale equivalent in linear light. Use it to see how a design holds up as color fades.

#959696

Reference: National Eye Institute: Types of Color Vision Deficiency

Technical reference

CAM16 and CIECAM02 below assume D65 white, an average surround, background Y of 20 against white at 100, and adapting luminance of 4.07 cd/m².

Linear sRGB

These channels scale with emitted light. Use them for lighting calculations and physically meaningful blends.

R 0.29614 G 0.30499 B 0.30947

Display P3

P3 displays can reproduce a wider range of reds and greens. These coordinates reproduce this same sRGB swatch on a color-managed P3 display.

R 0.58179 G 0.58798 B 0.59168

Linear Display P3

These P3 channels are proportional to light, before display encoding.

R 0.29771 G 0.30469 B 0.30892

CIE xyY

The x and y coordinates locate chromaticity on a diagram. Y gives relative luminance on a scale where white is 100.

x 0.310 y 0.327 Y 30.343

CMY

Ideal cyan, magenta and yellow are the complements of the encoded red, green and blue channels.

C % 41.961 M % 41.176 Y % 40.784

Binary RGB

Each eight-bit group represents one channel. Together they store the 24-bit hex color.

10010100 10010110 10010111