#A8BBBC

sRGB: 168 / 187 / 188

Radiant blossoms illuminate hidden paths
Restless constellations shimmer across boundless heavens
Eternal flames awaken sleeping galaxies

#A8BBBC belongs to the cyan family. Its hex code tells a screen to mix 168 red, 187 green and 188 blue on a scale of 0 to 255. On the HSL wheel, hue is a position around a circle: 183.0° lands in the cyan region. Its 13.0% saturation makes it close to gray at this lightness. HSL lightness is 69.8% 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 (10.50:1), which helps the shapes of letters stand out.

Color conversions

sRGB (8-bit): 168, 187, 188
HSL: 183.00°, 12.99%, 69.80%
HSV / HSB: 183.00°, 10.64%, 73.73%
CMYK (approx.): 10.64%, 0.53%, 0.00%, 26.27%
CIE XYZ (D65, Y = 100 for white): 42.994, 47.496, 54.481
CIELAB (D65, 2° observer): 74.506, -6.291, -2.723
WCAG relative luminance: 0.47496
24-bit decimal: 11058108

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 #A8BBBC 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: 10.50:1

Normal text: AAA
Large text: AAA

White text: 2.00:1

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

#BCA9A8 sits half a turn (180°) from #A8BBBC 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.

#A8BBBC #BCA9A8

Analogous

#A8BCB3 and #A8B1BC sit 30° to either side of #A8BBBC. 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.

#A8BCB3 #A8BBBC #A8B1BC

Triadic

#A8BBBC, #BCA8BB and #BBBCA8 are spaced 120° apart, forming a triangle on the wheel. Try one for the main color and the other two for accents.

#A8BBBC #BCA8BB #BBBCA8

Split complementary

Start at #A8BBBC and look across the wheel. #BCA8B1 and #BCB3A8 sit 30° to either side of its exact opposite, giving you two different accent choices.

#A8BBBC #BCA8B1 #BCB3A8

Square

Starting with #A8BBBC, each quarter turn (90°) takes you to the next hue: #B3A8BC, #BCA9A8, then #B1BCA8. Across the square, #A8BBBC pairs with #BCA9A8, and #B3A8BC with #B1BCA8.

#A8BBBC #B3A8BC #BCA9A8 #B1BCA8

Tetradic

#A8BBBC and #BCA9A8 are opposites, as are #A9A8BC and #BBBCA8. Together they form a rectangle on the wheel, with alternating gaps of 60° and 120°.

#A8BBBC #A9A8BC #BCA9A8 #BBBCA8

Tints

Mixing #A8BBBC with white in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #B9C9C9, keeps 80% of the original. By #EEF1F2, the mixture is 80% white.

#A8BBBC #B9C9C9 #CBD6D7 #DCE4E4 #EEF1F2 #FFFFFF

Shades

Mixing #A8BBBC with black in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #869696, keeps 80% of the original. By #222526, the mixture is 80% black.

#A8BBBC #869696 #657071 #434B4B #222526 #000000

Tones

Mixing #A8BBBC with middle gray in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #A0AFB0, keeps 80% of the original. By #888C8C, the mixture is 80% middle gray.

#A8BBBC #A0AFB0 #98A3A4 #909898 #888C8C #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

#A8BBBC

RGB

rgb(168 187 188)

HSL

hsl(183.000 12.987% 69.804%)

CSS example

.color-sample {
  background-color: #A8BBBC;
  color: #000000;
}

Channel breakdown

RGB

#A8BBBC uses 168 red, 187 green and 188 blue. Each bar shows how much of that channel’s 0–255 range the screen uses.

Red 65.9%

Green 73.3%

Blue 73.7%

CMYK

A simple CMYK estimate for #A8BBBC is 10.6% cyan, 0.5% magenta, 0.0% yellow and 26.3% black. These are ink amounts; a printer profile is needed to predict the result on paper.

Cyan 10.6%

Magenta 0.5%

Yellow 0.0%

Black 26.3%

Nearby colors

The nearest shorthand match is #AABBBB. Its matching digit pairs let you write it as #ABB in CSS. For a modern design, keep #A8BBBC when you want an exact match. Use its web-safe neighbor, #99CCCC, when matching a legacy palette of 216 colors.

Nearest shorthand: #AABBBB Nearest web-safe: #99CCCC

Gradient to complement

#A8BBBC #ABB8B9 #AFB5B5 #B2B2B2 #B5AFAF #B9ACAB #BCA9A8

Color vision previews

Compare how #A8BBBC 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.

#B8B9BC

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.

#B4B6BC

Tritanopia

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

#A2BDBB

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.

#B2B9BC

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.

#B1B8BC

Tritanomaly (50%)

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

#A8BBBC

Grayscale (luminance)

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

#B7B7B7

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.

#B0B9BA

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 0.39157 G 0.49693 B 0.50289

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 0.67284 G 0.73102 B 0.73572

Linear Display P3

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

R 0.41028 G 0.49344 B 0.50055

CIE xyY

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

x 0.297 y 0.328 Y 47.496

CMY

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

C % 34.118 M % 26.667 Y % 26.275

Binary RGB

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

10101000 10111011 10111100