#AAA589

sRGB: 170 / 165 / 137

Radiant blossoms flourish beyond boundaries
Sacred blossoms wander across quiet meadows
Golden visions reveal unspoken wonders

#AAA589 belongs to the yellow family. Its hex code tells a screen to mix 170 red, 165 green and 137 blue on a scale of 0 to 255. On the HSL wheel, hue is a position around a circle: 50.9° lands in the yellow region. Its 16.3% saturation makes it close to gray at this lightness. HSL lightness is 60.2% 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 (8.45:1), which helps the shapes of letters stand out.

Color conversions

sRGB (8-bit): 170, 165, 137
HSL: 50.91°, 16.26%, 60.20%
HSV / HSB: 50.91°, 19.41%, 66.67%
CMYK (approx.): 0.00%, 2.94%, 19.41%, 33.33%
CIE XYZ (D65, Y = 100 for white): 34.547, 37.263, 29.040
CIELAB (D65, 2° observer): 67.474, -2.970, 15.190
WCAG relative luminance: 0.37262
24-bit decimal: 11183497

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 #AAA589 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: 8.45:1

Normal text: AAA
Large text: AAA

White text: 2.48:1

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

#898EAA sits half a turn (180°) from #AAA589 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.

#AAA589 #898EAA

Analogous

#AA9589 and #9EAA89 sit 30° to either side of #AAA589. 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.

#AA9589 #AAA589 #9EAA89

Triadic

#AAA589, #89AAA5 and #A589AA are spaced 120° apart, forming a triangle on the wheel. Try one for the main color and the other two for accents.

#AAA589 #89AAA5 #A589AA

Split complementary

Start at #AAA589 and look across the wheel. #899EAA and #9589AA sit 30° to either side of its exact opposite, giving you two different accent choices.

#AAA589 #899EAA #9589AA

Square

Starting with #AAA589, each quarter turn (90°) takes you to the next hue: #89AA95, #898EAA, then #AA899E. Across the square, #AAA589 pairs with #898EAA, and #89AA95 with #AA899E.

#AAA589 #89AA95 #898EAA #AA899E

Tetradic

#AAA589 and #898EAA are opposites, as are #8EAA89 and #A589AA. Together they form a rectangle on the wheel, with alternating gaps of 60° and 120°.

#AAA589 #8EAA89 #898EAA #A589AA

Tints

Mixing #AAA589 with white in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #BBB7A1, keeps 80% of the original. By #EEEDE7, the mixture is 80% white.

#AAA589 #BBB7A1 #CCC9B8 #DDDBD0 #EEEDE7 #FFFFFF

Shades

Mixing #AAA589 with black in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #88846E, keeps 80% of the original. By #22211B, the mixture is 80% black.

#AAA589 #88846E #666352 #444237 #22211B #000000

Tones

Mixing #AAA589 with middle gray in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #A29E87, keeps 80% of the original. By #888782, the mixture is 80% middle gray.

#AAA589 #A29E87 #999685 #918F84 #888782 #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

#AAA589

RGB

rgb(170 165 137)

HSL

hsl(50.909 16.256% 60.196%)

CSS example

.color-sample {
  background-color: #AAA589;
  color: #000000;
}

Channel breakdown

RGB

#AAA589 uses 170 red, 165 green and 137 blue. Each bar shows how much of that channel’s 0–255 range the screen uses.

Red 66.7%

Green 64.7%

Blue 53.7%

CMYK

A simple CMYK estimate for #AAA589 is 0.0% cyan, 2.9% magenta, 19.4% yellow and 33.3% black. These are ink amounts; a printer profile is needed to predict the result on paper.

Cyan 0.0%

Magenta 2.9%

Yellow 19.4%

Black 33.3%

Nearby colors

The nearest shorthand match is #AAAA88. Its matching digit pairs let you write it as #AA8 in CSS. For a modern design, keep #AAA589 when you want an exact match. Use its web-safe neighbor, #999999, when matching a legacy palette of 216 colors.

Nearest shorthand: #AAAA88 Nearest web-safe: #999999

Gradient to complement

#AAA589 #A5A18F #9F9D94 #9A9A9A #94969F #8F92A5 #898EAA

Color vision previews

Compare how #AAA589 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.

#ABA387

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.

#ACA58A

Tritanopia

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

#AFA19D

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.

#ABA488

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.

#ACA589

Tritanomaly (50%)

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

#ABA491

Grayscale (luminance)

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

#A4A4A4

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.

#A7A597

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 0.40198 G 0.37626 B 0.25016

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 0.66324 G 0.64772 B 0.54867

Linear Display P3

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

R 0.39741 G 0.37712 B 0.26188

CIE xyY

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

x 0.343 y 0.369 Y 37.263

CMY

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

C % 33.333 M % 35.294 Y % 46.275

Binary RGB

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

10101010 10100101 10001001