#AAA997

sRGB: 170 / 169 / 151

Radiant blossoms flourish beyond boundaries
Sacred blossoms cascade across forgotten valleys
Rising tides embrace the coming dawn

#AAA997 belongs to the yellow family. Its hex code tells a screen to mix 170 red, 169 green and 151 blue on a scale of 0 to 255. On the HSL wheel, hue is a position around a circle: 56.8° lands in the yellow region. Its 10.1% saturation makes it close to gray at this lightness. HSL lightness is 62.9% 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 (8.83:1), which helps the shapes of letters stand out.

Color conversions

sRGB (8-bit): 170, 169, 151
HSL: 56.84°, 10.05%, 62.94%
HSV / HSB: 56.84°, 11.18%, 66.67%
CMYK (approx.): 0.00%, 0.59%, 11.18%, 33.33%
CIE XYZ (D65, Y = 100 for white): 36.350, 39.156, 34.922
CIELAB (D65, 2° observer): 68.864, -2.862, 9.425
WCAG relative luminance: 0.39156
24-bit decimal: 11184535

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 #AAA997 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: 8.83:1

Normal text: AAA
Large text: AAA

White text: 2.38:1

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

#9798AA sits half a turn (180°) from #AAA997 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.

#AAA997 #9798AA

Analogous

#AAA097 and #A2AA97 sit 30° to either side of #AAA997. 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.

#AAA097 #AAA997 #A2AA97

Triadic

#AAA997, #97AAA9 and #A997AA are spaced 120° apart, forming a triangle on the wheel. Try one for the main color and the other two for accents.

#AAA997 #97AAA9 #A997AA

Split complementary

Start at #AAA997 and look across the wheel. #97A2AA and #A097AA sit 30° to either side of its exact opposite, giving you two different accent choices.

#AAA997 #97A2AA #A097AA

Square

Starting with #AAA997, each quarter turn (90°) takes you to the next hue: #97AAA0, #9798AA, then #AA97A2. Across the square, #AAA997 pairs with #9798AA, and #97AAA0 with #AA97A2.

#AAA997 #97AAA0 #9798AA #AA97A2

Tetradic

#AAA997 and #9798AA are opposites, as are #98AA97 and #A997AA. Together they form a rectangle on the wheel, with alternating gaps of 60° and 120°.

#AAA997 #98AA97 #9798AA #A997AA

Tints

Mixing #AAA997 with white in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #BBBAAC, keeps 80% of the original. By #EEEEEA, the mixture is 80% white.

#AAA997 #BBBAAC #CCCBC1 #DDDDD5 #EEEEEA #FFFFFF

Shades

Mixing #AAA997 with black in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #888779, keeps 80% of the original. By #22221E, the mixture is 80% black.

#AAA997 #888779 #66655B #44443C #22221E #000000

Tones

Mixing #AAA997 with middle gray in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #A2A192, keeps 80% of the original. By #888885, the mixture is 80% middle gray.

#AAA997 #A2A192 #99998E #919089 #888885 #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

#AAA997

RGB

rgb(170 169 151)

HSL

hsl(56.842 10.053% 62.941%)

CSS example

.color-sample {
  background-color: #AAA997;
  color: #000000;
}

Channel breakdown

RGB

#AAA997 uses 170 red, 169 green and 151 blue. Each bar shows how much of that channel’s 0–255 range the screen uses.

Red 66.7%

Green 66.3%

Blue 59.2%

CMYK

A simple CMYK estimate for #AAA997 is 0.0% cyan, 0.6% magenta, 11.2% yellow and 33.3% black. These are ink amounts; a printer profile is needed to predict the result on paper.

Cyan 0.0%

Magenta 0.6%

Yellow 11.2%

Black 33.3%

Nearby colors

The nearest shorthand match is #AAAA99. Its matching digit pairs let you write it as #AA9 in CSS. For a modern design, keep #AAA997 when you want an exact match. Use its web-safe neighbor, #999999, when matching a legacy palette of 216 colors.

Nearest shorthand: #AAAA99 Nearest web-safe: #999999

Gradient to complement

#AAA997 #A7A69A #A4A39D #A1A1A1 #9D9EA4 #9A9BA7 #9798AA

Color vision previews

Compare how #AAA997 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.

#ADA796

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.

#ADA898

Tritanopia

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

#ADA6A4

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.

#ACA897

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.

#ACA997

Tritanomaly (50%)

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

#ABA89C

Grayscale (luminance)

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

#A8A8A8

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.

#A9A9A0

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 0.39676 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 0.66597 G 0.66288 B 0.59899

Linear Display P3

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

R 0.40105 G 0.39693 B 0.31737

CIE xyY

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

x 0.329 y 0.355 Y 39.156

CMY

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

C % 33.333 M % 33.725 Y % 40.784

Binary RGB

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

10101010 10101001 10010111