#ABA697

sRGB: 171 / 166 / 151

Radiant blossoms rise against oblivion
Sacred blossoms blossom beneath falling stars
Rising tides embrace the coming dawn

#ABA697 belongs to the yellow family. Its hex code tells a screen to mix 171 red, 166 green and 151 blue on a scale of 0 to 255. On the HSL wheel, hue is a position around a circle: 45.0° lands in the yellow region. Its 10.6% saturation makes it close to gray at this lightness. HSL lightness is 63.1% 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 (8.63:1), which helps the shapes of letters stand out.

Color conversions

sRGB (8-bit): 171, 166, 151
HSL: 45.00°, 10.64%, 63.14%
HSV / HSB: 45.00°, 11.70%, 67.06%
CMYK (approx.): 0.00%, 2.92%, 11.70%, 32.94%
CIE XYZ (D65, Y = 100 for white): 36.015, 38.165, 34.748
CIELAB (D65, 2° observer): 68.142, -0.865, 8.407
WCAG relative luminance: 0.38165
24-bit decimal: 11249303

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 #ABA697 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: 8.63:1

Normal text: AAA
Large text: AAA

White text: 2.43:1

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

#979CAB sits half a turn (180°) from #ABA697 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.

#ABA697 #979CAB

Analogous

#AB9C97 and #A6AB97 sit 30° to either side of #ABA697. 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.

#AB9C97 #ABA697 #A6AB97

Triadic

#ABA697, #97ABA6 and #A697AB are spaced 120° apart, forming a triangle on the wheel. Try one for the main color and the other two for accents.

#ABA697 #97ABA6 #A697AB

Split complementary

Start at #ABA697 and look across the wheel. #97A6AB and #9C97AB sit 30° to either side of its exact opposite, giving you two different accent choices.

#ABA697 #97A6AB #9C97AB

Square

Starting with #ABA697, each quarter turn (90°) takes you to the next hue: #97AB9C, #979CAB, then #AB97A6. Across the square, #ABA697 pairs with #979CAB, and #97AB9C with #AB97A6.

#ABA697 #97AB9C #979CAB #AB97A6

Tetradic

#ABA697 and #979CAB are opposites, as are #9CAB97 and #A697AB. Together they form a rectangle on the wheel, with alternating gaps of 60° and 120°.

#ABA697 #9CAB97 #979CAB #A697AB

Tints

Mixing #ABA697 with white in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #BCB8AC, keeps 80% of the original. By #EEEDEA, the mixture is 80% white.

#ABA697 #BCB8AC #CDCAC1 #DDDBD5 #EEEDEA #FFFFFF

Shades

Mixing #ABA697 with black in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #898579, keeps 80% of the original. By #22211E, the mixture is 80% black.

#ABA697 #898579 #67645B #44423C #22211E #000000

Tones

Mixing #ABA697 with middle gray in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #A29E92, keeps 80% of the original. By #898885, the mixture is 80% middle gray.

#ABA697 #A29E92 #9A978E #918F89 #898885 #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

#ABA697

RGB

rgb(171 166 151)

HSL

hsl(45.000 10.638% 63.137%)

CSS example

.color-sample {
  background-color: #ABA697;
  color: #000000;
}

Channel breakdown

RGB

#ABA697 uses 171 red, 166 green and 151 blue. Each bar shows how much of that channel’s 0–255 range the screen uses.

Red 67.1%

Green 65.1%

Blue 59.2%

CMYK

A simple CMYK estimate for #ABA697 is 0.0% cyan, 2.9% magenta, 11.7% yellow and 32.9% black. These are ink amounts; a printer profile is needed to predict the result on paper.

Cyan 0.0%

Magenta 2.9%

Yellow 11.7%

Black 32.9%

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 #ABA697 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

#ABA697 #A8A49A #A4A39E #A1A1A1 #9E9FA4 #9A9EA8 #979CAB

Color vision previews

Compare how #ABA697 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.

#AAA596

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.

#ABA797

Tritanopia

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

#AFA3A2

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.

#AAA697

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.

#ABA697

Tritanomaly (50%)

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

#ACA59B

Grayscale (luminance)

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

#A6A6A6

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.

#A9A69F

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 0.40724 G 0.38133 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 0.66716 G 0.65164 B 0.59811

Linear Display P3

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

R 0.40264 G 0.38219 B 0.31634

CIE xyY

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

x 0.331 y 0.350 Y 38.165

CMY

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

C % 32.941 M % 34.902 Y % 40.784

Binary RGB

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

10101011 10100110 10010111