#ABA698

sRGB: 171 / 166 / 152
Color name: Tornado Watch

Radiant blossoms rise against oblivion
Sacred blossoms blossom beneath falling stars
Rising tides carry promises of spring

The hex code for Tornado Watch is #ABA698. It belongs to the orange family. Its hex code tells a screen to mix 171 red, 166 green and 152 blue on a scale of 0 to 255. On the HSL wheel, hue is a position around a circle: 44.2° lands in the orange region. Its 10.2% saturation makes it close to gray at this lightness. HSL lightness is 63.3% 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 (8.64:1), which helps the shapes of letters stand out.

Color conversions

sRGB (8-bit): 171, 166, 152
HSL: 44.21°, 10.16%, 63.33%
HSV / HSB: 44.21°, 11.11%, 67.06%
CMYK (approx.): 0.00%, 2.92%, 11.11%, 32.94%
CIE XYZ (D65, Y = 100 for white): 36.097, 38.198, 35.178
CIELAB (D65, 2° observer): 68.166, -0.695, 7.887
WCAG relative luminance: 0.38197
24-bit decimal: 11249304

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 #ABA698 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: 8.64:1

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

#989DAB sits half a turn (180°) from #ABA698 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.

#ABA698 #989DAB

Analogous

#AB9D98 and #A6AB98 sit 30° to either side of #ABA698. 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.

#AB9D98 #ABA698 #A6AB98

Triadic

#ABA698, #98ABA6 and #A698AB are spaced 120° apart, forming a triangle on the wheel. Try one for the main color and the other two for accents.

#ABA698 #98ABA6 #A698AB

Split complementary

Start at #ABA698 and look across the wheel. #98A6AB and #9D98AB sit 30° to either side of its exact opposite, giving you two different accent choices.

#ABA698 #98A6AB #9D98AB

Square

Starting with #ABA698, each quarter turn (90°) takes you to the next hue: #98AB9D, #989DAB, then #AB98A6. Across the square, #ABA698 pairs with #989DAB, and #98AB9D with #AB98A6.

#ABA698 #98AB9D #989DAB #AB98A6

Tetradic

#ABA698 and #989DAB are opposites, as are #9DAB98 and #A698AB. Together they form a rectangle on the wheel, with alternating gaps of 60° and 120°.

#ABA698 #9DAB98 #989DAB #A698AB

Tints

Mixing #ABA698 with white in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #BCB8AD, keeps 80% of the original. By #EEEDEA, the mixture is 80% white.

#ABA698 #BCB8AD #CDCAC1 #DDDBD6 #EEEDEA #FFFFFF

Shades

Mixing #ABA698 with black in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #89857A, keeps 80% of the original. By #22211E, the mixture is 80% black.

#ABA698 #89857A #67645B #44423D #22211E #000000

Tones

Mixing #ABA698 with middle gray in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #A29E93, keeps 80% of the original. By #898885, the mixture is 80% middle gray.

#ABA698 #A29E93 #9A978E #918F8A #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

#ABA698

RGB

rgb(171 166 152)

HSL

hsl(44.211 10.160% 63.333%)

CSS example

.color-sample {
  background-color: #ABA698;
  color: #000000;
}

Channel breakdown

RGB

#ABA698 uses 171 red, 166 green and 152 blue. Each bar shows how much of that channel’s 0–255 range the screen uses.

Red 67.1%

Green 65.1%

Blue 59.6%

CMYK

A simple CMYK estimate for #ABA698 is 0.0% cyan, 2.9% magenta, 11.1% 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 11.1%

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 #ABA698 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

#ABA698 #A8A59B #A5A39E #A2A2A2 #9EA0A5 #9B9FA8 #989DAB

Color vision previews

Compare how #ABA698 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.

#A9A597

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.

#ABA798

Tritanopia

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

#AEA4A2

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.

#AAA698

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.

#ABA698

Tritanomaly (50%)

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

#ACA59C

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 0.31399

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 0.60163

Linear Display P3

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

R 0.40264 G 0.38219 B 0.32046

CIE xyY

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

x 0.330 y 0.349 Y 38.198

CMY

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

C % 32.941 M % 34.902 Y % 40.392

Binary RGB

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

10101011 10100110 10011000