#ABA899

sRGB: 171 / 168 / 153

Radiant blossoms rise against oblivion
Sacred blossoms echo between distant mountains
Rising tides reveal unspoken wonders

#ABA899 belongs to the yellow family. Its hex code tells a screen to mix 171 red, 168 green and 153 blue on a scale of 0 to 255. On the HSL wheel, hue is a position around a circle: 50.0° lands in the yellow region. Its 9.7% saturation makes it close to gray at this lightness. HSL lightness is 63.5% 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 (8.79:1), which helps the shapes of letters stand out.

Color conversions

sRGB (8-bit): 171, 168, 153
HSL: 50.00°, 9.68%, 63.53%
HSV / HSB: 50.00°, 10.53%, 67.06%
CMYK (approx.): 0.00%, 1.75%, 10.53%, 32.94%
CIE XYZ (D65, Y = 100 for white): 36.545, 38.963, 35.733
CIELAB (D65, 2° observer): 68.725, -1.609, 8.132
WCAG relative luminance: 0.38963
24-bit decimal: 11249817

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 #ABA899 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: 8.79:1

Normal text: AAA
Large text: AAA

White text: 2.39:1

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

#999CAB sits half a turn (180°) from #ABA899 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.

#ABA899 #999CAB

Analogous

#AB9F99 and #A5AB99 sit 30° to either side of #ABA899. 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.

#AB9F99 #ABA899 #A5AB99

Triadic

#ABA899, #99ABA8 and #A899AB are spaced 120° apart, forming a triangle on the wheel. Try one for the main color and the other two for accents.

#ABA899 #99ABA8 #A899AB

Split complementary

Start at #ABA899 and look across the wheel. #99A5AB and #9F99AB sit 30° to either side of its exact opposite, giving you two different accent choices.

#ABA899 #99A5AB #9F99AB

Square

Starting with #ABA899, each quarter turn (90°) takes you to the next hue: #99AB9F, #999CAB, then #AB99A5. Across the square, #ABA899 pairs with #999CAB, and #99AB9F with #AB99A5.

#ABA899 #99AB9F #999CAB #AB99A5

Tetradic

#ABA899 and #999CAB are opposites, as are #9CAB99 and #A899AB. Together they form a rectangle on the wheel, with alternating gaps of 60° and 120°.

#ABA899 #9CAB99 #999CAB #A899AB

Tints

Mixing #ABA899 with white in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #BCB9AD, keeps 80% of the original. By #EEEEEB, the mixture is 80% white.

#ABA899 #BCB9AD #CDCBC2 #DDDCD6 #EEEEEB #FFFFFF

Shades

Mixing #ABA899 with black in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #89867A, keeps 80% of the original. By #22221F, the mixture is 80% black.

#ABA899 #89867A #67655C #44433D #22221F #000000

Tones

Mixing #ABA899 with middle gray in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #A2A094, keeps 80% of the original. By #898885, the mixture is 80% middle gray.

#ABA899 #A2A094 #9A988F #91908A #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

#ABA899

RGB

rgb(171 168 153)

HSL

hsl(50.000 9.677% 63.529%)

CSS example

.color-sample {
  background-color: #ABA899;
  color: #000000;
}

Channel breakdown

RGB

#ABA899 uses 171 red, 168 green and 153 blue. Each bar shows how much of that channel’s 0–255 range the screen uses.

Red 67.1%

Green 65.9%

Blue 60.0%

CMYK

A simple CMYK estimate for #ABA899 is 0.0% cyan, 1.8% magenta, 10.5% yellow and 32.9% black. These are ink amounts; a printer profile is needed to predict the result on paper.

Cyan 0.0%

Magenta 1.8%

Yellow 10.5%

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 #ABA899 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

#ABA899 #A8A69C #A5A49F #A2A2A2 #9FA0A5 #9C9EA8 #999CAB

Color vision previews

Compare how #ABA899 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.

#ABA798

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.

#ACA899

Tritanopia

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

#AEA6A4

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.

#ABA799

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.

#ACA899

Tritanomaly (50%)

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

#ACA79D

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.

#A9A8A1

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 0.39157 B 0.31855

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 0.66852 G 0.65922 B 0.60579

Linear Display P3

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

R 0.40446 G 0.39209 B 0.32535

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 0.350 Y 38.963

CMY

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

C % 32.941 M % 34.118 Y % 40.000

Binary RGB

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

10101011 10101000 10011001