#ABA9AA

sRGB: 171 / 169 / 170

Radiant blossoms rise against oblivion
Sacred blossoms cascade across forgotten valleys
Brilliant stars illuminate hidden worlds

#ABA9AA belongs to the rose family. Its hex code tells a screen to mix 171 red, 169 green and 170 blue on a scale of 0 to 255. On the HSL wheel, hue is a position around a circle: 330.0° lands in the rose region. Its 1.2% saturation makes it close to gray at this lightness. HSL lightness is 66.7% 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 (8.99:1), which helps the shapes of letters stand out.

Color conversions

sRGB (8-bit): 171, 169, 170
HSL: 330.00°, 1.18%, 66.67%
HSV / HSB: 330.00°, 1.17%, 67.06%
CMYK (approx.): 0.00%, 1.17%, 0.58%, 32.94%
CIE XYZ (D65, Y = 100 for white): 38.236, 39.936, 43.726
CIELAB (D65, 2° observer): 69.424, 0.900, -0.262
WCAG relative luminance: 0.39936
24-bit decimal: 11250090

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 #ABA9AA 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: 8.99:1

Normal text: AAA
Large text: AAA

White text: 2.34:1

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

#A9ABAA sits half a turn (180°) from #ABA9AA 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.

#ABA9AA #A9ABAA

Analogous

#ABA9AB and #ABA9A9 sit 30° to either side of #ABA9AA. 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.

#ABA9AB #ABA9AA #ABA9A9

Triadic

#ABA9AA, #AAABA9 and #A9AAAB are spaced 120° apart, forming a triangle on the wheel. Try one for the main color and the other two for accents.

#ABA9AA #AAABA9 #A9AAAB

Split complementary

Start at #ABA9AA and look across the wheel. #A9ABA9 and #A9ABAB sit 30° to either side of its exact opposite, giving you two different accent choices.

#ABA9AA #A9ABA9 #A9ABAB

Square

Starting with #ABA9AA, each quarter turn (90°) takes you to the next hue: #ABABA9, #A9ABAA, then #A9A9AB. Across the square, #ABA9AA pairs with #A9ABAA, and #ABABA9 with #A9A9AB.

#ABA9AA #ABABA9 #A9ABAA #A9A9AB

Tetradic

#ABA9AA and #A9ABAA are opposites, as are #ABAAA9 and #A9AAAB. Together they form a rectangle on the wheel, with alternating gaps of 60° and 120°.

#ABA9AA #ABAAA9 #A9ABAA #A9AAAB

Tints

Mixing #ABA9AA with white in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #BCBABB, keeps 80% of the original. By #EEEEEE, the mixture is 80% white.

#ABA9AA #BCBABB #CDCBCC #DDDDDD #EEEEEE #FFFFFF

Shades

Mixing #ABA9AA with black in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #898788, keeps 80% of the original. By #222222, the mixture is 80% black.

#ABA9AA #898788 #676566 #444444 #222222 #000000

Tones

Mixing #ABA9AA with middle gray in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #A2A1A2, keeps 80% of the original. By #898888, the mixture is 80% middle gray.

#ABA9AA #A2A1A2 #9A9999 #919091 #898888 #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

#ABA9AA

RGB

rgb(171 169 170)

HSL

hsl(330.000 1.176% 66.667%)

CSS example

.color-sample {
  background-color: #ABA9AA;
  color: #000000;
}

Channel breakdown

RGB

#ABA9AA uses 171 red, 169 green and 170 blue. Each bar shows how much of that channel’s 0–255 range the screen uses.

Red 67.1%

Green 66.3%

Blue 66.7%

CMYK

A simple CMYK estimate for #ABA9AA is 0.0% cyan, 1.2% magenta, 0.6% yellow and 32.9% black. These are ink amounts; a printer profile is needed to predict the result on paper.

Cyan 0.0%

Magenta 1.2%

Yellow 0.6%

Black 32.9%

Nearby colors

The nearest shorthand match is #AAAAAA. Its matching digit pairs let you write it as #AAA in CSS. For a modern design, keep #ABA9AA when you want an exact match. Use its web-safe neighbor, #999999, when matching a legacy palette of 216 colors.

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

Gradient to complement

#ABA9AA #ABA9AA #AAAAAA #AAAAAA #AAAAAA #A9ABAA #A9ABAA

Color vision previews

Compare how #ABA9AA 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.

#A9A9AA

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.

#AAAAAA

Tritanopia

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

#ABA9A9

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.

#AAA9AA

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.

#AAA9AA

Tritanomaly (50%)

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

#ABA9AA

Grayscale (luminance)

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

#A9A9A9

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.

#AAA9AA

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 0.39676 B 0.40198

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 0.66920 G 0.66301 B 0.66645

Linear Display P3

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

R 0.40538 G 0.39710 B 0.40169

CIE xyY

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

x 0.314 y 0.328 Y 39.936

CMY

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

C % 32.941 M % 33.725 Y % 33.333

Binary RGB

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

10101011 10101001 10101010