#ACAAA3

sRGB: 172 / 170 / 163

Radiant blossoms pierce eternal darkness
Sacred blossoms awaken beneath celestial skies
Brilliant stars linger beyond yesterday

#ACAAA3 belongs to the yellow family. Its hex code tells a screen to mix 172 red, 170 green and 163 blue on a scale of 0 to 255. On the HSL wheel, hue is a position around a circle: 46.7° lands in the yellow region. Its 5.1% saturation makes it close to gray at this lightness. HSL lightness is 65.7% 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 (9.03:1), which helps the shapes of letters stand out.

Color conversions

sRGB (8-bit): 172, 170, 163
HSL: 46.67°, 5.14%, 65.69%
HSV / HSB: 46.67°, 5.23%, 67.45%
CMYK (approx.): 0.00%, 1.16%, 5.23%, 32.55%
CIE XYZ (D65, Y = 100 for white): 37.997, 40.165, 40.402
CIELAB (D65, 2° observer): 69.587, -0.573, 3.855
WCAG relative luminance: 0.40164
24-bit decimal: 11315875

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 #ACAAA3 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: 9.03:1

Normal text: AAA
Large text: AAA

White text: 2.32:1

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

#A3A5AC sits half a turn (180°) from #ACAAA3 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.

#ACAAA3 #A3A5AC

Analogous

#ACA5A3 and #AAACA3 sit 30° to either side of #ACAAA3. 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.

#ACA5A3 #ACAAA3 #AAACA3

Triadic

#ACAAA3, #A3ACAA and #AAA3AC are spaced 120° apart, forming a triangle on the wheel. Try one for the main color and the other two for accents.

#ACAAA3 #A3ACAA #AAA3AC

Split complementary

Start at #ACAAA3 and look across the wheel. #A3AAAC and #A5A3AC sit 30° to either side of its exact opposite, giving you two different accent choices.

#ACAAA3 #A3AAAC #A5A3AC

Square

Starting with #ACAAA3, each quarter turn (90°) takes you to the next hue: #A3ACA5, #A3A5AC, then #ACA3AA. Across the square, #ACAAA3 pairs with #A3A5AC, and #A3ACA5 with #ACA3AA.

#ACAAA3 #A3ACA5 #A3A5AC #ACA3AA

Tetradic

#ACAAA3 and #A3A5AC are opposites, as are #A5ACA3 and #AAA3AC. Together they form a rectangle on the wheel, with alternating gaps of 60° and 120°.

#ACAAA3 #A5ACA3 #A3A5AC #AAA3AC

Tints

Mixing #ACAAA3 with white in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #BDBBB5, keeps 80% of the original. By #EEEEED, the mixture is 80% white.

#ACAAA3 #BDBBB5 #CDCCC8 #DEDDDA #EEEEED #FFFFFF

Shades

Mixing #ACAAA3 with black in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #8A8882, keeps 80% of the original. By #222221, the mixture is 80% black.

#ACAAA3 #8A8882 #676662 #454441 #222221 #000000

Tones

Mixing #ACAAA3 with middle gray in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #A3A29C, keeps 80% of the original. By #898887, the mixture is 80% middle gray.

#ACAAA3 #A3A29C #9A9995 #92918E #898887 #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

#ACAAA3

RGB

rgb(172 170 163)

HSL

hsl(46.667 5.143% 65.686%)

CSS example

.color-sample {
  background-color: #ACAAA3;
  color: #000000;
}

Channel breakdown

RGB

#ACAAA3 uses 172 red, 170 green and 163 blue. Each bar shows how much of that channel’s 0–255 range the screen uses.

Red 67.5%

Green 66.7%

Blue 63.9%

CMYK

A simple CMYK estimate for #ACAAA3 is 0.0% cyan, 1.2% magenta, 5.2% yellow and 32.5% black. These are ink amounts; a printer profile is needed to predict the result on paper.

Cyan 0.0%

Magenta 1.2%

Yellow 5.2%

Black 32.5%

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 #ACAAA3 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

#ACAAA3 #ABA9A5 #A9A8A6 #A8A8A8 #A6A7A9 #A5A6AB #A3A5AC

Color vision previews

Compare how #ACAAA3 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.

#ACAAA3

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.

#ACAAA3

Tritanopia

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

#AEA9A8

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.

#ACAAA3

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.

#ACAAA3

Tritanomaly (50%)

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

#ACAAA5

Grayscale (luminance)

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

#AAAAAA

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.

#ABAAA7

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 0.41254 G 0.40198 B 0.36625

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 0.67313 G 0.66693 B 0.64188

Linear Display P3

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

R 0.41067 G 0.40233 B 0.36963

CIE xyY

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

x 0.320 y 0.339 Y 40.165

CMY

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

C % 32.549 M % 33.333 Y % 36.078

Binary RGB

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

10101100 10101010 10100011