#ACAEBD

sRGB: 172 / 174 / 189

Radiant blossoms pierce eternal darkness
Sacred blossoms transcend the boundaries of time
Eternal flames shatter the chains of fate

#ACAEBD belongs to the blue family. Its hex code tells a screen to mix 172 red, 174 green and 189 blue on a scale of 0 to 255. On the HSL wheel, hue is a position around a circle: 232.9° lands in the blue region. Its 11.4% saturation makes it close to gray at this lightness. HSL lightness is 70.8% 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 (9.54:1), which helps the shapes of letters stand out.

Color conversions

sRGB (8-bit): 172, 174, 189
HSL: 232.94°, 11.41%, 70.78%
HSV / HSB: 232.94°, 8.99%, 74.12%
CMYK (approx.): 8.99%, 7.94%, 0.00%, 25.88%
CIE XYZ (D65, Y = 100 for white): 41.333, 42.717, 54.213
CIELAB (D65, 2° observer): 71.362, 2.250, -7.882
WCAG relative luminance: 0.42717
24-bit decimal: 11316925

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 #ACAEBD 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: 9.54:1

Normal text: AAA
Large text: AAA

White text: 2.20:1

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

#BDBBAC sits half a turn (180°) from #ACAEBD 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.

#ACAEBD #BDBBAC

Analogous

#ACB7BD and #B3ACBD sit 30° to either side of #ACAEBD. 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.

#ACB7BD #ACAEBD #B3ACBD

Triadic

#ACAEBD, #BDACAE and #AEBDAC are spaced 120° apart, forming a triangle on the wheel. Try one for the main color and the other two for accents.

#ACAEBD #BDACAE #AEBDAC

Split complementary

Start at #ACAEBD and look across the wheel. #BDB3AC and #B7BDAC sit 30° to either side of its exact opposite, giving you two different accent choices.

#ACAEBD #BDB3AC #B7BDAC

Square

Starting with #ACAEBD, each quarter turn (90°) takes you to the next hue: #BDACB6, #BDBBAC, then #ACBDB3. Across the square, #ACAEBD pairs with #BDBBAC, and #BDACB6 with #ACBDB3.

#ACAEBD #BDACB6 #BDBBAC #ACBDB3

Tetradic

#ACAEBD and #BDBBAC are opposites, as are #BBACBD and #AEBDAC. Together they form a rectangle on the wheel, with alternating gaps of 60° and 120°.

#ACAEBD #BBACBD #BDBBAC #AEBDAC

Tints

Mixing #ACAEBD with white in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #BDBECA, keeps 80% of the original. By #EEEFF2, the mixture is 80% white.

#ACAEBD #BDBECA #CDCED7 #DEDFE5 #EEEFF2 #FFFFFF

Shades

Mixing #ACAEBD with black in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #8A8B97, keeps 80% of the original. By #222326, the mixture is 80% black.

#ACAEBD #8A8B97 #676871 #45464C #222326 #000000

Tones

Mixing #ACAEBD with middle gray in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #A3A5B1, keeps 80% of the original. By #89898C, the mixture is 80% middle gray.

#ACAEBD #A3A5B1 #9A9CA5 #929298 #89898C #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

#ACAEBD

RGB

rgb(172 174 189)

HSL

hsl(232.941 11.409% 70.784%)

CSS example

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

Channel breakdown

RGB

#ACAEBD uses 172 red, 174 green and 189 blue. Each bar shows how much of that channel’s 0–255 range the screen uses.

Red 67.5%

Green 68.2%

Blue 74.1%

CMYK

A simple CMYK estimate for #ACAEBD is 9.0% cyan, 7.9% magenta, 0.0% yellow and 25.9% black. These are ink amounts; a printer profile is needed to predict the result on paper.

Cyan 9.0%

Magenta 7.9%

Yellow 0.0%

Black 25.9%

Nearby colors

The nearest shorthand match is #AAAABB. Its matching digit pairs let you write it as #AAB in CSS. For a modern design, keep #ACAEBD when you want an exact match. Use its web-safe neighbor, #9999CC, when matching a legacy palette of 216 colors.

Nearest shorthand: #AAAABB Nearest web-safe: #9999CC

Gradient to complement

#ACAEBD #AFB0BA #B2B2B7 #B5B5B5 #B7B7B2 #BAB9AF #BDBBAC

Color vision previews

Compare how #ACAEBD 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.

#AAAFBE

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.

#AAAEBD

Tritanopia

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

#A9B0B3

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.

#ABAFBD

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.

#AAAEBD

Tritanomaly (50%)

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

#ABAFB9

Grayscale (luminance)

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

#AFAFAF

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.

#ADAEB6

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 0.42327 B 0.50888

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 0.67591 G 0.68209 B 0.73604

Linear Display P3

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

R 0.41445 G 0.42291 B 0.50104

CIE xyY

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

x 0.299 y 0.309 Y 42.717

CMY

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

C % 32.549 M % 31.765 Y % 25.882

Binary RGB

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

10101100 10101110 10111101