#AEAAA5

sRGB: 174 / 170 / 165

Radiant blossoms fracture ancient heavens
Sacred blossoms awaken beneath celestial skies
Brilliant stars settle beneath starlight

#AEAAA5 belongs to the orange family. Its hex code tells a screen to mix 174 red, 170 green and 165 blue on a scale of 0 to 255. On the HSL wheel, hue is a position around a circle: 33.3° lands in the orange region. Its 5.3% saturation makes it close to gray at this lightness. HSL lightness is 66.5% 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 (9.09:1), which helps the shapes of letters stand out.

Color conversions

sRGB (8-bit): 174, 170, 165
HSL: 33.33°, 5.26%, 66.47%
HSV / HSB: 33.33°, 5.17%, 68.24%
CMYK (approx.): 0.00%, 2.30%, 5.17%, 31.76%
CIE XYZ (D65, Y = 100 for white): 38.620, 40.465, 41.375
CIELAB (D65, 2° observer): 69.799, 0.512, 3.078
WCAG relative luminance: 0.40465
24-bit decimal: 11446949

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 #AEAAA5 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: 9.09:1

Normal text: AAA
Large text: AAA

White text: 2.31:1

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

#A5A9AE sits half a turn (180°) from #AEAAA5 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.

#AEAAA5 #A5A9AE

Analogous

#AEA6A5 and #AEAEA5 sit 30° to either side of #AEAAA5. 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.

#AEA6A5 #AEAAA5 #AEAEA5

Triadic

#AEAAA5, #A5AEAA and #AAA5AE are spaced 120° apart, forming a triangle on the wheel. Try one for the main color and the other two for accents.

#AEAAA5 #A5AEAA #AAA5AE

Split complementary

Start at #AEAAA5 and look across the wheel. #A5AEAE and #A6A5AE sit 30° to either side of its exact opposite, giving you two different accent choices.

#AEAAA5 #A5AEAE #A6A5AE

Square

Starting with #AEAAA5, each quarter turn (90°) takes you to the next hue: #A5AEA6, #A5A9AE, then #AEA5AE. Across the square, #AEAAA5 pairs with #A5A9AE, and #A5AEA6 with #AEA5AE.

#AEAAA5 #A5AEA6 #A5A9AE #AEA5AE

Tetradic

#AEAAA5 and #A5A9AE are opposites, as are #A9AEA5 and #AAA5AE. Together they form a rectangle on the wheel, with alternating gaps of 60° and 120°.

#AEAAA5 #A9AEA5 #A5A9AE #AAA5AE

Tints

Mixing #AEAAA5 with white in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #BEBBB7, keeps 80% of the original. By #EFEEED, the mixture is 80% white.

#AEAAA5 #BEBBB7 #CECCC9 #DFDDDB #EFEEED #FFFFFF

Shades

Mixing #AEAAA5 with black in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #8B8884, keeps 80% of the original. By #232221, the mixture is 80% black.

#AEAAA5 #8B8884 #686663 #464442 #232221 #000000

Tones

Mixing #AEAAA5 with middle gray in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #A5A29E, keeps 80% of the original. By #898887, the mixture is 80% middle gray.

#AEAAA5 #A5A29E #9C9996 #92918F #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

#AEAAA5

RGB

rgb(174 170 165)

HSL

hsl(33.333 5.263% 66.471%)

CSS example

.color-sample {
  background-color: #AEAAA5;
  color: #000000;
}

Channel breakdown

RGB

#AEAAA5 uses 174 red, 170 green and 165 blue. Each bar shows how much of that channel’s 0–255 range the screen uses.

Red 68.2%

Green 66.7%

Blue 64.7%

CMYK

A simple CMYK estimate for #AEAAA5 is 0.0% cyan, 2.3% magenta, 5.2% yellow and 31.8% black. These are ink amounts; a printer profile is needed to predict the result on paper.

Cyan 0.0%

Magenta 2.3%

Yellow 5.2%

Black 31.8%

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 #AEAAA5 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

#AEAAA5 #ADAAA7 #ABAAA8 #AAAAAA #A8A9AB #A7A9AD #A5A9AE

Color vision previews

Compare how #AEAAA5 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.

#ACAAA5

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.

#ADABA5

Tritanopia

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

#B0A9A9

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.

#ADAAA5

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.

#ADABA5

Tritanomaly (50%)

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

#AEAAA6

Grayscale (luminance)

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

#ABABAB

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.

#ACAAA8

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 0.42327 G 0.40198 B 0.37626

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 0.67960 G 0.66720 B 0.64913

Linear Display P3

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

R 0.41949 G 0.40268 B 0.37893

CIE xyY

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

x 0.321 y 0.336 Y 40.465

CMY

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

C % 31.765 M % 33.333 Y % 35.294

Binary RGB

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

10101110 10101010 10100101