#AEBCC2

sRGB: 174 / 188 / 194

Radiant blossoms fracture ancient heavens
Restless constellations thunder through timeless canyons
Boundless spirits disappear into mist

#AEBCC2 belongs to the azure family. Its hex code tells a screen to mix 174 red, 188 green and 194 blue on a scale of 0 to 255. On the HSL wheel, hue is a position around a circle: 198.0° lands in the azure region. Its 14.1% saturation makes it close to gray at this lightness. HSL lightness is 72.2% 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 (10.77:1), which helps the shapes of letters stand out.

Color conversions

sRGB (8-bit): 174, 188, 194
HSL: 198.00°, 14.08%, 72.16%
HSV / HSB: 198.00°, 10.31%, 76.08%
CMYK (approx.): 10.31%, 3.09%, 0.00%, 23.92%
CIE XYZ (D65, Y = 100 for white): 45.174, 48.860, 58.092
CIELAB (D65, 2° observer): 75.364, -3.609, -4.676
WCAG relative luminance: 0.48860
24-bit decimal: 11451586

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 #AEBCC2 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: 10.77:1

Normal text: AAA
Large text: AAA

White text: 1.95:1

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

#C2B4AE sits half a turn (180°) from #AEBCC2 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.

#AEBCC2 #C2B4AE

Analogous

#AEC2BE and #AEB2C2 sit 30° to either side of #AEBCC2. 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.

#AEC2BE #AEBCC2 #AEB2C2

Triadic

#AEBCC2, #C2AEBC and #BCC2AE are spaced 120° apart, forming a triangle on the wheel. Try one for the main color and the other two for accents.

#AEBCC2 #C2AEBC #BCC2AE

Split complementary

Start at #AEBCC2 and look across the wheel. #C2AEB2 and #C2BEAE sit 30° to either side of its exact opposite, giving you two different accent choices.

#AEBCC2 #C2AEB2 #C2BEAE

Square

Starting with #AEBCC2, each quarter turn (90°) takes you to the next hue: #BEAEC2, #C2B4AE, then #B2C2AE. Across the square, #AEBCC2 pairs with #C2B4AE, and #BEAEC2 with #B2C2AE.

#AEBCC2 #BEAEC2 #C2B4AE #B2C2AE

Tetradic

#AEBCC2 and #C2B4AE are opposites, as are #B4AEC2 and #BCC2AE. Together they form a rectangle on the wheel, with alternating gaps of 60° and 120°.

#AEBCC2 #B4AEC2 #C2B4AE #BCC2AE

Tints

Mixing #AEBCC2 with white in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #BEC9CE, keeps 80% of the original. By #EFF2F3, the mixture is 80% white.

#AEBCC2 #BEC9CE #CED7DA #DFE4E7 #EFF2F3 #FFFFFF

Shades

Mixing #AEBCC2 with black in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #8B969B, keeps 80% of the original. By #232627, the mixture is 80% black.

#AEBCC2 #8B969B #687174 #464B4E #232627 #000000

Tones

Mixing #AEBCC2 with middle gray in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #A5B0B5, keeps 80% of the original. By #898C8D, the mixture is 80% middle gray.

#AEBCC2 #A5B0B5 #9CA4A8 #92989A #898C8D #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

#AEBCC2

RGB

rgb(174 188 194)

HSL

hsl(198.000 14.085% 72.157%)

CSS example

.color-sample {
  background-color: #AEBCC2;
  color: #000000;
}

Channel breakdown

RGB

#AEBCC2 uses 174 red, 188 green and 194 blue. Each bar shows how much of that channel’s 0–255 range the screen uses.

Red 68.2%

Green 73.7%

Blue 76.1%

CMYK

A simple CMYK estimate for #AEBCC2 is 10.3% cyan, 3.1% magenta, 0.0% yellow and 23.9% black. These are ink amounts; a printer profile is needed to predict the result on paper.

Cyan 10.3%

Magenta 3.1%

Yellow 0.0%

Black 23.9%

Nearby colors

The nearest shorthand match is #AABBBB. Its matching digit pairs let you write it as #ABB in CSS. For a modern design, keep #AEBCC2 when you want an exact match. Use its web-safe neighbor, #99CCCC, when matching a legacy palette of 216 colors.

Nearest shorthand: #AABBBB Nearest web-safe: #99CCCC

Gradient to complement

#AEBCC2 #B1BBBF #B5B9BB #B8B8B8 #BBB7B5 #BFB5B1 #C2B4AE

Color vision previews

Compare how #AEBCC2 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.

#B9BBC2

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.

#B6B9C2

Tritanopia

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

#A9BEBE

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.

#B5BBC2

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.

#B4BAC2

Tritanomaly (50%)

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

#ADBCC0

Grayscale (luminance)

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

#BABABA

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.

#B4BBBE

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 0.50289 B 0.53948

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 0.69251 G 0.73552 B 0.75786

Linear Display P3

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

R 0.43740 G 0.50024 B 0.53485

CIE xyY

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

x 0.297 y 0.321 Y 48.860

CMY

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

C % 31.765 M % 26.275 Y % 23.922

Binary RGB

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

10101110 10111100 11000010