#B5CCFF

sRGB: 181 / 204 / 255

Ancient mountains dance upon still waters
Majestic waterfalls thunder through timeless canyons
Celestial symphonies echo beyond eternity

#B5CCFF belongs to the azure family. Its hex code tells a screen to mix 181 red, 204 green and 255 blue on a scale of 0 to 255. On the HSL wheel, hue is a position around a circle: 221.4° lands in the azure region. Its 100.0% saturation makes it strong in color at this lightness. HSL lightness is 85.5% 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 (13.05:1), which helps the shapes of letters stand out.

Color conversions

sRGB (8-bit): 181, 204, 255
HSL: 221.35°, 100.00%, 85.49%
HSV / HSB: 221.35°, 29.02%, 100.00%
CMYK (approx.): 29.02%, 20.00%, 0.00%, 0.00%
CIE XYZ (D65, Y = 100 for white): 58.696, 60.229, 103.144
CIELAB (D65, 2° observer): 81.962, 3.538, -27.508
WCAG relative luminance: 0.60229
24-bit decimal: 11914495

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 #B5CCFF 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: 13.05:1

Normal text: AAA
Large text: AAA

White text: 1.61:1

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

#FFE8B5 sits half a turn (180°) from #B5CCFF 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.

#B5CCFF #FFE8B5

Analogous

#B5F1FF and #C3B5FF sit 30° to either side of #B5CCFF. 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.

#B5F1FF #B5CCFF #C3B5FF

Triadic

#B5CCFF, #FFB5CC and #CCFFB5 are spaced 120° apart, forming a triangle on the wheel. Try one for the main color and the other two for accents.

#B5CCFF #FFB5CC #CCFFB5

Split complementary

Start at #B5CCFF and look across the wheel. #FFC3B5 and #F1FFB5 sit 30° to either side of its exact opposite, giving you two different accent choices.

#B5CCFF #FFC3B5 #F1FFB5

Square

Starting with #B5CCFF, each quarter turn (90°) takes you to the next hue: #FFB5F1, #FFE8B5, then #B5FFC3. Across the square, #B5CCFF pairs with #FFE8B5, and #FFB5F1 with #B5FFC3.

#B5CCFF #FFB5F1 #FFE8B5 #B5FFC3

Tetradic

#B5CCFF and #FFE8B5 are opposites, as are #E8B5FF and #CCFFB5. Together they form a rectangle on the wheel, with alternating gaps of 60° and 120°.

#B5CCFF #E8B5FF #FFE8B5 #CCFFB5

Tints

Mixing #B5CCFF with white in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #C4D6FF, keeps 80% of the original. By #F0F5FF, the mixture is 80% white.

#B5CCFF #C4D6FF #D3E0FF #E1EBFF #F0F5FF #FFFFFF

Shades

Mixing #B5CCFF with black in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #91A3CC, keeps 80% of the original. By #242933, the mixture is 80% black.

#B5CCFF #91A3CC #6D7A99 #485266 #242933 #000000

Tones

Mixing #B5CCFF with middle gray in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #AABDE6, keeps 80% of the original. By #8B8F99, the mixture is 80% middle gray.

#B5CCFF #AABDE6 #A0AECC #959EB3 #8B8F99 #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

#B5CCFF

RGB

rgb(181 204 255)

HSL

hsl(221.351 100.000% 85.490%)

CSS example

.color-sample {
  background-color: #B5CCFF;
  color: #000000;
}

Channel breakdown

RGB

#B5CCFF uses 181 red, 204 green and 255 blue. Each bar shows how much of that channel’s 0–255 range the screen uses.

Red 71.0%

Green 80.0%

Blue 100.0%

CMYK

A simple CMYK estimate for #B5CCFF is 29.0% cyan, 20.0% magenta, 0.0% yellow and 0.0% black. These are ink amounts; a printer profile is needed to predict the result on paper.

Cyan 29.0%

Magenta 20.0%

Yellow 0.0%

Black 0.0%

Nearby colors

The nearest shorthand match is #BBCCFF. Its matching digit pairs let you write it as #BCF in CSS. For a modern design, keep #B5CCFF when you want an exact match. Use its web-safe neighbor, #CCCCFF, when matching a legacy palette of 216 colors.

Nearest shorthand: #BBCCFF Nearest web-safe: #CCCCFF

Gradient to complement

#B5CCFF #C1D1F3 #CED5E6 #DADADA #E6DFCE #F3E3C1 #FFE8B5

Color vision previews

Compare how #B5CCFF 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.

#BCCFFF

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.

#B5C9FE

Tritanopia

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

#A1D6DD

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.

#B9CEFF

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.

#B5CAFE

Tritanomaly (50%)

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

#B1CFF3

Grayscale (luminance)

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

#CCCCCC

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.

#C1CCE7

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 0.46208 G 0.60383 B 1.00000

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 0.72689 G 0.79722 B 0.98316

Linear Display P3

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

R 0.48724 G 0.59912 B 0.96213

CIE xyY

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

x 0.264 y 0.271 Y 60.229

CMY

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

C % 29.020 M % 20.000 Y % 0.000

Binary RGB

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

10110101 11001100 11111111