#BBABA7

sRGB: 187 / 171 / 167

Ancient mountains rise against oblivion
Sacred blossoms shimmer across boundless heavens
Brilliant stars embrace the coming dawn

#BBABA7 belongs to the red family. Its hex code tells a screen to mix 187 red, 171 green and 167 blue on a scale of 0 to 255. On the HSL wheel, hue is a position around a circle: 12.0° lands in the red region. Its 12.8% saturation makes it close to gray at this lightness. HSL lightness is 69.4% 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 (9.50:1), which helps the shapes of letters stand out.

Color conversions

sRGB (8-bit): 187, 171, 167
HSL: 12.00°, 12.82%, 69.41%
HSV / HSB: 12.00°, 10.70%, 73.33%
CMYK (approx.): 0.00%, 8.56%, 10.70%, 26.67%
CIE XYZ (D65, Y = 100 for white): 42.030, 42.481, 42.546
CIELAB (D65, 2° observer): 71.201, 5.062, 4.141
WCAG relative luminance: 0.42481
24-bit decimal: 12299175

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 #BBABA7 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: 9.50:1

Normal text: AAA
Large text: AAA

White text: 2.21:1

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

#A7B7BB sits half a turn (180°) from #BBABA7 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.

#BBABA7 #A7B7BB

Analogous

#BBA7AD and #BBB5A7 sit 30° to either side of #BBABA7. 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.

#BBA7AD #BBABA7 #BBB5A7

Triadic

#BBABA7, #A7BBAB and #ABA7BB are spaced 120° apart, forming a triangle on the wheel. Try one for the main color and the other two for accents.

#BBABA7 #A7BBAB #ABA7BB

Split complementary

Start at #BBABA7 and look across the wheel. #A7BBB5 and #A7ADBB sit 30° to either side of its exact opposite, giving you two different accent choices.

#BBABA7 #A7BBB5 #A7ADBB

Square

Starting with #BBABA7, each quarter turn (90°) takes you to the next hue: #ADBBA7, #A7B7BB, then #B5A7BB. Across the square, #BBABA7 pairs with #A7B7BB, and #ADBBA7 with #B5A7BB.

#BBABA7 #ADBBA7 #A7B7BB #B5A7BB

Tetradic

#BBABA7 and #A7B7BB are opposites, as are #B7BBA7 and #ABA7BB. Together they form a rectangle on the wheel, with alternating gaps of 60° and 120°.

#BBABA7 #B7BBA7 #A7B7BB #ABA7BB

Tints

Mixing #BBABA7 with white in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #C9BCB9, keeps 80% of the original. By #F1EEED, the mixture is 80% white.

#BBABA7 #C9BCB9 #D6CDCA #E4DDDC #F1EEED #FFFFFF

Shades

Mixing #BBABA7 with black in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #968986, keeps 80% of the original. By #252221, the mixture is 80% black.

#BBABA7 #968986 #706764 #4B4443 #252221 #000000

Tones

Mixing #BBABA7 with middle gray in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #AFA29F, keeps 80% of the original. By #8C8988, the mixture is 80% middle gray.

#BBABA7 #AFA29F #A39A97 #989190 #8C8988 #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

#BBABA7

RGB

rgb(187 171 167)

HSL

hsl(12.000 12.821% 69.412%)

CSS example

.color-sample {
  background-color: #BBABA7;
  color: #000000;
}

Channel breakdown

RGB

#BBABA7 uses 187 red, 171 green and 167 blue. Each bar shows how much of that channel’s 0–255 range the screen uses.

Red 73.3%

Green 67.1%

Blue 65.5%

CMYK

A simple CMYK estimate for #BBABA7 is 0.0% cyan, 8.6% magenta, 10.7% yellow and 26.7% black. These are ink amounts; a printer profile is needed to predict the result on paper.

Cyan 0.0%

Magenta 8.6%

Yellow 10.7%

Black 26.7%

Nearby colors

The nearest shorthand match is #BBAAAA. Its matching digit pairs let you write it as #BAA in CSS. For a modern design, keep #BBABA7 when you want an exact match. Use its web-safe neighbor, #CC9999, when matching a legacy palette of 216 colors.

Nearest shorthand: #BBAAAA Nearest web-safe: #CC9999

Gradient to complement

#BBABA7 #B8ADAA #B4AFAE #B1B1B1 #AEB3B4 #AAB5B8 #A7B7BB

Color vision previews

Compare how #BBABA7 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.

#AEADA7

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.

#B2AFA7

Tritanopia

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

#BFA9AA

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.

#B3ACA7

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.

#B5AEA7

Tritanomaly (50%)

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

#BBABA8

Grayscale (luminance)

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

#AEAEAE

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.

#B5ADAB

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 0.49693 G 0.40724 B 0.38643

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 0.72271 G 0.67279 B 0.65749

Linear Display P3

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

R 0.48101 G 0.41022 B 0.38982

CIE xyY

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

x 0.331 y 0.334 Y 42.481

CMY

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

C % 26.667 M % 32.941 Y % 34.510

Binary RGB

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

10111011 10101011 10100111