#BBABB5

sRGB: 187 / 171 / 181

Ancient mountains rise against oblivion
Sacred blossoms shimmer across boundless heavens
Eternal flames settle beneath starlight

#BBABB5 belongs to the rose family. Its hex code tells a screen to mix 187 red, 171 green and 181 blue on a scale of 0 to 255. On the HSL wheel, hue is a position around a circle: 322.5° lands in the rose region. Its 10.5% saturation makes it close to gray at this lightness. HSL lightness is 70.2% 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 (9.61:1), which helps the shapes of letters stand out.

Color conversions

sRGB (8-bit): 187, 171, 181
HSL: 322.50°, 10.53%, 70.20%
HSV / HSB: 322.50°, 8.56%, 73.33%
CMYK (approx.): 0.00%, 8.56%, 3.21%, 26.67%
CIE XYZ (D65, Y = 100 for white): 43.395, 43.027, 49.737
CIELAB (D65, 2° observer): 71.573, 7.539, -3.030
WCAG relative luminance: 0.43027
24-bit decimal: 12299189

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 #BBABB5 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: 9.61:1

Normal text: AAA
Large text: AAA

White text: 2.19:1

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

#ABBBB1 sits half a turn (180°) from #BBABB5 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.

#BBABB5 #ABBBB1

Analogous

#B9ABBB and #BBABAD sit 30° to either side of #BBABB5. 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.

#B9ABBB #BBABB5 #BBABAD

Triadic

#BBABB5, #B5BBAB and #ABB5BB are spaced 120° apart, forming a triangle on the wheel. Try one for the main color and the other two for accents.

#BBABB5 #B5BBAB #ABB5BB

Split complementary

Start at #BBABB5 and look across the wheel. #ADBBAB and #ABBBB9 sit 30° to either side of its exact opposite, giving you two different accent choices.

#BBABB5 #ADBBAB #ABBBB9

Square

Starting with #BBABB5, each quarter turn (90°) takes you to the next hue: #BBB9AB, #ABBBB1, then #ABADBB. Across the square, #BBABB5 pairs with #ABBBB1, and #BBB9AB with #ABADBB.

#BBABB5 #BBB9AB #ABBBB1 #ABADBB

Tetradic

#BBABB5 and #ABBBB1 are opposites, as are #BBB1AB and #ABB5BB. Together they form a rectangle on the wheel, with alternating gaps of 60° and 120°.

#BBABB5 #BBB1AB #ABBBB1 #ABB5BB

Tints

Mixing #BBABB5 with white in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #C9BCC4, keeps 80% of the original. By #F1EEF0, the mixture is 80% white.

#BBABB5 #C9BCC4 #D6CDD3 #E4DDE1 #F1EEF0 #FFFFFF

Shades

Mixing #BBABB5 with black in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #968991, keeps 80% of the original. By #252224, the mixture is 80% black.

#BBABB5 #968991 #70676D #4B4448 #252224 #000000

Tones

Mixing #BBABB5 with middle gray in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #AFA2AA, keeps 80% of the original. By #8C898B, the mixture is 80% middle gray.

#BBABB5 #AFA2AA #A39AA0 #989195 #8C898B #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

#BBABB5

RGB

rgb(187 171 181)

HSL

hsl(322.500 10.526% 70.196%)

CSS example

.color-sample {
  background-color: #BBABB5;
  color: #000000;
}

Channel breakdown

RGB

#BBABB5 uses 187 red, 171 green and 181 blue. Each bar shows how much of that channel’s 0–255 range the screen uses.

Red 73.3%

Green 67.1%

Blue 71.0%

CMYK

A simple CMYK estimate for #BBABB5 is 0.0% cyan, 8.6% magenta, 3.2% 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 3.2%

Black 26.7%

Nearby colors

The nearest shorthand match is #BBAABB. Its matching digit pairs let you write it as #BAB in CSS. For a modern design, keep #BBABB5 when you want an exact match. Use its web-safe neighbor, #CC99CC, when matching a legacy palette of 216 colors.

Nearest shorthand: #BBAABB Nearest web-safe: #CC99CC

Gradient to complement

#BBABB5 #B8AEB4 #B6B0B4 #B3B3B3 #B0B6B2 #AEB8B2 #ABBBB1

Color vision previews

Compare how #BBABB5 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.

#ABAEB5

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.

#AFB0B5

Tritanopia

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

#BDABAE

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.

#B1ADB5

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.

#B2AEB5

Tritanomaly (50%)

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

#BBABB3

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.

#B5ADB2

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 0.46208

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 0.70747

Linear Display P3

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

R 0.48101 G 0.41022 B 0.45870

CIE xyY

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

x 0.319 y 0.316 Y 43.027

CMY

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

C % 26.667 M % 32.941 Y % 29.020

Binary RGB

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

10111011 10101011 10110101