#BBABC5

sRGB: 187 / 171 / 197

Ancient mountains rise against oblivion
Sacred blossoms shimmer across boundless heavens
Boundless spirits settle beneath starlight

#BBABC5 belongs to the violet family. Its hex code tells a screen to mix 187 red, 171 green and 197 blue on a scale of 0 to 255. On the HSL wheel, hue is a position around a circle: 276.9° lands in the violet region. Its 18.3% 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 (9.74:1), which helps the shapes of letters stand out.

Color conversions

sRGB (8-bit): 187, 171, 197
HSL: 276.92°, 18.31%, 72.16%
HSV / HSB: 276.92°, 13.20%, 77.25%
CMYK (approx.): 5.08%, 13.20%, 0.00%, 22.75%
CIE XYZ (D65, Y = 100 for white): 45.132, 43.722, 58.887
CIELAB (D65, 2° observer): 72.042, 10.589, -11.140
WCAG relative luminance: 0.43722
24-bit decimal: 12299205

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 #BBABC5 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: 9.74:1

Normal text: AAA
Large text: AAA

White text: 2.16:1

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

#B5C5AB sits half a turn (180°) from #BBABC5 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.

#BBABC5 #B5C5AB

Analogous

#AEABC5 and #C5ABC2 sit 30° to either side of #BBABC5. 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.

#AEABC5 #BBABC5 #C5ABC2

Triadic

#BBABC5, #C5BBAB and #ABC5BB are spaced 120° apart, forming a triangle on the wheel. Try one for the main color and the other two for accents.

#BBABC5 #C5BBAB #ABC5BB

Split complementary

Start at #BBABC5 and look across the wheel. #C2C5AB and #ABC5AE sit 30° to either side of its exact opposite, giving you two different accent choices.

#BBABC5 #C2C5AB #ABC5AE

Square

Starting with #BBABC5, each quarter turn (90°) takes you to the next hue: #C5AEAB, #B5C5AB, then #ABC2C5. Across the square, #BBABC5 pairs with #B5C5AB, and #C5AEAB with #ABC2C5.

#BBABC5 #C5AEAB #B5C5AB #ABC2C5

Tetradic

#BBABC5 and #B5C5AB are opposites, as are #C5ABB5 and #ABC5BB. Together they form a rectangle on the wheel, with alternating gaps of 60° and 120°.

#BBABC5 #C5ABB5 #B5C5AB #ABC5BB

Tints

Mixing #BBABC5 with white in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #C9BCD1, keeps 80% of the original. By #F1EEF3, the mixture is 80% white.

#BBABC5 #C9BCD1 #D6CDDC #E4DDE8 #F1EEF3 #FFFFFF

Shades

Mixing #BBABC5 with black in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #96899E, keeps 80% of the original. By #252227, the mixture is 80% black.

#BBABC5 #96899E #706776 #4B444F #252227 #000000

Tones

Mixing #BBABC5 with middle gray in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #AFA2B7, keeps 80% of the original. By #8C898E, the mixture is 80% middle gray.

#BBABC5 #AFA2B7 #A39AA9 #98919C #8C898E #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

#BBABC5

RGB

rgb(187 171 197)

HSL

hsl(276.923 18.310% 72.157%)

CSS example

.color-sample {
  background-color: #BBABC5;
  color: #000000;
}

Channel breakdown

RGB

#BBABC5 uses 187 red, 171 green and 197 blue. Each bar shows how much of that channel’s 0–255 range the screen uses.

Red 73.3%

Green 67.1%

Blue 77.3%

CMYK

A simple CMYK estimate for #BBABC5 is 5.1% cyan, 13.2% magenta, 0.0% yellow and 22.7% black. These are ink amounts; a printer profile is needed to predict the result on paper.

Cyan 5.1%

Magenta 13.2%

Yellow 0.0%

Black 22.7%

Nearby colors

The nearest shorthand match is #BBAACC. Its matching digit pairs let you write it as #BAC in CSS. For a modern design, keep #BBABC5 when you want an exact match. Use its web-safe neighbor, #CC99CC, when matching a legacy palette of 216 colors.

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

Gradient to complement

#BBABC5 #BAAFC1 #B9B4BC #B8B8B8 #B7BCB4 #B6C1AF #B5C5AB

Color vision previews

Compare how #BBABC5 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.

#A8B0C6

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.

#ABB1C4

Tritanopia

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

#BAAEB3

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.

#AFAEC5

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.

#B0AFC4

Tritanomaly (50%)

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

#BAACBF

Grayscale (luminance)

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

#B1B1B1

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.

#B6AEBB

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 0.55834

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 0.76510

Linear Display P3

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

R 0.48101 G 0.41022 B 0.54635

CIE xyY

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

x 0.305 y 0.296 Y 43.722

CMY

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

C % 26.667 M % 32.941 Y % 22.745

Binary RGB

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

10111011 10101011 11000101