#BBAEAA

sRGB: 187 / 174 / 170

Ancient mountains rise against oblivion
Sacred blossoms transcend the boundaries of time
Brilliant stars illuminate hidden worlds

#BBAEAA belongs to the red family. Its hex code tells a screen to mix 187 red, 174 green and 170 blue on a scale of 0 to 255. On the HSL wheel, hue is a position around a circle: 14.1° lands in the red region. Its 11.1% saturation makes it close to gray at this lightness. HSL lightness is 70.0% 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 (9.75:1), which helps the shapes of letters stand out.

Color conversions

sRGB (8-bit): 187, 174, 170
HSL: 14.12°, 11.11%, 70.00%
HSV / HSB: 14.12°, 9.09%, 73.33%
CMYK (approx.): 0.00%, 6.95%, 9.09%, 26.67%
CIE XYZ (D65, Y = 100 for white): 42.883, 43.739, 44.215
CIELAB (D65, 2° observer): 72.054, 3.948, 3.724
WCAG relative luminance: 0.43739
24-bit decimal: 12299946

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 #BBAEAA 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: 9.75:1

Normal text: AAA
Large text: AAA

White text: 2.15:1

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

#AAB7BB sits half a turn (180°) from #BBAEAA 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.

#BBAEAA #AAB7BB

Analogous

#BBAAAE and #BBB7AA sit 30° to either side of #BBAEAA. 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.

#BBAAAE #BBAEAA #BBB7AA

Triadic

#BBAEAA, #AABBAE and #AEAABB are spaced 120° apart, forming a triangle on the wheel. Try one for the main color and the other two for accents.

#BBAEAA #AABBAE #AEAABB

Split complementary

Start at #BBAEAA and look across the wheel. #AABBB7 and #AAAEBB sit 30° to either side of its exact opposite, giving you two different accent choices.

#BBAEAA #AABBB7 #AAAEBB

Square

Starting with #BBAEAA, each quarter turn (90°) takes you to the next hue: #AEBBAA, #AAB7BB, then #B7AABB. Across the square, #BBAEAA pairs with #AAB7BB, and #AEBBAA with #B7AABB.

#BBAEAA #AEBBAA #AAB7BB #B7AABB

Tetradic

#BBAEAA and #AAB7BB are opposites, as are #B7BBAA and #AEAABB. Together they form a rectangle on the wheel, with alternating gaps of 60° and 120°.

#BBAEAA #B7BBAA #AAB7BB #AEAABB

Tints

Mixing #BBAEAA with white in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #C9BEBB, keeps 80% of the original. By #F1EFEE, the mixture is 80% white.

#BBAEAA #C9BEBB #D6CECC #E4DFDD #F1EFEE #FFFFFF

Shades

Mixing #BBAEAA with black in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #968B88, keeps 80% of the original. By #252322, the mixture is 80% black.

#BBAEAA #968B88 #706866 #4B4644 #252322 #000000

Tones

Mixing #BBAEAA with middle gray in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #AFA5A2, keeps 80% of the original. By #8C8988, the mixture is 80% middle gray.

#BBAEAA #AFA5A2 #A39C99 #989291 #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

#BBAEAA

RGB

rgb(187 174 170)

HSL

hsl(14.118 11.111% 70.000%)

CSS example

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

Channel breakdown

RGB

#BBAEAA uses 187 red, 174 green and 170 blue. Each bar shows how much of that channel’s 0–255 range the screen uses.

Red 73.3%

Green 68.2%

Blue 66.7%

CMYK

A simple CMYK estimate for #BBAEAA is 0.0% cyan, 7.0% magenta, 9.1% yellow and 26.7% black. These are ink amounts; a printer profile is needed to predict the result on paper.

Cyan 0.0%

Magenta 7.0%

Yellow 9.1%

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 #BBAEAA 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

#BBAEAA #B8B0AD #B5B1B0 #B3B3B3 #B0B4B5 #ADB6B8 #AAB7BB

Color vision previews

Compare how #BBAEAA 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.

#B1AFAA

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.

#B4B2AA

Tritanopia

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

#BFACAD

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.

#B5AFAA

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.

#B6B0AA

Tritanomaly (50%)

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

#BBAEAB

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.

#B6AFAD

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 0.42327 B 0.40198

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 0.72462 G 0.68412 B 0.66903

Linear Display P3

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

R 0.48385 G 0.42571 B 0.40514

CIE xyY

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

x 0.328 y 0.334 Y 43.739

CMY

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

C % 26.667 M % 31.765 Y % 33.333

Binary RGB

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

10111011 10101110 10101010