#BBBAAA

sRGB: 187 / 186 / 170

Ancient mountains rise against oblivion
Restless constellations awaken beneath celestial skies
Brilliant stars illuminate hidden worlds

#BBBAAA belongs to the yellow family. Its hex code tells a screen to mix 187 red, 186 green and 170 blue on a scale of 0 to 255. On the HSL wheel, hue is a position around a circle: 56.5° lands in the yellow 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 (10.72:1), which helps the shapes of letters stand out.

Color conversions

sRGB (8-bit): 187, 186, 170
HSL: 56.47°, 11.11%, 70.00%
HSV / HSB: 56.47°, 9.09%, 73.33%
CMYK (approx.): 0.00%, 0.53%, 9.09%, 26.67%
CIE XYZ (D65, Y = 100 for white): 45.306, 48.585, 45.023
CIELAB (D65, 2° observer): 75.192, -2.489, 8.238
WCAG relative luminance: 0.48585
24-bit decimal: 12303018

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 #BBBAAA 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: 10.72:1

Normal text: AAA
Large text: AAA

White text: 1.96:1

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

#AAABBB sits half a turn (180°) from #BBBAAA 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.

#BBBAAA #AAABBB

Analogous

#BBB2AA and #B3BBAA sit 30° to either side of #BBBAAA. 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.

#BBB2AA #BBBAAA #B3BBAA

Triadic

#BBBAAA, #AABBBA and #BAAABB are spaced 120° apart, forming a triangle on the wheel. Try one for the main color and the other two for accents.

#BBBAAA #AABBBA #BAAABB

Split complementary

Start at #BBBAAA and look across the wheel. #AAB3BB and #B2AABB sit 30° to either side of its exact opposite, giving you two different accent choices.

#BBBAAA #AAB3BB #B2AABB

Square

Starting with #BBBAAA, each quarter turn (90°) takes you to the next hue: #AABBB2, #AAABBB, then #BBAAB3. Across the square, #BBBAAA pairs with #AAABBB, and #AABBB2 with #BBAAB3.

#BBBAAA #AABBB2 #AAABBB #BBAAB3

Tetradic

#BBBAAA and #AAABBB are opposites, as are #ABBBAA and #BAAABB. Together they form a rectangle on the wheel, with alternating gaps of 60° and 120°.

#BBBAAA #ABBBAA #AAABBB #BAAABB

Tints

Mixing #BBBAAA with white in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #C9C8BB, keeps 80% of the original. By #F1F1EE, the mixture is 80% white.

#BBBAAA #C9C8BB #D6D6CC #E4E3DD #F1F1EE #FFFFFF

Shades

Mixing #BBBAAA with black in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #969588, keeps 80% of the original. By #252522, the mixture is 80% black.

#BBBAAA #969588 #707066 #4B4A44 #252522 #000000

Tones

Mixing #BBBAAA with middle gray in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #AFAEA2, keeps 80% of the original. By #8C8C88, the mixture is 80% middle gray.

#BBBAAA #AFAEA2 #A3A399 #989791 #8C8C88 #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

#BBBAAA

RGB

rgb(187 186 170)

HSL

hsl(56.471 11.111% 70.000%)

CSS example

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

Channel breakdown

RGB

#BBBAAA uses 187 red, 186 green and 170 blue. Each bar shows how much of that channel’s 0–255 range the screen uses.

Red 73.3%

Green 72.9%

Blue 66.7%

CMYK

A simple CMYK estimate for #BBBAAA is 0.0% cyan, 0.5% 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 0.5%

Yellow 9.1%

Black 26.7%

Nearby colors

The nearest shorthand match is #BBBBAA. Its matching digit pairs let you write it as #BBA in CSS. For a modern design, keep #BBBAAA when you want an exact match. Use its web-safe neighbor, #CCCC99, when matching a legacy palette of 216 colors.

Nearest shorthand: #BBBBAA Nearest web-safe: #CCCC99

Gradient to complement

#BBBAAA #B8B8AD #B5B5B0 #B3B3B3 #B0B0B5 #ADAEB8 #AAABBB

Color vision previews

Compare how #BBBAAA 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.

#BDB9A9

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.

#BEBAAB

Tritanopia

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

#BEB8B5

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.

#BDB9AA

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.

#BDBAAA

Tritanomaly (50%)

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

#BCB9AE

Grayscale (luminance)

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

#B9B9B9

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.

#BABAB2

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 0.49102 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 0.73264 G 0.72954 B 0.67267

Linear Display P3

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

R 0.49588 G 0.49122 B 0.41005

CIE xyY

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

x 0.326 y 0.350 Y 48.585

CMY

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

C % 26.667 M % 27.059 Y % 33.333

Binary RGB

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

10111011 10111010 10101010