#BBCBCD

sRGB: 187 / 203 / 205

Ancient mountains rise against oblivion
Majestic waterfalls shimmer across boundless heavens
Boundless spirits shatter the chains of fate

#BBCBCD belongs to the cyan family. Its hex code tells a screen to mix 187 red, 203 green and 205 blue on a scale of 0 to 255. On the HSL wheel, hue is a position around a circle: 186.7° lands in the cyan region. Its 15.3% saturation makes it close to gray at this lightness. HSL lightness is 76.9% 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 (12.54:1), which helps the shapes of letters stand out.

Color conversions

sRGB (8-bit): 187, 203, 205
HSL: 186.67°, 15.25%, 76.86%
HSV / HSB: 186.67°, 8.78%, 80.39%
CMYK (approx.): 8.78%, 0.98%, 0.00%, 19.61%
CIE XYZ (D65, Y = 100 for white): 52.866, 57.684, 66.109
CIELAB (D65, 2° observer): 80.563, -5.020, -2.855
WCAG relative luminance: 0.57684
24-bit decimal: 12307405

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 #BBCBCD 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: 12.54:1

Normal text: AAA
Large text: AAA

White text: 1.68:1

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

#CDBDBB sits half a turn (180°) from #BBCBCD 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.

#BBCBCD #CDBDBB

Analogous

#BBCDC6 and #BBC2CD sit 30° to either side of #BBCBCD. 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.

#BBCDC6 #BBCBCD #BBC2CD

Triadic

#BBCBCD, #CDBBCB and #CBCDBB are spaced 120° apart, forming a triangle on the wheel. Try one for the main color and the other two for accents.

#BBCBCD #CDBBCB #CBCDBB

Split complementary

Start at #BBCBCD and look across the wheel. #CDBBC2 and #CDC6BB sit 30° to either side of its exact opposite, giving you two different accent choices.

#BBCBCD #CDBBC2 #CDC6BB

Square

Starting with #BBCBCD, each quarter turn (90°) takes you to the next hue: #C6BBCD, #CDBDBB, then #C2CDBB. Across the square, #BBCBCD pairs with #CDBDBB, and #C6BBCD with #C2CDBB.

#BBCBCD #C6BBCD #CDBDBB #C2CDBB

Tetradic

#BBCBCD and #CDBDBB are opposites, as are #BDBBCD and #CBCDBB. Together they form a rectangle on the wheel, with alternating gaps of 60° and 120°.

#BBCBCD #BDBBCD #CDBDBB #CBCDBB

Tints

Mixing #BBCBCD with white in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #C9D5D7, keeps 80% of the original. By #F1F5F5, the mixture is 80% white.

#BBCBCD #C9D5D7 #D6E0E1 #E4EAEB #F1F5F5 #FFFFFF

Shades

Mixing #BBCBCD with black in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #96A2A4, keeps 80% of the original. By #252929, the mixture is 80% black.

#BBCBCD #96A2A4 #707A7B #4B5152 #252929 #000000

Tones

Mixing #BBCBCD with middle gray in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #AFBCBE, keeps 80% of the original. By #8C8F8F, the mixture is 80% middle gray.

#BBCBCD #AFBCBE #A3ADAE #989E9F #8C8F8F #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

#BBCBCD

RGB

rgb(187 203 205)

HSL

hsl(186.667 15.254% 76.863%)

CSS example

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

Channel breakdown

RGB

#BBCBCD uses 187 red, 203 green and 205 blue. Each bar shows how much of that channel’s 0–255 range the screen uses.

Red 73.3%

Green 79.6%

Blue 80.4%

CMYK

A simple CMYK estimate for #BBCBCD is 8.8% cyan, 1.0% magenta, 0.0% yellow and 19.6% black. These are ink amounts; a printer profile is needed to predict the result on paper.

Cyan 8.8%

Magenta 1.0%

Yellow 0.0%

Black 19.6%

Nearby colors

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

Nearest shorthand: #BBCCCC Nearest web-safe: #CCCCCC

Gradient to complement

#BBCBCD #BEC9CA #C1C6C7 #C4C4C4 #C7C2C1 #CABFBE #CDBDBB

Color vision previews

Compare how #BBCBCD 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.

#C8C9CD

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.

#C5C7CD

Tritanopia

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

#B6CCCC

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.

#C4CACD

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.

#C2C8CD

Tritanomaly (50%)

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

#BBCBCC

Grayscale (luminance)

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

#C8C8C8

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.

#C2C9CA

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 0.59720 B 0.61050

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 0.74498 G 0.79410 B 0.80222

Linear Display P3

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

R 0.51473 G 0.59387 B 0.60759

CIE xyY

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

x 0.299 y 0.327 Y 57.684

CMY

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

C % 26.667 M % 20.392 Y % 19.608

Binary RGB

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

10111011 11001011 11001101