#BBCDCC

sRGB: 187 / 205 / 204

Ancient mountains rise against oblivion
Majestic waterfalls illuminate forgotten empires
Boundless spirits awaken sleeping galaxies

#BBCDCC belongs to the cyan family. Its hex code tells a screen to mix 187 red, 205 green and 204 blue on a scale of 0 to 255. On the HSL wheel, hue is a position around a circle: 176.7° 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 (12.72:1), which helps the shapes of letters stand out.

Color conversions

sRGB (8-bit): 187, 205, 204
HSL: 176.67°, 15.25%, 76.86%
HSV / HSB: 176.67°, 8.78%, 80.39%
CMYK (approx.): 8.78%, 0.00%, 0.49%, 19.61%
CIE XYZ (D65, Y = 100 for white): 53.221, 58.587, 65.633
CIELAB (D65, 2° observer): 81.064, -6.261, -1.584
WCAG relative luminance: 0.58587
24-bit decimal: 12307916

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 #BBCDCC 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: 12.72:1

Normal text: AAA
Large text: AAA

White text: 1.65:1

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

#CDBBBC sits half a turn (180°) from #BBCDCC 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.

#BBCDCC #CDBBBC

Analogous

#BBCDC3 and #BBC5CD sit 30° to either side of #BBCDCC. 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.

#BBCDC3 #BBCDCC #BBC5CD

Triadic

#BBCDCC, #CCBBCD and #CDCCBB are spaced 120° apart, forming a triangle on the wheel. Try one for the main color and the other two for accents.

#BBCDCC #CCBBCD #CDCCBB

Split complementary

Start at #BBCDCC and look across the wheel. #CDBBC5 and #CDC3BB sit 30° to either side of its exact opposite, giving you two different accent choices.

#BBCDCC #CDBBC5 #CDC3BB

Square

Starting with #BBCDCC, each quarter turn (90°) takes you to the next hue: #C3BBCD, #CDBBBC, then #C5CDBB. Across the square, #BBCDCC pairs with #CDBBBC, and #C3BBCD with #C5CDBB.

#BBCDCC #C3BBCD #CDBBBC #C5CDBB

Tetradic

#BBCDCC and #CDBBBC are opposites, as are #BBBCCD and #CDCCBB. Together they form a rectangle on the wheel, with alternating gaps of 60° and 120°.

#BBCDCC #BBBCCD #CDBBBC #CDCCBB

Tints

Mixing #BBCDCC with white in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #C9D7D6, keeps 80% of the original. By #F1F5F5, the mixture is 80% white.

#BBCDCC #C9D7D6 #D6E1E0 #E4EBEB #F1F5F5 #FFFFFF

Shades

Mixing #BBCDCC with black in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #96A4A3, keeps 80% of the original. By #252929, the mixture is 80% black.

#BBCDCC #96A4A3 #707B7A #4B5252 #252929 #000000

Tones

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

#BBCDCC #AFBEBD #A3AEAE #989F9E #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

#BBCDCC

RGB

rgb(187 205 204)

HSL

hsl(176.667 15.254% 76.863%)

CSS example

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

Channel breakdown

RGB

#BBCDCC uses 187 red, 205 green and 204 blue. Each bar shows how much of that channel’s 0–255 range the screen uses.

Red 73.3%

Green 80.4%

Blue 80.0%

CMYK

A simple CMYK estimate for #BBCDCC is 8.8% cyan, 0.0% magenta, 0.5% yellow and 19.6% black. These are ink amounts; a printer profile is needed to predict the result on paper.

Cyan 8.8%

Magenta 0.0%

Yellow 0.5%

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 #BBCDCC 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

#BBCDCC #BECAC9 #C1C7C7 #C4C4C4 #C7C1C1 #CABEBF #CDBBBC

Color vision previews

Compare how #BBCDCC 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.

#CBCBCC

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.

#C7C8CC

Tritanopia

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

#B6CECD

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.

#C5CBCC

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.

#C4CACC

Tritanomaly (50%)

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

#BBCDCC

Grayscale (luminance)

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

#C9C9C9

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.

#C2CBCB

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 0.61050 B 0.60383

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 0.74651 G 0.80171 B 0.79921

Linear Display P3

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

R 0.51709 G 0.60673 B 0.60248

CIE xyY

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

x 0.300 y 0.330 Y 58.587

CMY

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

C % 26.667 M % 19.608 Y % 20.000

Binary RGB

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

10111011 11001101 11001100