#BC4621

sRGB: 188 / 70 / 33

Ancient mountains pierce eternal darkness
Sleeping valleys blossom beneath falling stars
Distant echoes surrender to silence

#BC4621 belongs to the red family. Its hex code tells a screen to mix 188 red, 70 green and 33 blue on a scale of 0 to 255. On the HSL wheel, hue is a position around a circle: 14.3° lands in the red region. Its 70.1% saturation makes it strong in color at this lightness. HSL lightness is 43.3% on a scale from black (0%) to white (100%). Of black and white lettering, white has the clearer light-to-dark separation on this background (5.20:1), which helps the shapes of letters stand out.

Color conversions

sRGB (8-bit): 188, 70, 33
HSL: 14.32°, 70.14%, 43.33%
HSV / HSB: 14.32°, 82.45%, 73.73%
CMYK (approx.): 0.00%, 62.77%, 82.45%, 26.27%
CIE XYZ (D65, Y = 100 for white): 23.203, 15.183, 3.148
CIELAB (D65, 2° observer): 45.884, 45.752, 45.319
WCAG relative luminance: 0.15181
24-bit decimal: 12338721

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 #BC4621 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: 4.04:1

Normal text: Fail
Large text: AA

White text: 5.20:1

Normal text: AA
Large text: AAA

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

#2197BC sits half a turn (180°) from #BC4621 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.

#BC4621 #2197BC

Analogous

#BC214A and #BC9321 sit 30° to either side of #BC4621. 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.

#BC214A #BC4621 #BC9321

Triadic

#BC4621, #21BC46 and #4621BC are spaced 120° apart, forming a triangle on the wheel. Try one for the main color and the other two for accents.

#BC4621 #21BC46 #4621BC

Split complementary

Start at #BC4621 and look across the wheel. #21BC93 and #214ABC sit 30° to either side of its exact opposite, giving you two different accent choices.

#BC4621 #21BC93 #214ABC

Square

Starting with #BC4621, each quarter turn (90°) takes you to the next hue: #4ABC21, #2197BC, then #9321BC. Across the square, #BC4621 pairs with #2197BC, and #4ABC21 with #9321BC.

#BC4621 #4ABC21 #2197BC #9321BC

Tetradic

#BC4621 and #2197BC are opposites, as are #97BC21 and #4621BC. Together they form a rectangle on the wheel, with alternating gaps of 60° and 120°.

#BC4621 #97BC21 #2197BC #4621BC

Tints

Mixing #BC4621 with white in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #C96B4D, keeps 80% of the original. By #F2DAD3, the mixture is 80% white.

#BC4621 #C96B4D #D7907A #E4B5A6 #F2DAD3 #FFFFFF

Shades

Mixing #BC4621 with black in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #96381A, keeps 80% of the original. By #260E07, the mixture is 80% black.

#BC4621 #96381A #712A14 #4B1C0D #260E07 #000000

Tones

Mixing #BC4621 with middle gray in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #B05234, keeps 80% of the original. By #8C746D, the mixture is 80% middle gray.

#BC4621 #B05234 #A45D47 #98695A #8C746D #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

#BC4621

RGB

rgb(188 70 33)

HSL

hsl(14.323 70.136% 43.333%)

CSS example

.color-sample {
  background-color: #BC4621;
  color: #FFFFFF;
}

Channel breakdown

RGB

#BC4621 uses 188 red, 70 green and 33 blue. Each bar shows how much of that channel’s 0–255 range the screen uses.

Red 73.7%

Green 27.5%

Blue 12.9%

CMYK

A simple CMYK estimate for #BC4621 is 0.0% cyan, 62.8% magenta, 82.4% yellow and 26.3% black. These are ink amounts; a printer profile is needed to predict the result on paper.

Cyan 0.0%

Magenta 62.8%

Yellow 82.4%

Black 26.3%

Nearby colors

The nearest shorthand match is #BB4422. Its matching digit pairs let you write it as #B42 in CSS. For a modern design, keep #BC4621 when you want an exact match. Use its web-safe neighbor, #CC3333, when matching a legacy palette of 216 colors.

Nearest shorthand: #BB4422 Nearest web-safe: #CC3333

Gradient to complement

#BC4621 #A2543B #886155 #6F6F6F #557C88 #3B8AA2 #2197BC

Color vision previews

Compare how #BC4621 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.

#685C1B

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.

#85761C

Tritanopia

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

#CF263F

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.

#8E591B

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.

#97681C

Tritanomaly (50%)

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

#BE4330

Grayscale (luminance)

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

#6D6D6D

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.

#9B5C52

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 0.50289 G 0.06125 B 0.01521

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 0.68323 G 0.30533 B 0.17877

Linear Display P3

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

R 0.42448 G 0.07591 B 0.02687

CIE xyY

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

x 0.559 y 0.366 Y 15.183

CMY

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

C % 26.275 M % 72.549 Y % 87.059

Binary RGB

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

10111100 01000110 00100001