#BC8BB2

sRGB: 188 / 139 / 178

Ancient mountains pierce eternal darkness
Morning melodies shimmer across boundless heavens
Eternal flames disappear into mist

#BC8BB2 belongs to the magenta family. Its hex code tells a screen to mix 188 red, 139 green and 178 blue on a scale of 0 to 255. On the HSL wheel, hue is a position around a circle: 312.2° lands in the magenta region. Its 26.8% saturation makes it close to gray at this lightness. HSL lightness is 64.1% 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 (7.47:1), which helps the shapes of letters stand out.

Color conversions

sRGB (8-bit): 188, 139, 178
HSL: 312.24°, 26.78%, 64.12%
HSV / HSB: 312.24°, 26.06%, 73.73%
CMYK (approx.): 0.00%, 26.06%, 5.32%, 26.27%
CIE XYZ (D65, Y = 100 for white): 38.006, 32.372, 46.367
CIELAB (D65, 2° observer): 63.649, 25.049, -13.133
WCAG relative luminance: 0.32371
24-bit decimal: 12356530

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 #BC8BB2 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: 7.47:1

Normal text: AAA
Large text: AAA

White text: 2.81:1

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

#8BBC95 sits half a turn (180°) from #BC8BB2 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.

#BC8BB2 #8BBC95

Analogous

#AD8BBC and #BC8B9A sit 30° to either side of #BC8BB2. 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.

#AD8BBC #BC8BB2 #BC8B9A

Triadic

#BC8BB2, #B2BC8B and #8BB2BC are spaced 120° apart, forming a triangle on the wheel. Try one for the main color and the other two for accents.

#BC8BB2 #B2BC8B #8BB2BC

Split complementary

Start at #BC8BB2 and look across the wheel. #9ABC8B and #8BBCAD sit 30° to either side of its exact opposite, giving you two different accent choices.

#BC8BB2 #9ABC8B #8BBCAD

Square

Starting with #BC8BB2, each quarter turn (90°) takes you to the next hue: #BCAD8B, #8BBC95, then #8B9ABC. Across the square, #BC8BB2 pairs with #8BBC95, and #BCAD8B with #8B9ABC.

#BC8BB2 #BCAD8B #8BBC95 #8B9ABC

Tetradic

#BC8BB2 and #8BBC95 are opposites, as are #BC958B and #8BB2BC. Together they form a rectangle on the wheel, with alternating gaps of 60° and 120°.

#BC8BB2 #BC958B #8BBC95 #8BB2BC

Tints

Mixing #BC8BB2 with white in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #C9A2C1, keeps 80% of the original. By #F2E8F0, the mixture is 80% white.

#BC8BB2 #C9A2C1 #D7B9D1 #E4D1E0 #F2E8F0 #FFFFFF

Shades

Mixing #BC8BB2 with black in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #966F8E, keeps 80% of the original. By #261C24, the mixture is 80% black.

#BC8BB2 #966F8E #71536B #4B3847 #261C24 #000000

Tones

Mixing #BC8BB2 with middle gray in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #B089A8, keeps 80% of the original. By #8C828A, the mixture is 80% middle gray.

#BC8BB2 #B089A8 #A4879E #988494 #8C828A #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

#BC8BB2

RGB

rgb(188 139 178)

HSL

hsl(312.245 26.776% 64.118%)

CSS example

.color-sample {
  background-color: #BC8BB2;
  color: #000000;
}

Channel breakdown

RGB

#BC8BB2 uses 188 red, 139 green and 178 blue. Each bar shows how much of that channel’s 0–255 range the screen uses.

Red 73.7%

Green 54.5%

Blue 69.8%

CMYK

A simple CMYK estimate for #BC8BB2 is 0.0% cyan, 26.1% magenta, 5.3% yellow and 26.3% black. These are ink amounts; a printer profile is needed to predict the result on paper.

Cyan 0.0%

Magenta 26.1%

Yellow 5.3%

Black 26.3%

Nearby colors

The nearest shorthand match is #BB88AA. Its matching digit pairs let you write it as #B8A in CSS. For a modern design, keep #BC8BB2 when you want an exact match. Use its web-safe neighbor, #CC9999, when matching a legacy palette of 216 colors.

Nearest shorthand: #BB88AA Nearest web-safe: #CC9999

Gradient to complement

#BC8BB2 #B493AD #AC9BA8 #A4A4A4 #9BAC9F #93B49A #8BBC95

Color vision previews

Compare how #BC8BB2 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.

#8B96B4

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.

#969DB0

Tritanopia

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

#C18D98

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.

#9F93B2

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.

#A297B1

Tritanomaly (50%)

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

#BB8DA9

Grayscale (luminance)

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

#9A9A9A

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.

#AC93A7

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 0.25818 B 0.44520

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 0.70798 G 0.55289 B 0.68912

Linear Display P3

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

R 0.45944 G 0.26631 B 0.43265

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 0.277 Y 32.372

CMY

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

C % 26.275 M % 45.490 Y % 30.196

Binary RGB

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

10111100 10001011 10110010