#BCA4BB

sRGB: 188 / 164 / 187

Ancient mountains pierce eternal darkness
Sacred blossoms breathe beneath silver clouds
Eternal flames defy the passing ages

#BCA4BB belongs to the magenta family. Its hex code tells a screen to mix 188 red, 164 green and 187 blue on a scale of 0 to 255. On the HSL wheel, hue is a position around a circle: 302.5° lands in the magenta region. Its 15.2% saturation makes it close to gray at this lightness. HSL lightness is 69.0% 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 (9.17:1), which helps the shapes of letters stand out.

Color conversions

sRGB (8-bit): 188, 164, 187
HSL: 302.50°, 15.19%, 69.02%
HSV / HSB: 302.50°, 12.77%, 73.73%
CMYK (approx.): 0.00%, 12.77%, 0.53%, 26.27%
CIE XYZ (D65, Y = 100 for white): 42.982, 40.831, 52.632
CIELAB (D65, 2° observer): 70.057, 12.850, -8.577
WCAG relative luminance: 0.40830
24-bit decimal: 12362939

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 #BCA4BB 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: 9.17:1

Normal text: AAA
Large text: AAA

White text: 2.29:1

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

#A4BCA5 sits half a turn (180°) from #BCA4BB 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.

#BCA4BB #A4BCA5

Analogous

#B1A4BC and #BCA4AF sit 30° to either side of #BCA4BB. 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.

#B1A4BC #BCA4BB #BCA4AF

Triadic

#BCA4BB, #BBBCA4 and #A4BBBC are spaced 120° apart, forming a triangle on the wheel. Try one for the main color and the other two for accents.

#BCA4BB #BBBCA4 #A4BBBC

Split complementary

Start at #BCA4BB and look across the wheel. #AFBCA4 and #A4BCB1 sit 30° to either side of its exact opposite, giving you two different accent choices.

#BCA4BB #AFBCA4 #A4BCB1

Square

Starting with #BCA4BB, each quarter turn (90°) takes you to the next hue: #BCB1A4, #A4BCA5, then #A4AFBC. Across the square, #BCA4BB pairs with #A4BCA5, and #BCB1A4 with #A4AFBC.

#BCA4BB #BCB1A4 #A4BCA5 #A4AFBC

Tetradic

#BCA4BB and #A4BCA5 are opposites, as are #BCA5A4 and #A4BBBC. Together they form a rectangle on the wheel, with alternating gaps of 60° and 120°.

#BCA4BB #BCA5A4 #A4BCA5 #A4BBBC

Tints

Mixing #BCA4BB with white in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #C9B6C9, keeps 80% of the original. By #F2EDF1, the mixture is 80% white.

#BCA4BB #C9B6C9 #D7C8D6 #E4DBE4 #F2EDF1 #FFFFFF

Shades

Mixing #BCA4BB with black in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #968396, keeps 80% of the original. By #262125, the mixture is 80% black.

#BCA4BB #968396 #716270 #4B424B #262125 #000000

Tones

Mixing #BCA4BB with middle gray in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #B09DAF, keeps 80% of the original. By #8C878C, the mixture is 80% middle gray.

#BCA4BB #B09DAF #A496A3 #988E98 #8C878C #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

#BCA4BB

RGB

rgb(188 164 187)

HSL

hsl(302.500 15.190% 69.020%)

CSS example

.color-sample {
  background-color: #BCA4BB;
  color: #000000;
}

Channel breakdown

RGB

#BCA4BB uses 188 red, 164 green and 187 blue. Each bar shows how much of that channel’s 0–255 range the screen uses.

Red 73.7%

Green 64.3%

Blue 73.3%

CMYK

A simple CMYK estimate for #BCA4BB is 0.0% cyan, 12.8% magenta, 0.5% yellow and 26.3% black. These are ink amounts; a printer profile is needed to predict the result on paper.

Cyan 0.0%

Magenta 12.8%

Yellow 0.5%

Black 26.3%

Nearby colors

The nearest shorthand match is #BBAABB. Its matching digit pairs let you write it as #BAB in CSS. For a modern design, keep #BCA4BB when you want an exact match. Use its web-safe neighbor, #CC99CC, when matching a legacy palette of 216 colors.

Nearest shorthand: #BBAABB Nearest web-safe: #CC99CC

Gradient to complement

#BCA4BB #B8A8B7 #B4ACB4 #B0B0B0 #ACB4AC #A8B8A9 #A4BCA5

Color vision previews

Compare how #BCA4BB 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.

#A3A9BC

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.

#A8ACBA

Tritanopia

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

#BEA6AC

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.

#ACA8BB

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.

#AEAABA

Tritanomaly (50%)

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

#BBA5B6

Grayscale (luminance)

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

#ABABAB

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.

#B4A8B3

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 0.37124 B 0.49693

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 0.72170 G 0.64655 B 0.72735

Linear Display P3

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

R 0.47951 G 0.37561 B 0.48793

CIE xyY

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

x 0.315 y 0.299 Y 40.831

CMY

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

C % 26.275 M % 35.686 Y % 26.667

Binary RGB

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

10111100 10100100 10111011