#BCA5CC

sRGB: 188 / 165 / 204

Ancient mountains pierce eternal darkness
Sacred blossoms wander across quiet meadows
Boundless spirits awaken sleeping galaxies

#BCA5CC belongs to the violet family. Its hex code tells a screen to mix 188 red, 165 green and 204 blue on a scale of 0 to 255. On the HSL wheel, hue is a position around a circle: 275.4° lands in the violet region. Its 27.7% saturation makes it close to gray at this lightness. HSL lightness is 72.4% 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 (9.39:1), which helps the shapes of letters stand out.

Color conversions

sRGB (8-bit): 188, 165, 204
HSL: 275.38°, 27.66%, 72.35%
HSV / HSB: 275.38°, 19.12%, 80.00%
CMYK (approx.): 7.84%, 19.12%, 0.00%, 20.00%
CIE XYZ (D65, Y = 100 for white): 45.091, 41.962, 62.853
CIELAB (D65, 2° observer): 70.844, 15.633, -16.784
WCAG relative luminance: 0.41961
24-bit decimal: 12363212

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 #BCA5CC 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: 9.39:1

Normal text: AAA
Large text: AAA

White text: 2.24:1

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

#B5CCA5 sits half a turn (180°) from #BCA5CC 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.

#BCA5CC #B5CCA5

Analogous

#A9A5CC and #CCA5C9 sit 30° to either side of #BCA5CC. 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.

#A9A5CC #BCA5CC #CCA5C9

Triadic

#BCA5CC, #CCBCA5 and #A5CCBC are spaced 120° apart, forming a triangle on the wheel. Try one for the main color and the other two for accents.

#BCA5CC #CCBCA5 #A5CCBC

Split complementary

Start at #BCA5CC and look across the wheel. #C9CCA5 and #A5CCA9 sit 30° to either side of its exact opposite, giving you two different accent choices.

#BCA5CC #C9CCA5 #A5CCA9

Square

Starting with #BCA5CC, each quarter turn (90°) takes you to the next hue: #CCA9A5, #B5CCA5, then #A5C9CC. Across the square, #BCA5CC pairs with #B5CCA5, and #CCA9A5 with #A5C9CC.

#BCA5CC #CCA9A5 #B5CCA5 #A5C9CC

Tetradic

#BCA5CC and #B5CCA5 are opposites, as are #CCA5B5 and #A5CCBC. Together they form a rectangle on the wheel, with alternating gaps of 60° and 120°.

#BCA5CC #CCA5B5 #B5CCA5 #A5CCBC

Tints

Mixing #BCA5CC with white in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #C9B7D6, keeps 80% of the original. By #F2EDF5, the mixture is 80% white.

#BCA5CC #C9B7D6 #D7C9E0 #E4DBEB #F2EDF5 #FFFFFF

Shades

Mixing #BCA5CC with black in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #9684A3, keeps 80% of the original. By #262129, the mixture is 80% black.

#BCA5CC #9684A3 #71637A #4B4252 #262129 #000000

Tones

Mixing #BCA5CC with middle gray in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #B09EBD, keeps 80% of the original. By #8C878F, the mixture is 80% middle gray.

#BCA5CC #B09EBD #A496AE #988F9E #8C878F #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

#BCA5CC

RGB

rgb(188 165 204)

HSL

hsl(275.385 27.660% 72.353%)

CSS example

.color-sample {
  background-color: #BCA5CC;
  color: #000000;
}

Channel breakdown

RGB

#BCA5CC uses 188 red, 165 green and 204 blue. Each bar shows how much of that channel’s 0–255 range the screen uses.

Red 73.7%

Green 64.7%

Blue 80.0%

CMYK

A simple CMYK estimate for #BCA5CC is 7.8% cyan, 19.1% magenta, 0.0% yellow and 20.0% black. These are ink amounts; a printer profile is needed to predict the result on paper.

Cyan 7.8%

Magenta 19.1%

Yellow 0.0%

Black 20.0%

Nearby colors

The nearest shorthand match is #BBAACC. Its matching digit pairs let you write it as #BAC in CSS. For a modern design, keep #BCA5CC when you want an exact match. Use its web-safe neighbor, #CC99CC, when matching a legacy palette of 216 colors.

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

Gradient to complement

#BCA5CC #BBACC6 #BAB2BF #B9B9B9 #B7BFB2 #B6C6AC #B5CCA5

Color vision previews

Compare how #BCA5CC 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.

#9FACCE

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.

#A4AECB

Tritanopia

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

#BBAAB2

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.

#AAAACD

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.

#ACABCB

Tritanomaly (50%)

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

#BBA7C3

Grayscale (luminance)

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

#ADADAD

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.

#B5A9BD

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 0.37626 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 0.72230 G 0.65032 B 0.78917

Linear Display P3

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

R 0.48041 G 0.38047 B 0.58563

CIE xyY

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

x 0.301 y 0.280 Y 41.962

CMY

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

C % 26.275 M % 35.294 Y % 20.000

Binary RGB

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

10111100 10100101 11001100