#BCA8BB

sRGB: 188 / 168 / 187

Ancient mountains pierce eternal darkness
Sacred blossoms echo between distant mountains
Eternal flames defy the passing ages

#BCA8BB belongs to the magenta family. Its hex code tells a screen to mix 188 red, 168 green and 187 blue on a scale of 0 to 255. On the HSL wheel, hue is a position around a circle: 303.0° lands in the magenta region. Its 13.0% saturation makes it close to gray at this lightness. HSL lightness is 69.8% 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 (9.46:1), which helps the shapes of letters stand out.

Color conversions

sRGB (8-bit): 188, 168, 187
HSL: 303.00°, 12.99%, 69.80%
HSV / HSB: 303.00°, 10.64%, 73.73%
CMYK (approx.): 0.00%, 10.64%, 0.53%, 26.27%
CIE XYZ (D65, Y = 100 for white): 43.709, 42.285, 52.875
CIELAB (D65, 2° observer): 71.067, 10.650, -7.076
WCAG relative luminance: 0.42284
24-bit decimal: 12363963

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 #BCA8BB 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: 9.46:1

Normal text: AAA
Large text: AAA

White text: 2.22:1

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

#A8BCA9 sits half a turn (180°) from #BCA8BB 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.

#BCA8BB #A8BCA9

Analogous

#B3A8BC and #BCA8B1 sit 30° to either side of #BCA8BB. 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.

#B3A8BC #BCA8BB #BCA8B1

Triadic

#BCA8BB, #BBBCA8 and #A8BBBC are spaced 120° apart, forming a triangle on the wheel. Try one for the main color and the other two for accents.

#BCA8BB #BBBCA8 #A8BBBC

Split complementary

Start at #BCA8BB and look across the wheel. #B1BCA8 and #A8BCB3 sit 30° to either side of its exact opposite, giving you two different accent choices.

#BCA8BB #B1BCA8 #A8BCB3

Square

Starting with #BCA8BB, each quarter turn (90°) takes you to the next hue: #BCB3A8, #A8BCA9, then #A8B1BC. Across the square, #BCA8BB pairs with #A8BCA9, and #BCB3A8 with #A8B1BC.

#BCA8BB #BCB3A8 #A8BCA9 #A8B1BC

Tetradic

#BCA8BB and #A8BCA9 are opposites, as are #BCA9A8 and #A8BBBC. Together they form a rectangle on the wheel, with alternating gaps of 60° and 120°.

#BCA8BB #BCA9A8 #A8BCA9 #A8BBBC

Tints

Mixing #BCA8BB with white in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #C9B9C9, keeps 80% of the original. By #F2EEF1, the mixture is 80% white.

#BCA8BB #C9B9C9 #D7CBD6 #E4DCE4 #F2EEF1 #FFFFFF

Shades

Mixing #BCA8BB with black in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #968696, keeps 80% of the original. By #262225, the mixture is 80% black.

#BCA8BB #968696 #716570 #4B434B #262225 #000000

Tones

Mixing #BCA8BB with middle gray in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #B0A0AF, keeps 80% of the original. By #8C888C, the mixture is 80% middle gray.

#BCA8BB #B0A0AF #A498A3 #989098 #8C888C #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

#BCA8BB

RGB

rgb(188 168 187)

HSL

hsl(303.000 12.987% 69.804%)

CSS example

.color-sample {
  background-color: #BCA8BB;
  color: #000000;
}

Channel breakdown

RGB

#BCA8BB uses 188 red, 168 green and 187 blue. Each bar shows how much of that channel’s 0–255 range the screen uses.

Red 73.7%

Green 65.9%

Blue 73.3%

CMYK

A simple CMYK estimate for #BCA8BB is 0.0% cyan, 10.6% 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 10.6%

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 #BCA8BB 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

#BCA8BB #B9ABB8 #B5AFB5 #B2B2B2 #AFB5AF #ABB9AC #A8BCA9

Color vision previews

Compare how #BCA8BB 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.

#A7ACBC

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.

#ABAFBA

Tritanopia

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

#BEA9AE

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.

#AFABBB

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.

#B0ADBB

Tritanomaly (50%)

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

#BCA9B7

Grayscale (luminance)

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

#AEAEAE

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.

#B5ABB5

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 0.39157 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 0.72413 G 0.66162 B 0.72834

Linear Display P3

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

R 0.48312 G 0.39527 B 0.48941

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 0.304 Y 42.285

CMY

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

C % 26.275 M % 34.118 Y % 26.667

Binary RGB

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

10111100 10101000 10111011