#BCBFB0

sRGB: 188 / 191 / 176

Ancient mountains pierce eternal darkness
Restless constellations transform the fabric of existence
Eternal flames vanish without farewell

#BCBFB0 belongs to the yellow family. Its hex code tells a screen to mix 188 red, 191 green and 176 blue on a scale of 0 to 255. On the HSL wheel, hue is a position around a circle: 72.0° lands in the yellow region. Its 10.5% saturation makes it close to gray at this lightness. HSL lightness is 72.0% 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 (11.22:1), which helps the shapes of letters stand out.

Color conversions

sRGB (8-bit): 188, 191, 176
HSL: 72.00°, 10.49%, 71.96%
HSV / HSB: 72.00°, 7.85%, 74.90%
CMYK (approx.): 1.57%, 0.00%, 7.85%, 25.10%
CIE XYZ (D65, Y = 100 for white): 47.204, 51.088, 48.450
CIELAB (D65, 2° observer): 76.732, -3.746, 7.205
WCAG relative luminance: 0.51088
24-bit decimal: 12369840

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 #BCBFB0 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: 11.22:1

Normal text: AAA
Large text: AAA

White text: 1.87:1

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

#B3B0BF sits half a turn (180°) from #BCBFB0 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.

#BCBFB0 #B3B0BF

Analogous

#BFBBB0 and #B5BFB0 sit 30° to either side of #BCBFB0. 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.

#BFBBB0 #BCBFB0 #B5BFB0

Triadic

#BCBFB0, #B0BCBF and #BFB0BC are spaced 120° apart, forming a triangle on the wheel. Try one for the main color and the other two for accents.

#BCBFB0 #B0BCBF #BFB0BC

Split complementary

Start at #BCBFB0 and look across the wheel. #B0B4BF and #BBB0BF sit 30° to either side of its exact opposite, giving you two different accent choices.

#BCBFB0 #B0B4BF #BBB0BF

Square

Starting with #BCBFB0, each quarter turn (90°) takes you to the next hue: #B0BFBB, #B3B0BF, then #BFB0B4. Across the square, #BCBFB0 pairs with #B3B0BF, and #B0BFBB with #BFB0B4.

#BCBFB0 #B0BFBB #B3B0BF #BFB0B4

Tetradic

#BCBFB0 and #B3B0BF are opposites, as are #B0BFB3 and #BFB0BC. Together they form a rectangle on the wheel, with alternating gaps of 60° and 120°.

#BCBFB0 #B0BFB3 #B3B0BF #BFB0BC

Tints

Mixing #BCBFB0 with white in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #C9CCC0, keeps 80% of the original. By #F2F2EF, the mixture is 80% white.

#BCBFB0 #C9CCC0 #D7D9D0 #E4E5DF #F2F2EF #FFFFFF

Shades

Mixing #BCBFB0 with black in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #96998D, keeps 80% of the original. By #262623, the mixture is 80% black.

#BCBFB0 #96998D #71736A #4B4C46 #262623 #000000

Tones

Mixing #BCBFB0 with middle gray in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #B0B2A6, keeps 80% of the original. By #8C8D8A, the mixture is 80% middle gray.

#BCBFB0 #B0B2A6 #A4A69D #989993 #8C8D8A #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

#BCBFB0

RGB

rgb(188 191 176)

HSL

hsl(72.000 10.490% 71.961%)

CSS example

.color-sample {
  background-color: #BCBFB0;
  color: #000000;
}

Channel breakdown

RGB

#BCBFB0 uses 188 red, 191 green and 176 blue. Each bar shows how much of that channel’s 0–255 range the screen uses.

Red 73.7%

Green 74.9%

Blue 69.0%

CMYK

A simple CMYK estimate for #BCBFB0 is 1.6% cyan, 0.0% magenta, 7.9% yellow and 25.1% black. These are ink amounts; a printer profile is needed to predict the result on paper.

Cyan 1.6%

Magenta 0.0%

Yellow 7.9%

Black 25.1%

Nearby colors

The nearest shorthand match is #BBBBAA. Its matching digit pairs let you write it as #BBA in CSS. For a modern design, keep #BCBFB0 when you want an exact match. Use its web-safe neighbor, #CCCC99, when matching a legacy palette of 216 colors.

Nearest shorthand: #BBBBAA Nearest web-safe: #CCCC99

Gradient to complement

#BCBFB0 #BBBDB3 #B9BAB5 #B8B8B8 #B6B5BA #B5B3BD #B3B0BF

Color vision previews

Compare how #BCBFB0 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.

#C1BDAF

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.

#C1BDB1

Tritanopia

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

#BEBDBB

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.

#C0BEB0

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.

#C0BEB0

Tritanomaly (50%)

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

#BDBEB4

Grayscale (luminance)

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

#BDBDBD

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.

#BDBEB7

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 0.52100 B 0.43415

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 0.73936 G 0.74863 B 0.69551

Linear Display P3

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

R 0.50610 G 0.52039 B 0.44161

CIE xyY

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

x 0.322 y 0.348 Y 51.088

CMY

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

C % 26.275 M % 25.098 Y % 30.980

Binary RGB

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

10111100 10111111 10110000