#BE9999

sRGB: 190 / 153 / 153

Ancient mountains fracture ancient heavens
Shimmering rivers cascade across forgotten valleys
Rising tides reveal unspoken wonders

#BE9999 belongs to the red family. Its hex code tells a screen to mix 190 red, 153 green and 153 blue on a scale of 0 to 255. On the HSL wheel, hue is a position around a circle: 0.0° lands in the red region. Its 22.2% saturation makes it close to gray at this lightness. HSL lightness is 67.3% 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 (8.21:1), which helps the shapes of letters stand out.

Color conversions

sRGB (8-bit): 190, 153, 153
HSL: 0.00°, 22.16%, 67.25%
HSV / HSB: 0.00°, 19.47%, 74.51%
CMYK (approx.): 0.00%, 19.47%, 19.47%, 25.49%
CIE XYZ (D65, Y = 100 for white): 38.375, 36.030, 35.071
CIELAB (D65, 2° observer): 66.543, 13.762, 5.229
WCAG relative luminance: 0.36030
24-bit decimal: 12491161

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 #BE9999 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: 8.21:1

Normal text: AAA
Large text: AAA

White text: 2.56:1

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

#99BEBE sits half a turn (180°) from #BE9999 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.

#BE9999 #99BEBE

Analogous

#BE99AC and #BEAC99 sit 30° to either side of #BE9999. 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.

#BE99AC #BE9999 #BEAC99

Triadic

#BE9999, #99BE99 and #9999BE are spaced 120° apart, forming a triangle on the wheel. Try one for the main color and the other two for accents.

#BE9999 #99BE99 #9999BE

Split complementary

Start at #BE9999 and look across the wheel. #99BEAC and #99ACBE sit 30° to either side of its exact opposite, giving you two different accent choices.

#BE9999 #99BEAC #99ACBE

Square

Starting with #BE9999, each quarter turn (90°) takes you to the next hue: #ACBE99, #99BEBE, then #AC99BE. Across the square, #BE9999 pairs with #99BEBE, and #ACBE99 with #AC99BE.

#BE9999 #ACBE99 #99BEBE #AC99BE

Tetradic

#BE9999 and #99BEBE are opposites, as are #BEBE99 and #9999BE. Together they form a rectangle on the wheel, with alternating gaps of 60° and 120°.

#BE9999 #BEBE99 #99BEBE #9999BE

Tints

Mixing #BE9999 with white in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #CBADAD, keeps 80% of the original. By #F2EBEB, the mixture is 80% white.

#BE9999 #CBADAD #D8C2C2 #E5D6D6 #F2EBEB #FFFFFF

Shades

Mixing #BE9999 with black in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #987A7A, keeps 80% of the original. By #261F1F, the mixture is 80% black.

#BE9999 #987A7A #725C5C #4C3D3D #261F1F #000000

Tones

Mixing #BE9999 with middle gray in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #B29494, keeps 80% of the original. By #8C8585, the mixture is 80% middle gray.

#BE9999 #B29494 #A58F8F #998A8A #8C8585 #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

#BE9999

RGB

rgb(190 153 153)

HSL

hsl(0.000 22.156% 67.255%)

CSS example

.color-sample {
  background-color: #BE9999;
  color: #000000;
}

Channel breakdown

RGB

#BE9999 uses 190 red, 153 green and 153 blue. Each bar shows how much of that channel’s 0–255 range the screen uses.

Red 74.5%

Green 60.0%

Blue 60.0%

CMYK

A simple CMYK estimate for #BE9999 is 0.0% cyan, 19.5% magenta, 19.5% yellow and 25.5% black. These are ink amounts; a printer profile is needed to predict the result on paper.

Cyan 0.0%

Magenta 19.5%

Yellow 19.5%

Black 25.5%

Nearby colors

The nearest shorthand match is #BB9999. Its matching digit pairs let you write it as #B99 in CSS. For a modern design, keep #BE9999 when you want an exact match. Use its web-safe neighbor, #CC9999, when matching a legacy palette of 216 colors.

Nearest shorthand: #BB9999 Nearest web-safe: #CC9999

Gradient to complement

#BE9999 #B89F9F #B2A5A5 #ACACAC #A5B2B2 #9FB8B8 #99BEBE

Color vision previews

Compare how #BE9999 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.

#9F9E99

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.

#A8A498

Tritanopia

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

#C69699

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.

#AB9D99

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.

#AFA199

Tritanomaly (50%)

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

#BF9999

Grayscale (luminance)

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

#A2A2A2

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.

#B19D9D

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 0.51492 G 0.31855 B 0.31855

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 0.72206 G 0.60555 B 0.60287

Linear Display P3

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

R 0.48005 G 0.32507 B 0.32190

CIE xyY

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

x 0.351 y 0.329 Y 36.030

CMY

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

C % 25.490 M % 40.000 Y % 40.000

Binary RGB

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

10111110 10011001 10011001