#CBCED9

sRGB: 203 / 206 / 217

Celestial flames rise against oblivion
Majestic waterfalls transcend the boundaries of time
Fierce revelations reveal unspoken wonders

#CBCED9 belongs to the blue family. Its hex code tells a screen to mix 203 red, 206 green and 217 blue on a scale of 0 to 255. On the HSL wheel, hue is a position around a circle: 227.1° lands in the blue region. Its 15.6% saturation makes it close to gray at this lightness. HSL lightness is 82.4% 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 (13.37:1), which helps the shapes of letters stand out.

Color conversions

sRGB (8-bit): 203, 206, 217
HSL: 227.14°, 15.56%, 82.35%
HSV / HSB: 227.14°, 6.45%, 85.10%
CMYK (approx.): 6.45%, 5.07%, 0.00%, 14.90%
CIE XYZ (D65, Y = 100 for white): 59.221, 61.849, 74.466
CIELAB (D65, 2° observer): 82.833, 1.053, -5.796
WCAG relative luminance: 0.61849
24-bit decimal: 13356761

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 #CBCED9 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: 13.37:1

Normal text: AAA
Large text: AAA

White text: 1.57:1

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

#D9D6CB sits half a turn (180°) from #CBCED9 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.

#CBCED9 #D9D6CB

Analogous

#CBD5D9 and #CFCBD9 sit 30° to either side of #CBCED9. 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.

#CBD5D9 #CBCED9 #CFCBD9

Triadic

#CBCED9, #D9CBCE and #CED9CB are spaced 120° apart, forming a triangle on the wheel. Try one for the main color and the other two for accents.

#CBCED9 #D9CBCE #CED9CB

Split complementary

Start at #CBCED9 and look across the wheel. #D9CFCB and #D5D9CB sit 30° to either side of its exact opposite, giving you two different accent choices.

#CBCED9 #D9CFCB #D5D9CB

Square

Starting with #CBCED9, each quarter turn (90°) takes you to the next hue: #D9CBD5, #D9D6CB, then #CBD9CF. Across the square, #CBCED9 pairs with #D9D6CB, and #D9CBD5 with #CBD9CF.

#CBCED9 #D9CBD5 #D9D6CB #CBD9CF

Tetradic

#CBCED9 and #D9D6CB are opposites, as are #D6CBD9 and #CED9CB. Together they form a rectangle on the wheel, with alternating gaps of 60° and 120°.

#CBCED9 #D6CBD9 #D9D6CB #CED9CB

Tints

Mixing #CBCED9 with white in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #D5D8E1, keeps 80% of the original. By #F5F5F7, the mixture is 80% white.

#CBCED9 #D5D8E1 #E0E2E8 #EAEBF0 #F5F5F7 #FFFFFF

Shades

Mixing #CBCED9 with black in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #A2A5AE, keeps 80% of the original. By #29292B, the mixture is 80% black.

#CBCED9 #A2A5AE #7A7C82 #515257 #29292B #000000

Tones

Mixing #CBCED9 with middle gray in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #BCBEC7, keeps 80% of the original. By #8F9092, the mixture is 80% middle gray.

#CBCED9 #BCBEC7 #ADAFB5 #9E9FA4 #8F9092 #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

#CBCED9

RGB

rgb(203 206 217)

HSL

hsl(227.143 15.556% 82.353%)

CSS example

.color-sample {
  background-color: #CBCED9;
  color: #000000;
}

Channel breakdown

RGB

#CBCED9 uses 203 red, 206 green and 217 blue. Each bar shows how much of that channel’s 0–255 range the screen uses.

Red 79.6%

Green 80.8%

Blue 85.1%

CMYK

A simple CMYK estimate for #CBCED9 is 6.5% cyan, 5.1% magenta, 0.0% yellow and 14.9% black. These are ink amounts; a printer profile is needed to predict the result on paper.

Cyan 6.5%

Magenta 5.1%

Yellow 0.0%

Black 14.9%

Nearby colors

The nearest shorthand match is #CCCCDD. Its matching digit pairs let you write it as #CCD in CSS. For a modern design, keep #CBCED9 when you want an exact match. Use its web-safe neighbor, #CCCCCC, when matching a legacy palette of 216 colors.

Nearest shorthand: #CCCCDD Nearest web-safe: #CCCCCC

Gradient to complement

#CBCED9 #CDCFD7 #D0D1D4 #D2D2D2 #D4D3D0 #D7D5CD #D9D6CB

Color vision previews

Compare how #CBCED9 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.

#CBCFDA

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.

#CACED9

Tritanopia

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

#C8D0D1

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.

#CBCED9

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.

#CBCED9

Tritanomaly (50%)

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

#CACFD6

Grayscale (luminance)

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

#CECECE

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.

#CDCED4

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 0.59720 G 0.61721 B 0.69387

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 0.79818 G 0.80746 B 0.84705

Linear Display P3

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

R 0.60075 G 0.61654 B 0.68667

CIE xyY

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

x 0.303 y 0.316 Y 61.849

CMY

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

C % 20.392 M % 19.216 Y % 14.902

Binary RGB

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

11001011 11001110 11011001