#DDE8EA

sRGB: 221 / 232 / 234

Thunderous oceans command forgotten kingdoms
Immortal legends echo between distant mountains
Infinite wonders illuminate hidden worlds

#DDE8EA belongs to the cyan family. Its hex code tells a screen to mix 221 red, 232 green and 234 blue on a scale of 0 to 255. On the HSL wheel, hue is a position around a circle: 189.2° lands in the cyan region. Its 23.6% saturation makes it close to gray at this lightness. HSL lightness is 89.2% 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 (16.81:1), which helps the shapes of letters stand out.

Color conversions

sRGB (8-bit): 221, 232, 234
HSL: 189.23°, 23.64%, 89.22%
HSV / HSB: 189.23°, 5.56%, 91.76%
CMYK (approx.): 5.56%, 0.85%, 0.00%, 8.24%
CIE XYZ (D65, Y = 100 for white): 73.523, 79.026, 89.225
CIELAB (D65, 2° observer): 91.246, -3.279, -2.237
WCAG relative luminance: 0.79026
24-bit decimal: 14543082

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 #DDE8EA 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: 16.81:1

Normal text: AAA
Large text: AAA

White text: 1.25:1

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

#EADFDD sits half a turn (180°) from #DDE8EA 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.

#DDE8EA #EADFDD

Analogous

#DDEAE5 and #DDE2EA sit 30° to either side of #DDE8EA. 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.

#DDEAE5 #DDE8EA #DDE2EA

Triadic

#DDE8EA, #EADDE8 and #E8EADD are spaced 120° apart, forming a triangle on the wheel. Try one for the main color and the other two for accents.

#DDE8EA #EADDE8 #E8EADD

Split complementary

Start at #DDE8EA and look across the wheel. #EADDE2 and #EAE5DD sit 30° to either side of its exact opposite, giving you two different accent choices.

#DDE8EA #EADDE2 #EAE5DD

Square

Starting with #DDE8EA, each quarter turn (90°) takes you to the next hue: #E5DDEA, #EADFDD, then #E2EADD. Across the square, #DDE8EA pairs with #EADFDD, and #E5DDEA with #E2EADD.

#DDE8EA #E5DDEA #EADFDD #E2EADD

Tetradic

#DDE8EA and #EADFDD are opposites, as are #DFDDEA and #E8EADD. Together they form a rectangle on the wheel, with alternating gaps of 60° and 120°.

#DDE8EA #DFDDEA #EADFDD #E8EADD

Tints

Mixing #DDE8EA with white in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #E4EDEE, keeps 80% of the original. By #F8FAFB, the mixture is 80% white.

#DDE8EA #E4EDEE #EBF1F2 #F1F6F7 #F8FAFB #FFFFFF

Shades

Mixing #DDE8EA with black in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #B1BABB, keeps 80% of the original. By #2C2E2F, the mixture is 80% black.

#DDE8EA #B1BABB #858B8C #585D5E #2C2E2F #000000

Tones

Mixing #DDE8EA with middle gray in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #CAD3D5, keeps 80% of the original. By #939595, the mixture is 80% middle gray.

#DDE8EA #CAD3D5 #B8BEC0 #A5AAAA #939595 #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

#DDE8EA

RGB

rgb(221 232 234)

HSL

hsl(189.231 23.636% 89.216%)

CSS example

.color-sample {
  background-color: #DDE8EA;
  color: #000000;
}

Channel breakdown

RGB

#DDE8EA uses 221 red, 232 green and 234 blue. Each bar shows how much of that channel’s 0–255 range the screen uses.

Red 86.7%

Green 91.0%

Blue 91.8%

CMYK

A simple CMYK estimate for #DDE8EA is 5.6% cyan, 0.9% magenta, 0.0% yellow and 8.2% black. These are ink amounts; a printer profile is needed to predict the result on paper.

Cyan 5.6%

Magenta 0.9%

Yellow 0.0%

Black 8.2%

Nearby colors

The nearest shorthand match is #DDEEEE. Its matching digit pairs let you write it as #DEE in CSS. For a modern design, keep #DDE8EA when you want an exact match. Use its web-safe neighbor, #CCFFFF, when matching a legacy palette of 216 colors.

Nearest shorthand: #DDEEEE Nearest web-safe: #CCFFFF

Gradient to complement

#DDE8EA #DFE7E8 #E1E5E6 #E4E4E4 #E6E2E1 #E8E1DF #EADFDD

Color vision previews

Compare how #DDE8EA 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.

#E6E7EA

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.

#E4E5EA

Tritanopia

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

#DAE9E9

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.

#E3E7EA

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.

#E2E6EA

Tritanomaly (50%)

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

#DDE8E9

Grayscale (luminance)

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

#E6E6E6

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.

#E1E7E8

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 0.72306 G 0.80695 B 0.82279

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 0.87453 G 0.90842 B 0.91624

Linear Display P3

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

R 0.73795 G 0.80417 B 0.81994

CIE xyY

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

x 0.304 y 0.327 Y 79.026

CMY

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

C % 13.333 M % 9.020 Y % 8.235

Binary RGB

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

11011101 11101000 11101010