ColorXprez

#A8A1AE

Dusty Blue · light neutral

About #A8A1AE

#A8A1AE is a near-neutral, light shade in the gray family. On screen it is built from 66% red, 63% green and 68% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 3% cyan, 7% magenta, 0% yellow and 32% black. Being nearly neutral, it pairs easily with warm and cool tones alike.

Of the common colour names it is similar to Dusty Blue (ΔE 11.4); Taupe comes next. Its complementary colour, directly opposite on the colour wheel, is #A7AEA1 — a greige tone that gives the strongest contrast in hue.

Designers tend to use light tones like #A8A1AE for large surfaces, cards and soft highlights. Black text reads best on it at 8.37:1 (a WCAG AAA pass).

Colour codes

HEX
RGB
HSL
HSV / HSB
CMYK
CIELAB
Decimal
CSS
Red168
Green161
Blue174

Closest named colours

Dusty Blue
#8CA3B8 · ΔE 11.4
Taupe
#8B8589 · ΔE 12.1
Silver
#C0C0C0 · ΔE 13.0

ΔE measures visible difference: under 2 is barely noticeable, over 10 is clearly different.

Text on #A8A1AE

WCAG contrast for white and black text on this colour.

White heading text
Body copy set on dusty blue #A8A1AE.
2.51:1Fail
Black heading text
Body copy set on dusty blue #A8A1AE.
8.37:1AAA

Colour-blindness preview

How #A8A1AE appears to people with the three most common types of colour-vision deficiency.

Normal vision
#A8A1AE
Protanopia (no red cones)
#9FA3AF
Deuteranopia (no green cones)
#A1A4AE
Tritanopia (no blue cones)
#A7A2A5

Shades, tints & matching colours

Tints and shades

Complementary

Analogous

Triadic

Split complementary

Tetradic

Similar colours

Frequently asked questions

›What colour is #A8A1AE?

#A8A1AE is a near-neutral, light shade in the gray family. On screen it is built from 66% red, 63% green and 68% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 3% cyan, 7% magenta, 0% yellow and 32% black. Being nearly neutral, it pairs easily with warm and cool tones alike.

›What text colour should I use on #A8A1AE?

Use black text. Black on #A8A1AE has a contrast ratio of 8.37:1 (AAA).

›What colours go with #A8A1AE?

Its complementary colour is #A7AEA1, and analogous partners are #A2A1AE and #AEA1AE.