ColorXprez

#B1BFBD

Silver · light neutral

About #B1BFBD

#B1BFBD is a near-neutral, light shade in the gray family. On screen it is built from 69% red, 75% green and 74% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 7% cyan, 0% magenta, 1% yellow and 25% black. It is close to neutral, so it sits comfortably next to both warm and cool colours.

Of the common colour names it is very close to Silver (ΔE 5.4); Light Gray comes next. Its complementary colour, directly opposite on the colour wheel, is #BFB1B3 — a silver tone that gives the strongest contrast in hue.

Designers tend to use light tones like #B1BFBD for large surfaces, cards and soft highlights. Put black text on top of it — 11.06:1, a WCAG AAA pass.

Colour codes

HEX
RGB
HSL
HSV / HSB
CMYK
CIELAB
Decimal
CSS
Red177
Green191
Blue189

Closest named colours

Silver
#C0C0C0 · ΔE 5.4
Light Gray
#D3D3D3 · ΔE 9.8
Greige
#B8AFA3 · ΔE 11.0

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

Text on #B1BFBD

WCAG contrast for white and black text on this colour.

White heading text
Body copy set on silver #B1BFBD.
1.90:1Fail
Black heading text
Body copy set on silver #B1BFBD.
11.06:1AAA

Colour-blindness preview

How #B1BFBD appears to people with the three most common types of colour-vision deficiency.

Normal vision
#B1BFBD
Protanopia (no red cones)
#BDBDBD
Deuteranopia (no green cones)
#BABBBD
Tritanopia (no blue cones)
#AEC0BE

Shades, tints & matching colours

Tints and shades

Complementary

Analogous

Triadic

Split complementary

Tetradic

Similar colours

Frequently asked questions

›What colour is #B1BFBD?

#B1BFBD is a near-neutral, light shade in the gray family. On screen it is built from 69% red, 75% green and 74% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 7% cyan, 0% magenta, 1% yellow and 25% black. It is close to neutral, so it sits comfortably next to both warm and cool colours.

›What text colour should I use on #B1BFBD?

Use black text. Black on #B1BFBD has a contrast ratio of 11.06:1 (AAA).

›What colours go with #B1BFBD?

Its complementary colour is #BFB1B3, and analogous partners are #B1BFB6 and #B1BABF.