ColorXprez

#BBABC4

Thistle · light cool purple

About #BBABC4

#BBABC4 is a muted, light shade in the purple family. On screen it is built from 73% red, 67% green and 77% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 5% cyan, 13% magenta, 0% yellow and 23% black. Its overall feel is cool.

Of the common colour names it is similar to Thistle (ΔE 8.7); Lilac comes next. Its complementary colour, directly opposite on the colour wheel, is #B4C4AB — a light sage tone that gives the strongest contrast in hue.

Designers tend to use light tones like #BBABC4 for large surfaces, cards and soft highlights. Black text reads best on it at 9.74:1 (a WCAG AAA pass).

Colour codes

HEX
RGB
HSL
HSV / HSB
CMYK
CIELAB
Decimal
CSS
Red187
Green171
Blue196

Closest named colours

Thistle
#D8BFD8 · ΔE 8.7
Lilac
#C8A2C8 · ΔE 10.8
Dusty Blue
#8CA3B8 · ΔE 15.2

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

Text on #BBABC4

WCAG contrast for white and black text on this colour.

White heading text
Body copy set on thistle #BBABC4.
2.16:1Fail
Black heading text
Body copy set on thistle #BBABC4.
9.74:1AAA

Colour-blindness preview

How #BBABC4 appears to people with the three most common types of colour-vision deficiency.

Normal vision
#BBABC4
Protanopia (no red cones)
#A8B0C5
Deuteranopia (no green cones)
#ABB1C3
Tritanopia (no blue cones)
#BAAEB3

Shades, tints & matching colours

Tints and shades

Complementary

Analogous

Triadic

Split complementary

Tetradic

Similar colours

Frequently asked questions

›What colour is #BBABC4?

#BBABC4 is a muted, light shade in the purple family. On screen it is built from 73% red, 67% green and 77% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 5% cyan, 13% magenta, 0% yellow and 23% black. Its overall feel is cool.

›What text colour should I use on #BBABC4?

Use black text. Black on #BBABC4 has a contrast ratio of 9.74:1 (AAA).

›What colours go with #BBABC4?

Its complementary colour is #B4C4AB, and analogous partners are #AEABC4 and #C4ABC1.