ColorXprez

#BCABC6

Thistle · light cool purple

About #BCABC6

#BCABC6 is a muted, light shade in the purple family. On screen it is built from 74% red, 67% green and 78% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 5% cyan, 14% magenta, 0% yellow and 22% black. Its overall feel is cool.

Of the common colour names it is similar to Thistle (ΔE 8.5); Lilac comes next. Its complementary colour, directly opposite on the colour wheel, is #B5C6AB — a light sage tone that gives the strongest contrast in hue.

Designers tend to use light tones like #BCABC6 for large surfaces, cards and soft highlights. Black text reads best on it at 9.78:1 (a WCAG AAA pass).

Colour codes

HEX
RGB
HSL
HSV / HSB
CMYK
CIELAB
Decimal
CSS
Red188
Green171
Blue198

Closest named colours

Thistle
#D8BFD8 · ΔE 8.5
Lilac
#C8A2C8 · ΔE 9.8
Dusty Blue
#8CA3B8 · ΔE 15.8

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

Text on #BCABC6

WCAG contrast for white and black text on this colour.

White heading text
Body copy set on thistle #BCABC6.
2.15:1Fail
Black heading text
Body copy set on thistle #BCABC6.
9.78:1AAA

Colour-blindness preview

How #BCABC6 appears to people with the three most common types of colour-vision deficiency.

Normal vision
#BCABC6
Protanopia (no red cones)
#A8B0C7
Deuteranopia (no green cones)
#ABB1C5
Tritanopia (no blue cones)
#BBAEB4

Shades, tints & matching colours

Tints and shades

Complementary

Analogous

Triadic

Split complementary

Tetradic

Similar colours

Frequently asked questions

›What colour is #BCABC6?

#BCABC6 is a muted, light shade in the purple family. On screen it is built from 74% red, 67% green and 78% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 5% cyan, 14% magenta, 0% yellow and 22% black. Its overall feel is cool.

›What text colour should I use on #BCABC6?

Use black text. Black on #BCABC6 has a contrast ratio of 9.78:1 (AAA).

›What colours go with #BCABC6?

Its complementary colour is #B5C6AB, and analogous partners are #AEABC6 and #C6ABC2.