ColorXprez

#BDB5CA

Thistle · light cool purple

About #BDB5CA

#BDB5CA is a muted, light shade in the purple family. On screen it is built from 74% red, 71% green and 79% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 6% cyan, 10% magenta, 0% yellow and 21% black. Its overall feel is cool.

Of the common colour names it is similar to Thistle (ΔE 8.3); Silver comes next. Its complementary colour, directly opposite on the colour wheel, is #C2CAB5 — a light sage tone that gives the strongest contrast in hue.

Designers tend to use light tones like #BDB5CA for large surfaces, cards and soft highlights. Black text reads best on it at 10.63:1 (a WCAG AAA pass).

Colour codes

HEX
RGB
HSL
HSV / HSB
CMYK
CIELAB
Decimal
CSS
Red189
Green181
Blue202

Closest named colours

Thistle
#D8BFD8 · ΔE 8.3
Silver
#C0C0C0 · ΔE 12.1
Dusty Blue
#8CA3B8 · ΔE 14.0

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

Text on #BDB5CA

WCAG contrast for white and black text on this colour.

White heading text
Body copy set on thistle #BDB5CA.
1.98:1Fail
Black heading text
Body copy set on thistle #BDB5CA.
10.63:1AAA

Colour-blindness preview

How #BDB5CA appears to people with the three most common types of colour-vision deficiency.

Normal vision
#BDB5CA
Protanopia (no red cones)
#B2B8CB
Deuteranopia (no green cones)
#B3B8C9
Tritanopia (no blue cones)
#BBB8BC

Shades, tints & matching colours

Tints and shades

Complementary

Analogous

Triadic

Split complementary

Tetradic

Similar colours

Frequently asked questions

›What colour is #BDB5CA?

#BDB5CA is a muted, light shade in the purple family. On screen it is built from 74% red, 71% green and 79% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 6% cyan, 10% magenta, 0% yellow and 21% black. Its overall feel is cool.

›What text colour should I use on #BDB5CA?

Use black text. Black on #BDB5CA has a contrast ratio of 10.63:1 (AAA).

›What colours go with #BDB5CA?

Its complementary colour is #C2CAB5, and analogous partners are #B5B8CA and #C8B5CA.