ColorXprez

#BDB6CF

Thistle · light cool purple

About #BDB6CF

#BDB6CF is a muted, light shade in the purple family. On screen it is built from 74% red, 71% green and 81% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 9% cyan, 12% magenta, 0% yellow and 19% black. Its overall feel is cool.

Of the common colour names it is similar to Thistle (ΔE 8.0); Silver comes next. Its complementary colour, directly opposite on the colour wheel, is #C8CFB6 — a light sage tone that gives the strongest contrast in hue.

Designers tend to use light tones like #BDB6CF for large surfaces, cards and soft highlights. Put black text on top of it — 10.76:1, a WCAG AAA pass.

Colour codes

HEX
RGB
HSL
HSV / HSB
CMYK
CIELAB
Decimal
CSS
Red189
Green182
Blue207

Closest named colours

Thistle
#D8BFD8 · ΔE 8.0
Silver
#C0C0C0 · ΔE 14.0
Lilac
#C8A2C8 · ΔE 14.2

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

Text on #BDB6CF

WCAG contrast for white and black text on this colour.

White heading text
Body copy set on thistle #BDB6CF.
1.95:1Fail
Black heading text
Body copy set on thistle #BDB6CF.
10.76:1AAA

Colour-blindness preview

How #BDB6CF appears to people with the three most common types of colour-vision deficiency.

Normal vision
#BDB6CF
Protanopia (no red cones)
#B1B9D0
Deuteranopia (no green cones)
#B2B9CE
Tritanopia (no blue cones)
#BAB9BE

Shades, tints & matching colours

Tints and shades

Complementary

Analogous

Triadic

Split complementary

Tetradic

Similar colours

Frequently asked questions

›What colour is #BDB6CF?

#BDB6CF is a muted, light shade in the purple family. On screen it is built from 74% red, 71% green and 81% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 9% cyan, 12% magenta, 0% yellow and 19% black. Its overall feel is cool.

›What text colour should I use on #BDB6CF?

Use black text. Black on #BDB6CF has a contrast ratio of 10.76:1 (AAA).

›What colours go with #BDB6CF?

Its complementary colour is #C8CFB6, and analogous partners are #B6BCCF and #C9B6CF.