ColorXprez

#BDB7C8

Thistle · light cool purple

About #BDB7C8

#BDB7C8 is a muted, light shade in the purple family. On screen it is built from 74% red, 72% green and 78% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 5% cyan, 8% magenta, 0% yellow and 22% black. Its overall feel is cool.

Of the common colour names it is similar to Thistle (ΔE 9.3); Silver comes next. Its complementary colour, directly opposite on the colour wheel, is #C2C8B7 — a light sage tone that gives the strongest contrast in hue.

Designers tend to use light tones like #BDB7C8 for large surfaces, cards and soft highlights. Black text reads best on it at 10.77:1 (a WCAG AAA pass).

Colour codes

HEX
RGB
HSL
HSV / HSB
CMYK
CIELAB
Decimal
CSS
Red189
Green183
Blue200

Closest named colours

Thistle
#D8BFD8 · ΔE 9.3
Silver
#C0C0C0 · ΔE 9.7
Light Gray
#D3D3D3 · ΔE 13.2

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

Text on #BDB7C8

WCAG contrast for white and black text on this colour.

White heading text
Body copy set on thistle #BDB7C8.
1.95:1Fail
Black heading text
Body copy set on thistle #BDB7C8.
10.77:1AAA

Colour-blindness preview

How #BDB7C8 appears to people with the three most common types of colour-vision deficiency.

Normal vision
#BDB7C8
Protanopia (no red cones)
#B4B9C9
Deuteranopia (no green cones)
#B5BAC7
Tritanopia (no blue cones)
#BBB9BC

Shades, tints & matching colours

Tints and shades

Complementary

Analogous

Triadic

Split complementary

Tetradic

Similar colours

Frequently asked questions

›What colour is #BDB7C8?

#BDB7C8 is a muted, light shade in the purple family. On screen it is built from 74% red, 72% green and 78% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 5% cyan, 8% magenta, 0% yellow and 22% black. Its overall feel is cool.

›What text colour should I use on #BDB7C8?

Use black text. Black on #BDB7C8 has a contrast ratio of 10.77:1 (AAA).

›What colours go with #BDB7C8?

Its complementary colour is #C2C8B7, and analogous partners are #B7BAC8 and #C6B7C8.