ColorXprez

#BDBFC9

Silver · light neutral

About #BDBFC9

#BDBFC9 is a near-neutral, light shade in the gray family. On screen it is built from 74% red, 75% green and 79% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 6% cyan, 5% magenta, 0% yellow and 21% black. It is close to neutral, so it sits comfortably next to both warm and cool colours.

Of the common colour names it is very close to Silver (ΔE 5.4); Light Gray comes next. Its complementary colour, directly opposite on the colour wheel, is #C9C7BD — a silver tone that gives the strongest contrast in hue.

Designers tend to use light tones like #BDBFC9 for large surfaces, cards and soft highlights. Put black text on top of it — 11.46:1, a WCAG AAA pass.

Colour codes

HEX
RGB
HSL
HSV / HSB
CMYK
CIELAB
Decimal
CSS
Red189
Green191
Blue201

Closest named colours

Silver
#C0C0C0 · ΔE 5.4
Light Gray
#D3D3D3 · ΔE 8.9
Thistle
#D8BFD8 · ΔE 12.9

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

Text on #BDBFC9

WCAG contrast for white and black text on this colour.

White heading text
Body copy set on silver #BDBFC9.
1.83:1Fail
Black heading text
Body copy set on silver #BDBFC9.
11.46:1AAA

Colour-blindness preview

How #BDBFC9 appears to people with the three most common types of colour-vision deficiency.

Normal vision
#BDBFC9
Protanopia (no red cones)
#BDC0CA
Deuteranopia (no green cones)
#BCBFC9
Tritanopia (no blue cones)
#BBC1C2

Shades, tints & matching colours

Tints and shades

Complementary

Analogous

Triadic

Split complementary

Tetradic

Similar colours

Frequently asked questions

›What colour is #BDBFC9?

#BDBFC9 is a near-neutral, light shade in the gray family. On screen it is built from 74% red, 75% green and 79% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 6% cyan, 5% magenta, 0% yellow and 21% black. It is close to neutral, so it sits comfortably next to both warm and cool colours.

›What text colour should I use on #BDBFC9?

Use black text. Black on #BDBFC9 has a contrast ratio of 11.46:1 (AAA).

›What colours go with #BDBFC9?

Its complementary colour is #C9C7BD, and analogous partners are #BDC5C9 and #C1BDC9.