ColorXprez

#BDD5EC

Light Blue · very light cool blue

About #BDD5EC

#BDD5EC is a muted, very light shade in the blue family. On screen it is built from 74% red, 84% green and 93% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 20% cyan, 10% magenta, 0% yellow and 7% black. Its overall feel is cool.

Of the common colour names it is similar to Light Blue (ΔE 8.1); Ice Blue comes next. Its complementary colour, directly opposite on the colour wheel, is #ECD4BD — a oat tone that gives the strongest contrast in hue.

Designers tend to use very light tones like #BDD5EC for backgrounds, page sections and subtle cards. Black text reads best on it at 13.89:1 (a WCAG AAA pass).

Colour codes

HEX
RGB
HSL
HSV / HSB
CMYK
CIELAB
Decimal
CSS
Red189
Green213
Blue236

Closest named colours

Light Blue
#ADD8E6 · ΔE 8.1
Ice Blue
#DBEEFA · ΔE 10.8
Lavender
#E6E6FA · ΔE 11.2

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

Text on #BDD5EC

WCAG contrast for white and black text on this colour.

White heading text
Body copy set on light blue #BDD5EC.
1.51:1Fail
Black heading text
Body copy set on light blue #BDD5EC.
13.89:1AAA

Colour-blindness preview

How #BDD5EC appears to people with the three most common types of colour-vision deficiency.

Normal vision
#BDD5EC
Protanopia (no red cones)
#CCD5ED
Deuteranopia (no green cones)
#C7D0EC
Tritanopia (no blue cones)
#B1DADC

Shades, tints & matching colours

Tints and shades

Complementary

Analogous

Triadic

Split complementary

Tetradic

Similar colours

Frequently asked questions

›What colour is #BDD5EC?

#BDD5EC is a muted, very light shade in the blue family. On screen it is built from 74% red, 84% green and 93% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 20% cyan, 10% magenta, 0% yellow and 7% black. Its overall feel is cool.

›What text colour should I use on #BDD5EC?

Use black text. Black on #BDD5EC has a contrast ratio of 13.89:1 (AAA).

›What colours go with #BDD5EC?

Its complementary colour is #ECD4BD, and analogous partners are #BDECEC and #BDBEEC.