ColorXprez

#BFB9CA

Thistle · light cool purple

About #BFB9CA

#BFB9CA is a muted, light shade in the purple family. On screen it is built from 75% red, 73% green and 79% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 5% cyan, 8% magenta, 0% yellow and 21% black. Its overall feel is cool.

Of the common colour names it is similar to Thistle (ΔE 9.0); Silver comes next. Its complementary colour, directly opposite on the colour wheel, is #C4CAB9 — a light sage tone that gives the strongest contrast in hue.

Designers tend to use light tones like #BFB9CA for large surfaces, cards and soft highlights. Black text reads best on it at 11.01:1 (a WCAG AAA pass).

Colour codes

HEX
RGB
HSL
HSV / HSB
CMYK
CIELAB
Decimal
CSS
Red191
Green185
Blue202

Closest named colours

Thistle
#D8BFD8 · ΔE 9.0
Silver
#C0C0C0 · ΔE 9.6
Light Gray
#D3D3D3 · ΔE 12.7

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

Text on #BFB9CA

WCAG contrast for white and black text on this colour.

White heading text
Body copy set on thistle #BFB9CA.
1.91:1Fail
Black heading text
Body copy set on thistle #BFB9CA.
11.01:1AAA

Colour-blindness preview

How #BFB9CA appears to people with the three most common types of colour-vision deficiency.

Normal vision
#BFB9CA
Protanopia (no red cones)
#B6BBCB
Deuteranopia (no green cones)
#B7BCC9
Tritanopia (no blue cones)
#BDBBBE

Shades, tints & matching colours

Tints and shades

Complementary

Analogous

Triadic

Split complementary

Tetradic

Similar colours

Frequently asked questions

›What colour is #BFB9CA?

#BFB9CA is a muted, light shade in the purple family. On screen it is built from 75% red, 73% green and 79% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 5% cyan, 8% magenta, 0% yellow and 21% black. Its overall feel is cool.

›What text colour should I use on #BFB9CA?

Use black text. Black on #BFB9CA has a contrast ratio of 11.01:1 (AAA).

›What colours go with #BFB9CA?

Its complementary colour is #C4CAB9, and analogous partners are #B9BBCA and #C8B9CA.