ColorXprez

#BFBCB5

Silver · light neutral

About #BFBCB5

#BFBCB5 is a near-neutral, light shade in the gray family. On screen it is built from 75% red, 74% green and 71% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 0% cyan, 2% magenta, 5% yellow and 25% 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 4.2); Greige comes next. Its complementary colour, directly opposite on the colour wheel, is #B5B8BF — a silver tone that gives the strongest contrast in hue.

Designers tend to use light tones like #BFBCB5 for large surfaces, cards and soft highlights. Put black text on top of it — 11.08:1, a WCAG AAA pass.

Colour codes

HEX
RGB
HSL
HSV / HSB
CMYK
CIELAB
Decimal
CSS
Red191
Green188
Blue181

Closest named colours

Silver
#C0C0C0 · ΔE 4.2
Greige
#B8AFA3 · ΔE 5.7
Light Gray
#D3D3D3 · ΔE 9.1

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

Text on #BFBCB5

WCAG contrast for white and black text on this colour.

White heading text
Body copy set on silver #BFBCB5.
1.90:1Fail
Black heading text
Body copy set on silver #BFBCB5.
11.08:1AAA

Colour-blindness preview

How #BFBCB5 appears to people with the three most common types of colour-vision deficiency.

Normal vision
#BFBCB5
Protanopia (no red cones)
#BEBCB5
Deuteranopia (no green cones)
#BFBDB5
Tritanopia (no blue cones)
#C1BBBA

Shades, tints & matching colours

Tints and shades

Complementary

Analogous

Triadic

Split complementary

Tetradic

Similar colours

Frequently asked questions

›What colour is #BFBCB5?

#BFBCB5 is a near-neutral, light shade in the gray family. On screen it is built from 75% red, 74% green and 71% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 0% cyan, 2% magenta, 5% yellow and 25% black. It is close to neutral, so it sits comfortably next to both warm and cool colours.

›What text colour should I use on #BFBCB5?

Use black text. Black on #BFBCB5 has a contrast ratio of 11.08:1 (AAA).

›What colours go with #BFBCB5?

Its complementary colour is #B5B8BF, and analogous partners are #BFB7B5 and #BDBFB5.