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cyan · cool

#acb7bc

a light, muted cyan · cool · closest name: Silver

Token name suggestion: Morning Teal

RGB
172, 183, 188
HSL
199°, 11%, 71%
CMYK
9, 3, 0, 26
Luminance
0.4627

#acb7bc is a light muted cyan, 199° on the wheel and 64/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (10.25:1). As text it scores 2.05:1 on white — use #687981 instead. Nearest name is Silver, nearest Tailwind family is cyan.

hsl(199 11% 71%)rgb(172 183 188)Base step 400AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #acb7bc is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#acb7bc
Hue
199°
cyan
Saturation
11%
muted
Lightness
71%
light
Brightness
74%
HSV value
Perceived
71%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.4627
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
64/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Muted
Best ink
Black
10.25:1
Closest name
Silver
ΔE2000 5.8
Chroma
4.8
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.772
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
cyan
500 · ΔE 18.7
Web-safe
#99CCCC
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue199° of 360°
Saturation11%
Lightness71%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #acb7bc.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool64% cool

Reads cool. Warm and cool siblings keep the same lightness, so you can swap one in without redoing your contrast maths.

Luminance by channel
Red19%
Green73%
Blue8%

Green carries most of what the eye calls brightness — that is why WCAG weights it 0.7152.

Every format

HEX#acb7bc
HEX (8-digit)#acb7bcff
RGBrgb(172, 183, 188)
RGBArgba(172, 183, 188, 1)
HSLhsl(199, 11%, 71%)
HSV / HSBhsv(199, 9%, 74%)
HWBhwb(199 67% 26%)
CMYKcmyk(9%, 3%, 0%, 26%)
LABlab(73.7 -2.8 -3.9)
LCHlch(73.7 4.8 233.8)
OKLCHoklch(0.772 0.014 226.6)
XYZ (D65)xyz(43.02, 46.27, 54.23)
Decimal11319228
Display P3color(display-p3 0.675 0.718 0.737)
Web-safe#99CCCC

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #acb7bc;
background-color: #acb7bc;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #acb7bc;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#acb7bc] bg-[#acb7bc]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #acb7bc;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.675, green: 0.718, blue: 0.737)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.675, green: 0.718, blue: 0.737, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#ACB7BC</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFACB7BC)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFACB7BC)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(188, 183, 172)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(172, 183, 188)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(172, 183, 188)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 172, 183, 188)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.6745f, 0.7176f, 0.7373f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{172,183,188}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #acb7bc 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #acb7bc 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#394247, #DDE2E4);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #acb7bc h s calc(l - 7));

Design tokens

The same ramp in the four formats a team actually needs. Paste one and the whole palette lands with it.

css custom propertiesclick to select
:root {
  --brand-50: #F7F8F8;
  --brand-100: #EEF0F1;
  --brand-200: #DBDFE1;
  --brand-300: #C1C9CD;
  --brand-400: #acb7bc;
  --brand-500: #83939B;
  --brand-600: #6D7F87;
  --brand-700: #5B6A71;
  --brand-800: #49555A;
  --brand-900: #373F43;
  --brand-950: #22282A;
  --brand: #acb7bc;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F7F8F8;
  --brand-border: #D2D8DB;
  --brand-hover: #98A6AC;
  --brand-pressed: #84959C;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #191D1F;
    --brand-ink: #DDE2E4;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F7F8F8',
        100: '#EEF0F1',
        200: '#DBDFE1',
        300: '#C1C9CD',
        400: '#acb7bc',
        500: '#83939B',
        600: '#6D7F87',
        700: '#5B6A71',
        800: '#49555A',
        900: '#373F43',
        950: '#22282A',
        DEFAULT: '#acb7bc',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F7F8F8,
  '100': #EEF0F1,
  '200': #DBDFE1,
  '300': #C1C9CD,
  '400': #acb7bc,
  '500': #83939B,
  '600': #6D7F87,
  '700': #5B6A71,
  '800': #49555A,
  '900': #373F43,
  '950': #22282A,
);
$brand-base: #acb7bc;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F7F8F8", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#EEF0F1", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#DBDFE1", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#C1C9CD", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#acb7bc", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#83939B", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#6D7F87", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#5B6A71", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#49555A", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#373F43", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#22282A", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$value": "#000000", "$type": "color" }
  }
}

Best text color

Only one of black and white can be right. This is the one, with the number that proves it.

Readable at a glance#000000 on #acb7bc · 10.25:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 2.05:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 10.25:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #acb7bc as text scores 2.05:1 on white and 10.25:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #394247 at 5.02:1.

Make it accessible

A contrast checker tells you that you failed. This tells you what to ship instead — same hue, same saturation, lightness moved only as far as WCAG demands.

The quick fox
#687981 · 4.53:1
AA on white−25% L
#687981
The quick fox
#4D595F · 7.22:1
AAA on white−37% L
#4D595F
The quick fox
#acb7bc · 10.25:1
AA on blackalready passes
#acb7bc
The quick fox
#acb7bc · 10.25:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#acb7bc

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #87979E is enough for headings on white. Non-text elements such as icons, chart strokes and focus rings also sit at 3:1 under WCAG 2.2 (1.4.11).

Accessibility — WCAG contrast

Aa
#acb7bc on white: 2.05:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#acb7bc on black: 10.25:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #acb7bc as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #acb7bc.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White2.05:1AaAa
Slate 501.96:1AaAa
Slate 1001.87:1AaAa
Slate 2001.66:1AaAa
Slate 3001.38:1AaAa
Slate 4001.25:1AaAa
Slate 5002.32:1AaAa
Slate 6003.70:1AaAa
Slate 7005.06:1AaAa
Slate 8007.14:1AaAa
Slate 9008.72:1AaAa
Black10.25:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #B4B6BC
deuteranopia · #B2B4BC
tritanopia · #A8B9B8

Roughly one man in twelve has some form of colour vision deficiency. If any of the three panels above is hard to tell apart from a neighbouring colour in your palette, add a shape, an icon or a label so the meaning does not rest on hue alone.

Color scale — 50 to 950

A Tailwind-shaped ramp built around this exact hex. #acb7bc is pinned to step 400; the rest hold its hue and let saturation ease off at the extremes so the pale end never turns neon.

#F7F8F8
#EEF0F1
#DBDFE1
#C1C9CD
#acb7bc
#83939B
#6D7F87
#5B6A71
#49555A
#373F43
#22282A
Base = 400Lightest = 50 · #F7F8F8Darkest = 950 · #22282AText step on white = 700
Perceptual ramp — OKLCH

The same eleven steps expressed in OKLCH, where equal lightness numbers actually look equally spaced. HSL ramps go muddy in the yellows and washed out in the blues; this one does not. Modern browsers render it natively — the hex ramp above is the fallback.

50100200300400500600700800900950
oklch tokensclick to select
:root {
  --brand-50: oklch(0.97 0.004 226.6);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.006 226.6);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.009 226.6);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.011 226.6);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.013 226.6);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.014 226.6);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.014 226.6);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.013 226.6);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.012 226.6);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.010 226.6);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.008 226.6);
}

Colors that work with #acb7bc

Not a palette — a role sheet. Each swatch answers one question you will hit while building the component.

Text on it#000000
Black wins here
Surface#F7F8F8
Tinted page background
Border#D2D8DB
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#66777F
Captions on the surface
Accent#755857
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#394247
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#F1F3F4
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#191D1F
Dark-mode background
Hover#98A6AC
One step down in lightness
Pressed#84959C
Two steps down
Disabled#EAEDEE
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#B1C3CC
Offset from the fill so it reads
Light mode
Everything in its place

Surface, border, heading and body all derive from this one hue, so the screen stays coherent without a second palette.

Primary actionSecondaryBadge
Dark mode
Same hue, inverted

Lightness flips, hue holds. The accent stays the anchor in both themes.

Primary actionSecondaryAccent

In real components

The same eight roles, wired into the interface patterns you will actually build with them. Every state below is a computed value, not a mock-up.

Buttons and states
Save changesHoverPressedDisabled
OutlineSubtleLinkFocused
Form field
you@company.com

Focus ring uses the light variant so the field still reads as one shape.

Send me product updates
Notice
Your export is ready

The file stays available for seven days. Download it before it expires.

NewBetaDraft
Data
Storage used68%
Acme LtdActive
NorthwindTrial
GlobexActive

How to use #acb7bc

Derived from its contrast, chroma and lightness — not from taste.

Works well for
  • Text and icons on dark surfaces
  • Borders, dividers and quiet backgrounds
  • Long-form reading surfaces
  • Card and section backgrounds
  • Brand accents, badges and data highlights
Use with care
  • Text of any size on white — fails WCAG AA
  • White text placed on it
  • Thin strokes and 1px borders — they disappear on light UI
  • Pairing with a same-lightness hue — edges vibrate
Minimum size as text on white
Not as text
Safe as a fill behind white type
No — use #394247
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #87979E

Meaning and mood

What a colour in this family tends to signal, and how this particular chroma and lightness change the reading.

cleantechnicalfreshclinical

Cyan reads as water, air and infrastructure: cool, hygienic, engineered.

With almost no chroma left, the family association is barely present; treat it as a neutral that happens to lean this way. The lightness keeps it airy and approachable.

Worth knowing

At high lightness it disappears into white surfaces and thin strokes vanish entirely.

Reads as
  • FormalityMedium
  • EnergyLow
  • Weight29/100
  • TemperatureCool
  • ApproachabilityBalanced

Colour associations are cultural and vary by market. Treat these as a starting point for a conversation with your audience, not a finding about them.

Similar colors

One move away from this hex in each direction. Every swatch is its own page.

Color relationships

The wheel positions with their names attached, so you can grab the one you actually need.

Complementary#BCB1AC
Analogous left#ACBCB9
Analogous right#ACAFBC
Split-complement 1#BCACAF
Split-complement 2#BCB9AC
Triadic 1#BCACB7
Triadic 2#B7BCAC
Tetradic#B9ACBC
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°199°

#acb7bc sits at 199°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red67.5%
Green71.8%
Blue73.7%
R · 0–255
172
0xac
G · 0–255
183
0xb7
B · 0–255
188
0xbc

CMYK percentages

Cyan8.5%
Magenta2.7%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)26.3%

Total ink coverage is 38%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#acb7bc text on a black background

contrast 10.25:1

Card sample

#acb7bc text on a white background

contrast 2.05:1

Card sample

#acb7bc on grey

1.87:1

#acb7bc on its own surface

1.92:1

#acb7bc on its dark surface

8.29:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #acb7bc;
Background color
Panel with #acb7bc background
background-color: #acb7bc;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #acb7bc;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(172, 183, 188, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(172, 183, 188, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #acb7bc;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #acb7bc, #ACACBC);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #acb7bc, #B0ACBC);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #acb7bc;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #acb7bc;
caret-color: #acb7bc;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #acb7bc;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #F1F3F4;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #acb7bc;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#acb7bc 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #acb7bc over white; the bottom row is the same alpha over a checkerboard, so you can see what survives on a photo or a video.

Bottom row of hexes is the flattened result over white — use those when a design tool refuses transparency, or when you need a solid fallback.

alpha in every syntaxclick to select
rgba(172, 183, 188, 0.5)
rgb(172 183 188 / 50%)
#acb7bc80
hsl(199 11% 71% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #acb7bc 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#acb7bc1a#F7F8F8
20%#acb7bc33#EEF1F2
40%#acb7bc66#DEE2E4
60%#acb7bc99#CDD4D7
80%#acb7bccc#BDC5C9

Gradients from #acb7bc

Six recipes, each built from this hex and shown with the exact CSS that produced it.

Elevation
Same hue, three lightnesses — safe anywhere
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #CED4D7, #acb7bc 45%, #394247);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #acb7bc, #9C9BAE);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #acb7bc, #BCB1AC);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #DFE3E5 0%, #acb7bc 45%, #394247 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F7F8F8, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #C8D3D0 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #BDBECA 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #394247 0%, transparent 65%), #acb7bc;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #acb7bc

Shades — darker

Tints — lighter

Tones — desaturated

Color harmonies

Nearest named colors

Ranked with CIEDE2000 across all 139 CSS keywords. Under ΔE 2 the eye stops telling them apart; over ΔE 10 they are plainly different colors.

#acb7bc in the real world

Where a color in this family tends to land, and the interface roles it is usually asked to play.

Industries
TechnologyTravelHealthcareMedia
Common UI roles
BackgroundsBordersBody textDividers
Print note

Converts to four-color process without much drama. Proof it anyway.

On screens

Holds up across typical panel gamma. Still worth checking on an uncalibrated laptop, where mid-tones shift most.

In dark mode

Usable as-is on a dark surface at 10.25:1.

Explore nearby colors

Small, deliberate steps away from this hex — useful when you are hunting for the version of a colour that finally feels right.

#acb7bc, answered

What color is #acb7bc?

#acb7bc is a light muted cyan, closest to Silver (ΔE2000 5.8). It sits at 199° on the hue wheel with 11% saturation and 71% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #acb7bc?

rgb(172, 183, 188) — 172 red, 183 green and 188 blue out of 255, or 67.5% / 71.8% / 73.7% by channel.

What is #acb7bc in HSL and HSV?

hsl(199, 11%, 71%) and hsv(199, 9%, 74%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #acb7bc a light or a dark color?

It is a mid-tone. Relative luminance is 0.4627 and perceived brightness is 71%, so black text on it reaches 10.25:1.

Should I use black or white text on #acb7bc?

Black. It scores 10.25:1 against #acb7bc, versus 2.05:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #acb7bc accessible on a white background?

#acb7bc on white scores 2.05:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #687981 to reach 4.5:1, or #4D595F for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #acb7bc?

#BCB1AC sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #BCACAF and #BCB9AC, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #acb7bc?

For interface work: #F7F8F8 as the surface, #D2D8DB for borders, #66777F for secondary text, #755857 as an accent and #394247 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #ACBCB9 and #ACAFBC stays calm, while #BCB1AC is the loudest partner.

What is #acb7bc in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(9%, 3%, 0%, 26%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #acb7bc warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 64 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #ACBCBB; nudged cooler, #ABB4BE.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #acb7bc?

The cyan family — its 500 step is #06b6d4, ΔE2000 18.7 away. That is a visible difference, so define #acb7bc as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #acb7bc in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#acb7bc] or text-[#acb7bc], or register the whole ramp under theme.extend.colors.brand so you get bg-brand-500 and friends. The generated 50–950 scale on this page is ready to paste into your config.

What is #acb7bc with 50% opacity?

rgba(172, 183, 188, 0.5), or #acb7bc80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #D6DBDE; over black, #565C5E.

Is #acb7bc a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #99CCCC, ΔE2000 12.9 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #acb7bc mean?

As a cyan, it reads clean, technical, fresh. Cyan reads as water, air and infrastructure: cool, hygienic, engineered. At this low chroma the association is faint; it behaves more like a neutral.

What gradient works with #acb7bc?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #CED4D7, #acb7bc 45%, #394247). For more colour, a short hue run to #9C9BAE keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #acb7bc in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #acb7bc at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.