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blue · cool

#adafbe

a light, muted blue · cool · closest name: Dark Gray

Token name suggestion: Drift Sapphire

RGB
173, 175, 190
HSL
233°, 12%, 71%
CMYK
9, 8, 0, 26
Luminance
0.4326

#adafbe is a light muted blue, 233° on the wheel and 62/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (9.65:1). As text it scores 2.18:1 on white — use #71758F instead. Nearest name is Dark Gray, nearest Tailwind family is zinc.

hsl(233 12% 71%)rgb(173 175 190)Base step 400AAA inkCool

At a glance

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

Hex
#adafbe
Hue
233°
blue
Saturation
12%
muted
Lightness
71%
light
Brightness
75%
HSV value
Perceived
69%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.4326
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
62/100 cool
Color family
Blue
Tone
Muted
Best ink
Black
9.65:1
Closest name
Dark Gray
ΔE2000 7.4
Chroma
8.2
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.757
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
zinc
500 · ΔE 21.1
Web-safe
#9999CC
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue233° of 360°
Saturation12%
Lightness71%
Saturation × lightness field

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

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool62% 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
Red21%
Green71%
Blue9%

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

Every format

HEX#adafbe
HEX (8-digit)#adafbeff
RGBrgb(173, 175, 190)
RGBArgba(173, 175, 190, 1)
HSLhsl(233, 12%, 71%)
HSV / HSBhsv(233, 9%, 75%)
HWBhwb(233 68% 25%)
CMYKcmyk(9%, 8%, 0%, 26%)
LABlab(71.7 2.3 -7.9)
LCHlch(71.7 8.2 286.0)
OKLCHoklch(0.757 0.021 279.8)
XYZ (D65)xyz(41.86, 43.26, 54.85)
Decimal11382718
Display P3color(display-p3 0.678 0.686 0.745)
Web-safe#9999CC

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #adafbe;
background-color: #adafbe;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #adafbe;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#adafbe] bg-[#adafbe]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #adafbe;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.678, green: 0.686, blue: 0.745)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.678, green: 0.686, blue: 0.745, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#ADAFBE</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFADAFBE)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFADAFBE)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(190, 175, 173)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(173, 175, 190)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(173, 175, 190)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 173, 175, 190)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.6784f, 0.6863f, 0.7451f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{173,175,190}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #adafbe 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #adafbe 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#383A47, #DDDEE4);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #adafbe 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: #F7F7F8;
  --brand-100: #EEEFF1;
  --brand-200: #DADBE1;
  --brand-300: #C0C2CD;
  --brand-400: #adafbe;
  --brand-500: #82859C;
  --brand-600: #6C7089;
  --brand-700: #5A5D72;
  --brand-800: #484A5B;
  --brand-900: #373844;
  --brand-950: #22232A;
  --brand: #adafbe;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F6F7F8;
  --brand-border: #D1D3DB;
  --brand-hover: #999CAE;
  --brand-pressed: #85889F;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #191A1F;
    --brand-ink: #DDDEE4;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F7F7F8',
        100: '#EEEFF1',
        200: '#DADBE1',
        300: '#C0C2CD',
        400: '#adafbe',
        500: '#82859C',
        600: '#6C7089',
        700: '#5A5D72',
        800: '#484A5B',
        900: '#373844',
        950: '#22232A',
        DEFAULT: '#adafbe',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F7F7F8,
  '100': #EEEFF1,
  '200': #DADBE1,
  '300': #C0C2CD,
  '400': #adafbe,
  '500': #82859C,
  '600': #6C7089,
  '700': #5A5D72,
  '800': #484A5B,
  '900': #373844,
  '950': #22232A,
);
$brand-base: #adafbe;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F7F7F8", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#EEEFF1", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#DADBE1", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#C0C2CD", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#adafbe", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#82859C", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#6C7089", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#5A5D72", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#484A5B", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#373844", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#22232A", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #adafbe · 9.65:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 2.18:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 9.65:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #adafbe as text scores 2.18:1 on white and 9.65:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #383A47 at 5.18:1.

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
#71758F · 4.52:1
AA on white−21% L
#71758F
The quick fox
#54566A · 7.20:1
AAA on white−34% L
#54566A
The quick fox
#adafbe · 9.65:1
AA on blackalready passes
#adafbe
The quick fox
#adafbe · 9.65:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#adafbe

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #9193A8 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
#adafbe on white: 2.18:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#adafbe on black: 9.65:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

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

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White2.18:1AaAa
Slate 502.08:1AaAa
Slate 1001.99:1AaAa
Slate 2001.76:1AaAa
Slate 3001.47:1AaAa
Slate 4001.18:1AaAa
Slate 5002.19:1AaAa
Slate 6003.48:1AaAa
Slate 7004.76:1AaAa
Slate 8006.72:1AaAa
Slate 9008.21:1AaAa
Black9.65:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #ABB0BF
deuteranopia · #ABAFBE
tritanopia · #AAB1B4

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. #adafbe 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.

#F7F7F8
#EEEFF1
#DADBE1
#C0C2CD
#adafbe
#82859C
#6C7089
#5A5D72
#484A5B
#373844
#22232A
Base = 400Lightest = 50 · #F7F7F8Darkest = 950 · #22232AText step on white = 600
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 0.005 279.8);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.009 279.8);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.013 279.8);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.017 279.8);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.020 279.8);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.021 279.8);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.021 279.8);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.020 279.8);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.018 279.8);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.015 279.8);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.012 279.8);
}

Colors that work with #adafbe

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#F6F7F8
Tinted page background
Border#D1D3DB
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#656980
Captions on the surface
Accent#766B56
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#383A47
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#F1F1F4
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#191A1F
Dark-mode background
Hover#999CAE
One step down in lightness
Pressed#85889F
Two steps down
Disabled#ECECF0
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#B2B5CD
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 #adafbe

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
  • 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 #383A47
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #9193A8

Meaning and mood

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

trustedcalmcompetentcorporate

The default of institutions for a reason: blue is read as stable and safe across nearly every culture that has been surveyed.

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

It is also the most crowded hue on the web. Distinctiveness has to come from your other choices.

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#BEBCAD
Analogous left#ADB8BE
Analogous right#B4ADBE
Split-complement 1#BEB4AD
Split-complement 2#B8BEAD
Triadic 1#BEADAF
Triadic 2#AFBEAD
Tetradic#BEADB8
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°233°

#adafbe sits at 233°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red67.8%
Green68.6%
Blue74.5%
R · 0–255
173
0xad
G · 0–255
175
0xaf
B · 0–255
190
0xbe

CMYK percentages

Cyan8.9%
Magenta7.9%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)25.5%

Total ink coverage is 42%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#adafbe text on a black background

contrast 9.65:1

Card sample

#adafbe text on a white background

contrast 2.18:1

Card sample

#adafbe on grey

1.99:1

#adafbe on its own surface

2.03:1

#adafbe on its dark surface

7.98:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

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

Glowing headline

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

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(173, 175, 190, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(173, 175, 190, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #adafbe;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #adafbe, #B6ADBE);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

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

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #adafbe;
caret-color: #adafbe;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #adafbe;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #F1F1F4;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #adafbe;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#adafbe 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #adafbe 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(173, 175, 190, 0.5)
rgb(173 175 190 / 50%)
#adafbe80
hsl(233 12% 71% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #adafbe 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#adafbe1a#F7F7F9
20%#adafbe33#EFEFF2
40%#adafbe66#DEDFE5
60%#adafbe99#CECFD8
80%#adafbecc#BDBFCB

Gradients from #adafbe

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, #CFD0D9, #adafbe 45%, #383A47);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #adafbe, #A99CB1);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #adafbe, #BEBCAD);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #E0E1E7 0%, #adafbe 45%, #383A47 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F6F7F8, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #C9D1D5 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #C4BECC 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #383A47 0%, transparent 65%), #adafbe;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #adafbe

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.

#adafbe in the real world

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

Industries
TechnologyFinanceHealthcareEnterprise SaaS
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 9.65:1.

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.

#adafbe, answered

What color is #adafbe?

#adafbe is a light muted blue, closest to Dark Gray (ΔE2000 7.4). It sits at 233° on the hue wheel with 12% saturation and 71% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #adafbe?

rgb(173, 175, 190) — 173 red, 175 green and 190 blue out of 255, or 67.8% / 68.6% / 74.5% by channel.

What is #adafbe in HSL and HSV?

hsl(233, 12%, 71%) and hsv(233, 9%, 75%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #adafbe a light or a dark color?

It is a mid-tone. Relative luminance is 0.4326 and perceived brightness is 69%, so black text on it reaches 9.65:1.

Should I use black or white text on #adafbe?

Black. It scores 9.65:1 against #adafbe, versus 2.18:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #adafbe accessible on a white background?

#adafbe on white scores 2.18:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #71758F to reach 4.5:1, or #54566A for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #adafbe?

#BEBCAD sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #BEB4AD and #B8BEAD, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #adafbe?

For interface work: #F6F7F8 as the surface, #D1D3DB for borders, #656980 for secondary text, #766B56 as an accent and #383A47 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #ADB8BE and #B4ADBE stays calm, while #BEBCAD is the loudest partner.

What is #adafbe in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(9%, 8%, 0%, 26%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #adafbe warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 62 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #B1ADBE; nudged cooler, #ACB4C0.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #adafbe?

The zinc family — its 500 step is #71717a, ΔE2000 21.1 away. That is a visible difference, so define #adafbe as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #adafbe in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#adafbe] or text-[#adafbe], 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 #adafbe with 50% opacity?

rgba(173, 175, 190, 0.5), or #adafbe80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #D6D7DF; over black, #57585F.

Is #adafbe a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #9999CC, ΔE2000 12.6 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #adafbe mean?

As a blue, it reads trusted, calm, competent. The default of institutions for a reason: blue is read as stable and safe across nearly every culture that has been surveyed. At this low chroma the association is faint; it behaves more like a neutral.

What gradient works with #adafbe?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #CFD0D9, #adafbe 45%, #383A47). For more colour, a short hue run to #A99CB1 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #adafbe in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

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