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red · warm

#bbaaa6

a light, muted red · warm · closest name: Dark Gray

Token name suggestion: Drift Rust

RGB
187, 170, 166
HSL
11°, 13%, 69%
CMYK
0, 9, 11, 27
Luminance
0.4207

#bbaaa6 is a light muted red, 11° on the wheel and 35/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (9.41:1). As text it scores 2.23:1 on white — use #8B716A instead. Nearest name is Dark Gray, nearest Tailwind family is stone.

hsl(11 13% 69%)rgb(187 170 166)Base step 400AAA inkWarm

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #bbaaa6 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#bbaaa6
Hue
11°
red
Saturation
13%
muted
Lightness
69%
light
Brightness
73%
HSV value
Perceived
69%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.4207
WCAG relative
Temperature
Warm
35/100 cool
Color family
Red
Tone
Muted
Best ink
Black
9.41:1
Closest name
Dark Gray
ΔE2000 7.7
Chroma
6.9
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.751
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
stone
500 · ΔE 20.7
Web-safe
#CC9999
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue11° of 360°
Saturation13%
Lightness69%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #bbaaa6.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool35% cool

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

Luminance by channel
Red25%
Green68%
Blue7%

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

Every format

HEX#bbaaa6
HEX (8-digit)#bbaaa6ff
RGBrgb(187, 170, 166)
RGBArgba(187, 170, 166, 1)
HSLhsl(11, 13%, 69%)
HSV / HSBhsv(11, 11%, 73%)
HWBhwb(11 65% 27%)
CMYKcmyk(0%, 9%, 11%, 27%)
LABlab(70.9 5.4 4.3)
LCHlch(70.9 6.9 38.2)
OKLCHoklch(0.751 0.021 33.4)
XYZ (D65)xyz(41.75, 42.07, 41.99)
Decimal12298918
Display P3color(display-p3 0.733 0.667 0.651)
Web-safe#CC9999

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #bbaaa6;
background-color: #bbaaa6;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #bbaaa6;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#bbaaa6] bg-[#bbaaa6]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #bbaaa6;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.733, green: 0.667, blue: 0.651)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.733, green: 0.667, blue: 0.651, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#BBAAA6</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFBBAAA6)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFBBAAA6)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(166, 170, 187)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(187, 170, 166)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(187, 170, 166)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 187, 170, 166)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.7333f, 0.6667f, 0.6510f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{187,170,166}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #bbaaa6 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #bbaaa6 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#483A37, #E5DEDC);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #bbaaa6 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: #F8F7F7;
  --brand-100: #F1EFEE;
  --brand-200: #E2DBDA;
  --brand-300: #CEC2BF;
  --brand-400: #bbaaa6;
  --brand-500: #9E8580;
  --brand-600: #8B706A;
  --brand-700: #745E58;
  --brand-800: #5D4B47;
  --brand-900: #453936;
  --brand-950: #2B2322;
  --brand: #bbaaa6;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F8F7F6;
  --brand-border: #DCD3D1;
  --brand-hover: #AC9792;
  --brand-pressed: #9C837D;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #201A18;
    --brand-ink: #E5DEDC;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F8F7F7',
        100: '#F1EFEE',
        200: '#E2DBDA',
        300: '#CEC2BF',
        400: '#bbaaa6',
        500: '#9E8580',
        600: '#8B706A',
        700: '#745E58',
        800: '#5D4B47',
        900: '#453936',
        950: '#2B2322',
        DEFAULT: '#bbaaa6',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F8F7F7,
  '100': #F1EFEE,
  '200': #E2DBDA,
  '300': #CEC2BF,
  '400': #bbaaa6,
  '500': #9E8580,
  '600': #8B706A,
  '700': #745E58,
  '800': #5D4B47,
  '900': #453936,
  '950': #2B2322,
);
$brand-base: #bbaaa6;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F8F7F7", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#F1EFEE", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#E2DBDA", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#CEC2BF", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#bbaaa6", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#9E8580", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#8B706A", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#745E58", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#5D4B47", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#453936", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#2B2322", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #bbaaa6 · 9.41:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 2.23:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 9.41:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #bbaaa6 as text scores 2.23:1 on white and 9.41:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #483A37 at 4.86:1.

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
#8B716A · 4.50:1
AA on white−21% L
#8B716A
The quick fox
#66524E · 7.29:1
AAA on white−34% L
#66524E
The quick fox
#bbaaa6 · 9.41:1
AA on blackalready passes
#bbaaa6
The quick fox
#bbaaa6 · 9.41:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#bbaaa6

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #A58E89 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
#bbaaa6 on white: 2.23:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#bbaaa6 on black: 9.41:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #bbaaa6 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #bbaaa6.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White2.23:1AaAa
Slate 502.13:1AaAa
Slate 1002.04:1AaAa
Slate 2001.81:1AaAa
Slate 3001.50:1AaAa
Slate 4001.15:1AaAa
Slate 5002.13:1AaAa
Slate 6003.40:1AaAa
Slate 7004.64:1AaAa
Slate 8006.56:1AaAa
Slate 9008.00:1AaAa
Black9.41:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #AEACA6
deuteranopia · #B1AFA6
tritanopia · #C0A8A9

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. #bbaaa6 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.

#F8F7F7
#F1EFEE
#E2DBDA
#CEC2BF
#bbaaa6
#9E8580
#8B706A
#745E58
#5D4B47
#453936
#2B2322
Base = 400Lightest = 50 · #F8F7F7Darkest = 950 · #2B2322Text 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 33.4);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.008 33.4);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.012 33.4);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.016 33.4);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.019 33.4);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.021 33.4);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.021 33.4);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.019 33.4);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.017 33.4);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.014 33.4);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.011 33.4);
}

Colors that work with #bbaaa6

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#F8F7F6
Tinted page background
Border#DCD3D1
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#826963
Captions on the surface
Accent#547875
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#483A37
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#F4F1F1
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#201A18
Dark-mode background
Hover#AC9792
One step down in lightness
Pressed#9C837D
Two steps down
Disabled#ECE7E6
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#CBB1AB
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 #bbaaa6

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
  • Status meaning — pair it with an icon or label, never colour alone
  • 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 #483A37
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #A58E89

Meaning and mood

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

urgentappetisingboldphysical

Red arrives before the rest of the page does. It raises attention and appetite, which is why it runs food, sport and clearance pricing.

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 universal error colour. Use it as a brand accent and users may read a warning that is not there.

Reads as
  • FormalityMedium
  • EnergyLow
  • Weight31/100
  • TemperatureWarm
  • 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#A6B7BB
Analogous left#BBA6AC
Analogous right#BBB4A6
Split-complement 1#A6BBB4
Split-complement 2#A6ACBB
Triadic 1#A6BBAA
Triadic 2#AAA6BB
Tetradic#ACBBA6
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°11°

#bbaaa6 sits at 11°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red73.3%
Green66.7%
Blue65.1%
R · 0–255
187
0xbb
G · 0–255
170
0xaa
B · 0–255
166
0xa6

CMYK percentages

Cyan0.0%
Magenta9.1%
Yellow11.2%
Key (black)26.7%

Total ink coverage is 47%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#bbaaa6 text on a black background

contrast 9.41:1

Card sample

#bbaaa6 text on a white background

contrast 2.23:1

Card sample

#bbaaa6 on grey

2.04:1

#bbaaa6 on its own surface

2.08:1

#bbaaa6 on its dark surface

7.70:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #bbaaa6;
Background color
Panel with #bbaaa6 background
background-color: #bbaaa6;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #bbaaa6;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(187, 170, 166, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(187, 170, 166, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #bbaaa6;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #bbaaa6, #BBB8A6);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #bbaaa6, #B9BBA6);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #bbaaa6;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #bbaaa6;
caret-color: #bbaaa6;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #bbaaa6;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #F4F1F1;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #bbaaa6;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#bbaaa6 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #bbaaa6 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(187, 170, 166, 0.5)
rgb(187 170 166 / 50%)
#bbaaa680
hsl(11 13% 69% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #bbaaa6 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#bbaaa61a#F8F7F6
20%#bbaaa633#F1EEED
40%#bbaaa666#E4DDDB
60%#bbaaa699#D6CCCA
80%#bbaaa6cc#C9BBB8

Gradients from #bbaaa6

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, #D5CBC9, #bbaaa6 45%, #483A37);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #bbaaa6, #AEAC95);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #bbaaa6, #A6B7BB);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #E3DCDA 0%, #bbaaa6 45%, #483A37 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F8F7F6, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #D1C3C8 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #C8C4B7 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #483A37 0%, transparent 65%), #bbaaa6;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #bbaaa6

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.

#bbaaa6 in the real world

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

Industries
Food and drinkEntertainmentRetailSport
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 9.41:1.

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.

#bbaaa6, answered

What color is #bbaaa6?

#bbaaa6 is a light muted red, closest to Dark Gray (ΔE2000 7.7). It sits at 11° on the hue wheel with 13% saturation and 69% lightness, which reads as warm.

What is the RGB value of #bbaaa6?

rgb(187, 170, 166) — 187 red, 170 green and 166 blue out of 255, or 73.3% / 66.7% / 65.1% by channel.

What is #bbaaa6 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(11, 13%, 69%) and hsv(11, 11%, 73%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #bbaaa6 a light or a dark color?

It is a mid-tone. Relative luminance is 0.4207 and perceived brightness is 69%, so black text on it reaches 9.41:1.

Should I use black or white text on #bbaaa6?

Black. It scores 9.41:1 against #bbaaa6, versus 2.23:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #bbaaa6 accessible on a white background?

#bbaaa6 on white scores 2.23:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #8B716A to reach 4.5:1, or #66524E for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #bbaaa6?

#A6B7BB sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #A6BBB4 and #A6ACBB, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #bbaaa6?

For interface work: #F8F7F6 as the surface, #DCD3D1 for borders, #826963 for secondary text, #547875 as an accent and #483A37 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #BBA6AC and #BBB4A6 stays calm, while #A6B7BB is the loudest partner.

What is #bbaaa6 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(0%, 9%, 11%, 27%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #bbaaa6 warm or cool?

Warm — it scores 35 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #BBAEA6; nudged cooler, #BDA4A9.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #bbaaa6?

The stone family — its 500 step is #78716c, ΔE2000 20.7 away. That is a visible difference, so define #bbaaa6 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #bbaaa6 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#bbaaa6] or text-[#bbaaa6], 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 #bbaaa6 with 50% opacity?

rgba(187, 170, 166, 0.5), or #bbaaa680 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #DDD5D3; over black, #5E5553.

Is #bbaaa6 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #CC9999, ΔE2000 11.2 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #bbaaa6 mean?

As a red, it reads urgent, appetising, bold. Red arrives before the rest of the page does. It raises attention and appetite, which is why it runs food, sport and clearance pricing. At this low chroma the association is faint; it behaves more like a neutral.

What gradient works with #bbaaa6?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #D5CBC9, #bbaaa6 45%, #483A37). For more colour, a short hue run to #AEAC95 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #bbaaa6 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #bbaaa6 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.