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blue · cool

#bbc5fa

a pale, electric blue · cool · closest name: Light Steel Blue

Token name suggestion: Chalk Cobalt

RGB
187, 197, 250
HSL
231°, 86%, 86%
CMYK
25, 21, 0, 2
Luminance
0.5740

#bbc5fa is a pale electric blue, 231° on the wheel and 89/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (12.48:1). As text it scores 1.68:1 on white — use #4E68F2 instead. Nearest name is Light Steel Blue, nearest Tailwind family is sky.

hsl(231 86% 86%)rgb(187 197 250)Base step 200AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #bbc5fa is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#bbc5fa
Hue
231°
blue
Saturation
86%
electric
Lightness
86%
pale
Brightness
98%
HSV value
Perceived
79%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.5740
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
89/100 cool
Color family
Blue
Tone
Electric
Best ink
Black
12.48:1
Closest name
Light Steel Blue
ΔE2000 7.8
Chroma
28.3
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.834
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
sky
500 · ΔE 22.9
Web-safe
#CCCCFF
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue231° of 360°
Saturation86%
Lightness86%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #bbc5fa.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool89% 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
Red18%
Green70%
Blue12%

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

Every format

HEX#bbc5fa
HEX (8-digit)#bbc5faff
RGBrgb(187, 197, 250)
RGBArgba(187, 197, 250, 1)
HSLhsl(231, 86%, 86%)
HSV / HSBhsv(230, 25%, 98%)
HWBhwb(231 73% 2%)
CMYKcmyk(25%, 21%, 0%, 2%)
LABlab(80.4 7.9 -27.2)
LCHlch(80.4 28.3 286.1)
OKLCHoklch(0.834 0.075 276.3)
XYZ (D65)xyz(57.71, 57.40, 98.46)
Decimal12305914
Display P3color(display-p3 0.733 0.773 0.980)
Web-safe#CCCCFF

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #bbc5fa;
background-color: #bbc5fa;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #bbc5fa;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#bbc5fa] bg-[#bbc5fa]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #bbc5fa;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.733, green: 0.773, blue: 0.980)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.733, green: 0.773, blue: 0.980, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#BBC5FA</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFBBC5FA)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFBBC5FA)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(250, 197, 187)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(187, 197, 250)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(187, 197, 250)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 187, 197, 250)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.7333f, 0.7725f, 0.9804f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{187,197,250}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #bbc5fa 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #bbc5fa 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#091A77, #D3D7EE);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #bbc5fa 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: #F2F4FD;
  --brand-100: #E5E9FA;
  --brand-200: #bbc5fa;
  --brand-300: #96A6F7;
  --brand-400: #6279F3;
  --brand-500: #2E4DF0;
  --brand-600: #1132E4;
  --brand-700: #0E2ABE;
  --brand-800: #0B2198;
  --brand-900: #0D1C6E;
  --brand-950: #081145;
  --brand: #bbc5fa;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F4F5FA;
  --brand-border: #C0C7ED;
  --brand-hover: #9AA9F8;
  --brand-pressed: #798CF5;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #141624;
    --brand-ink: #D3D7EE;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F2F4FD',
        100: '#E5E9FA',
        200: '#bbc5fa',
        300: '#96A6F7',
        400: '#6279F3',
        500: '#2E4DF0',
        600: '#1132E4',
        700: '#0E2ABE',
        800: '#0B2198',
        900: '#0D1C6E',
        950: '#081145',
        DEFAULT: '#bbc5fa',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F2F4FD,
  '100': #E5E9FA,
  '200': #bbc5fa,
  '300': #96A6F7,
  '400': #6279F3,
  '500': #2E4DF0,
  '600': #1132E4,
  '700': #0E2ABE,
  '800': #0B2198,
  '900': #0D1C6E,
  '950': #081145,
);
$brand-base: #bbc5fa;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F2F4FD", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#E5E9FA", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#bbc5fa", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#96A6F7", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#6279F3", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#2E4DF0", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#1132E4", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#0E2ABE", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#0B2198", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#0D1C6E", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#081145", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #bbc5fa · 12.48:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 1.68:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 12.48:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #bbc5fa as text scores 1.68:1 on white and 12.48:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #091A77 at 8.75:1.

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
#4E68F2 · 4.58:1
AA on white−23% L
#4E68F2
The quick fox
#1E3FEE · 7.00:1
AAA on white−33% L
#1E3FEE
The quick fox
#bbc5fa · 12.48:1
AA on blackalready passes
#bbc5fa
The quick fox
#bbc5fa · 12.48:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#bbc5fa

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #798CF5 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
#bbc5fa on white: 1.68:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#bbc5fa on black: 12.48:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #bbc5fa as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #bbc5fa.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White1.68:1AaAa
Slate 501.61:1AaAa
Slate 1001.54:1AaAa
Slate 2001.36:1AaAa
Slate 3001.13:1AaAa
Slate 4001.52:1AaAa
Slate 5002.83:1AaAa
Slate 6004.50:1AaAa
Slate 7006.15:1AaAa
Slate 8008.69:1AaAa
Slate 90010.61:1AaAa
Black12.48:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #B6CAFC
deuteranopia · #B2C5F9
tritanopia · #ACCFD7

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. #bbc5fa is pinned to step 200; the rest hold its hue and let saturation ease off at the extremes so the pale end never turns neon.

#F2F4FD
#E5E9FA
#bbc5fa
#96A6F7
#6279F3
#2E4DF0
#1132E4
#0E2ABE
#0B2198
#0D1C6E
#081145
Base = 200Lightest = 50 · #F2F4FDDarkest = 950 · #081145Text step on white = 500
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 0.019 276.3);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.030 276.3);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.045 276.3);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.059 276.3);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.069 276.3);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.075 276.3);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.075 276.3);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.071 276.3);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.063 276.3);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.053 276.3);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.041 276.3);
}

Colors that work with #bbc5fa

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#F4F5FA
Tinted page background
Border#C0C7ED
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B579B
Captions on the surface
Accent#C1780B
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#091A77
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#E7EBFD
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#141624
Dark-mode background
Hover#9AA9F8
One step down in lightness
Pressed#798CF5
Two steps down
Disabled#F3F3F7
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#CBD3FE
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 #bbc5fa

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

Works well for
  • Text and icons on dark surfaces
  • Primary buttons and calls to action
  • Focus rings, active and selected states
  • Card and section backgrounds
  • Brand accents, badges and data highlights
Use with care
  • Text of any size on white — fails WCAG AA
  • Full-page backgrounds — tiring over long sessions
  • 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 #091A77
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #798CF5

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.

At this chroma the association is amplified — it will dominate anything placed beside it, so give it space and use it sparingly. The high lightness makes it recede — a surface colour rather than a statement.

Worth knowing

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

Reads as
  • FormalityLow
  • EnergyHigh
  • Weight14/100
  • TemperatureCool
  • ApproachabilityReserved

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#FAF0BB
Analogous left#BBE5FA
Analogous right#D1BBFA
Split-complement 1#FAD1BB
Split-complement 2#E5FABB
Triadic 1#FABBC5
Triadic 2#C5FABB
Tetradic#FABBE5
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°231°

#bbc5fa sits at 231°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red73.3%
Green77.3%
Blue98.0%
R · 0–255
187
0xbb
G · 0–255
197
0xc5
B · 0–255
250
0xfa

CMYK percentages

Cyan25.2%
Magenta21.2%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)2.0%

Total ink coverage is 48%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#bbc5fa text on a black background

contrast 12.48:1

Card sample

#bbc5fa text on a white background

contrast 1.68:1

Card sample

#bbc5fa on grey

1.54:1

#bbc5fa on its own surface

1.55:1

#bbc5fa on its dark surface

10.67:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #bbc5fa;
Background color
Panel with #bbc5fa background
background-color: #bbc5fa;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #bbc5fa;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(187, 197, 250, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(187, 197, 250, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #bbc5fa;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #bbc5fa, #DBBBFA);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #bbc5fa, #EBBBFA);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #bbc5fa;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #bbc5fa;
caret-color: #bbc5fa;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #bbc5fa;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #E7EBFD;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #bbc5fa;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#bbc5fa 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #bbc5fa 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, 197, 250, 0.5)
rgb(187 197 250 / 50%)
#bbc5fa80
hsl(231 86% 86% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #bbc5fa 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#bbc5fa1a#F8F9FF
20%#bbc5fa33#F1F3FE
40%#bbc5fa66#E4E8FD
60%#bbc5fa99#D6DCFC
80%#bbc5facc#C9D1FB

Gradients from #bbc5fa

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, #ECEFFE, #bbc5fa 45%, #091A77);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #bbc5fa, #D39FF8);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #bbc5fa, #FAF0BB);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #F1F3FE 0%, #bbc5fa 45%, #091A77 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F4F5FA, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #EBF9FD 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #E7D8FC 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #091A77 0%, transparent 65%), #bbc5fa;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #bbc5fa

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.

#bbc5fa 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
SurfacesBadgesHighlightsEmpty states
Print note

Sits outside most CMYK gamuts — expect a duller press result, or specify a spot ink.

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 12.48:1.

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.

#bbc5fa, answered

What color is #bbc5fa?

#bbc5fa is a pale electric blue, closest to Light Steel Blue (ΔE2000 7.8). It sits at 231° on the hue wheel with 86% saturation and 86% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #bbc5fa?

rgb(187, 197, 250) — 187 red, 197 green and 250 blue out of 255, or 73.3% / 77.3% / 98% by channel.

What is #bbc5fa in HSL and HSV?

hsl(231, 86%, 86%) and hsv(230, 25%, 98%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #bbc5fa a light or a dark color?

It is a light color. Relative luminance is 0.5740 and perceived brightness is 79%, so black text on it reaches 12.48:1.

Should I use black or white text on #bbc5fa?

Black. It scores 12.48:1 against #bbc5fa, versus 1.68:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #bbc5fa accessible on a white background?

#bbc5fa on white scores 1.68:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #4E68F2 to reach 4.5:1, or #1E3FEE for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #bbc5fa?

#FAF0BB sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #FAD1BB and #E5FABB, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #bbc5fa?

For interface work: #F4F5FA as the surface, #C0C7ED for borders, #4B579B for secondary text, #C1780B as an accent and #091A77 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #BBE5FA and #D1BBFA stays calm, while #FAF0BB is the loudest partner.

What is #bbc5fa in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(25%, 21%, 0%, 2%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — a color this saturated sits outside most CMYK gamuts and will print duller than it looks here.

Is #bbc5fa warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 89 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #C8BBFA; nudged cooler, #BAD4FB.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #bbc5fa?

The sky family — its 500 step is #0ea5e9, ΔE2000 22.9 away. That is a visible difference, so define #bbc5fa as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #bbc5fa in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#bbc5fa] or text-[#bbc5fa], 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 #bbc5fa with 50% opacity?

rgba(187, 197, 250, 0.5), or #bbc5fa80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #DDE2FD; over black, #5E637D.

Is #bbc5fa a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #CCCCFF, ΔE2000 3.8 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #bbc5fa 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 chroma the effect is amplified — it will dominate whatever sits beside it.

What gradient works with #bbc5fa?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #ECEFFE, #bbc5fa 45%, #091A77). For more colour, a short hue run to #D39FF8 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #bbc5fa in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #bbc5fa at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.