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cyan · cool

#bdcdcc

a light, muted cyan · cool · closest name: Light Gray

Token name suggestion: Morning Glacier

RGB
189, 205, 204
HSL
176°, 14%, 77%
CMYK
8, 0, 1, 20
Luminance
0.5884

#bdcdcc is a light muted cyan, 176° on the wheel and 64/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (12.77:1). As text it scores 1.64:1 on white — use #5D7B79 instead. Nearest name is Light Gray, nearest Tailwind family is cyan.

hsl(176 14% 77%)rgb(189 205 204)Base step 300AAA inkCool

At a glance

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

Hex
#bdcdcc
Hue
176°
cyan
Saturation
14%
muted
Lightness
77%
light
Brightness
80%
HSV value
Perceived
79%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.5884
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
64/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Muted
Best ink
Black
12.77:1
Closest name
Light Gray
ΔE2000 7.5
Chroma
5.8
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.836
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
cyan
500 · ΔE 20.1
Web-safe
#CCCCCC
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue176° of 360°
Saturation14%
Lightness77%
Saturation × lightness field

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

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
Red18%
Green74%
Blue7%

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

Every format

HEX#bdcdcc
HEX (8-digit)#bdcdccff
RGBrgb(189, 205, 204)
RGBArgba(189, 205, 204, 1)
HSLhsl(176, 14%, 77%)
HSV / HSBhsv(176, 8%, 80%)
HWBhwb(176 74% 20%)
CMYKcmyk(8%, 0%, 1%, 20%)
LABlab(81.2 -5.6 -1.4)
LCHlch(81.2 5.8 193.7)
OKLCHoklch(0.836 0.018 192.3)
XYZ (D65)xyz(53.71, 58.84, 65.64)
Decimal12438988
Display P3color(display-p3 0.741 0.804 0.800)
Web-safe#CCCCCC

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #bdcdcc;
background-color: #bdcdcc;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #bdcdcc;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#bdcdcc] bg-[#bdcdcc]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #bdcdcc;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.741, green: 0.804, blue: 0.800)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.741, green: 0.804, blue: 0.800, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#BDCDCC</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFBDCDCC)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFBDCDCC)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(204, 205, 189)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(189, 205, 204)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(189, 205, 204)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 189, 205, 204)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.7412f, 0.8039f, 0.8000f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{189,205,204}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #bdcdcc 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #bdcdcc 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#374947, #DCE5E4);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #bdcdcc 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: #EEF1F1;
  --brand-200: #DAE2E1;
  --brand-300: #bdcdcc;
  --brand-400: #9FB6B5;
  --brand-500: #7F9E9C;
  --brand-600: #6A8B89;
  --brand-700: #587472;
  --brand-800: #465D5B;
  --brand-900: #354544;
  --brand-950: #212B2B;
  --brand: #bdcdcc;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F6F8F8;
  --brand-border: #D1DCDB;
  --brand-hover: #A9BEBC;
  --brand-pressed: #95AEAD;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #18201F;
    --brand-ink: #DCE5E4;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F7F8F8',
        100: '#EEF1F1',
        200: '#DAE2E1',
        300: '#bdcdcc',
        400: '#9FB6B5',
        500: '#7F9E9C',
        600: '#6A8B89',
        700: '#587472',
        800: '#465D5B',
        900: '#354544',
        950: '#212B2B',
        DEFAULT: '#bdcdcc',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F7F8F8,
  '100': #EEF1F1,
  '200': #DAE2E1,
  '300': #bdcdcc,
  '400': #9FB6B5,
  '500': #7F9E9C,
  '600': #6A8B89,
  '700': #587472,
  '800': #465D5B,
  '900': #354544,
  '950': #212B2B,
);
$brand-base: #bdcdcc;
$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": "#EEF1F1", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#DAE2E1", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#bdcdcc", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#9FB6B5", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#7F9E9C", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#6A8B89", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#587472", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#465D5B", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#354544", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#212B2B", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #bdcdcc · 12.77:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 1.64:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 12.77:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #bdcdcc as text scores 1.64:1 on white and 12.77:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #374947 at 5.79:1.

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
#5D7B79 · 4.59:1
AA on white−35% L
#5D7B79
The quick fox
#455B59 · 7.26:1
AAA on white−46% L
#455B59
The quick fox
#bdcdcc · 12.77:1
AA on blackalready passes
#bdcdcc
The quick fox
#bdcdcc · 12.77:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#bdcdcc

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #7A9B99 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
#bdcdcc on white: 1.64:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#bdcdcc on black: 12.77:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

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

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White1.64:1AaAa
Slate 501.57:1AaAa
Slate 1001.50:1AaAa
Slate 2001.33:1AaAa
Slate 3001.11:1AaAa
Slate 4001.56:1AaAa
Slate 5002.89:1AaAa
Slate 6004.61:1AaAa
Slate 7006.30:1AaAa
Slate 8008.89:1AaAa
Slate 90010.85:1AaAa
Black12.77:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #CBCBCC
deuteranopia · #C8C9CC
tritanopia · #B9CECD

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. #bdcdcc is pinned to step 300; the rest hold its hue and let saturation ease off at the extremes so the pale end never turns neon.

#F7F8F8
#EEF1F1
#DAE2E1
#bdcdcc
#9FB6B5
#7F9E9C
#6A8B89
#587472
#465D5B
#354544
#212B2B
Base = 300Lightest = 50 · #F7F8F8Darkest = 950 · #212B2BText 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 0.004 192.3);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.007 192.3);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.011 192.3);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.014 192.3);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.016 192.3);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.018 192.3);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.018 192.3);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.016 192.3);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.015 192.3);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.012 192.3);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.010 192.3);
}

Colors that work with #bdcdcc

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#F6F8F8
Tinted page background
Border#D1DCDB
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#638381
Captions on the surface
Accent#78545F
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#374947
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#F0F4F4
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#18201F
Dark-mode background
Hover#A9BEBC
One step down in lightness
Pressed#95AEAD
Two steps down
Disabled#F3F6F6
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#C4DBD9
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 #bdcdcc

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 #374947
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #7A9B99

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
  • Weight23/100
  • 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#CDBDBE
Analogous left#BDCDC4
Analogous right#BDC6CD
Split-complement 1#CDBDC6
Split-complement 2#CDC4BD
Triadic 1#CCBDCD
Triadic 2#CDCCBD
Tetradic#C4BDCD
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°176°

#bdcdcc sits at 176°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red74.1%
Green80.4%
Blue80.0%
R · 0–255
189
0xbd
G · 0–255
205
0xcd
B · 0–255
204
0xcc

CMYK percentages

Cyan7.8%
Magenta0.0%
Yellow0.5%
Key (black)19.6%

Total ink coverage is 28%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#bdcdcc text on a black background

contrast 12.77:1

Card sample

#bdcdcc text on a white background

contrast 1.64:1

Card sample

#bdcdcc on grey

1.50:1

#bdcdcc on its own surface

1.54:1

#bdcdcc on its dark surface

10.09:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

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

Glowing headline

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

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(189, 205, 204, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(189, 205, 204, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #bdcdcc;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #bdcdcc, #BDC3CD);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

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

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #bdcdcc;
caret-color: #bdcdcc;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #bdcdcc;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #F0F4F4;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #bdcdcc;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#bdcdcc 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #bdcdcc 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(189, 205, 204, 0.5)
rgb(189 205 204 / 50%)
#bdcdcc80
hsl(176 14% 77% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #bdcdcc 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#bdcdcc1a#F8FAFA
20%#bdcdcc33#F2F5F5
40%#bdcdcc66#E5EBEB
60%#bdcdcc99#D7E1E0
80%#bdcdcccc#CAD7D6

Gradients from #bdcdcc

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, #E0E7E7, #bdcdcc 45%, #374947);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #bdcdcc, #ACB2C0);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #bdcdcc, #CDBDBE);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #F1F5F4 0%, #bdcdcc 45%, #374947 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F6F8F8, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #DAE3DD 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #CFD4DA 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #374947 0%, transparent 65%), #bdcdcc;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #bdcdcc

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.

#bdcdcc 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 12.77:1.

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.

#bdcdcc, answered

What color is #bdcdcc?

#bdcdcc is a light muted cyan, closest to Light Gray (ΔE2000 7.5). It sits at 176° on the hue wheel with 14% saturation and 77% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #bdcdcc?

rgb(189, 205, 204) — 189 red, 205 green and 204 blue out of 255, or 74.1% / 80.4% / 80% by channel.

What is #bdcdcc in HSL and HSV?

hsl(176, 14%, 77%) and hsv(176, 8%, 80%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #bdcdcc a light or a dark color?

It is a light color. Relative luminance is 0.5884 and perceived brightness is 79%, so black text on it reaches 12.77:1.

Should I use black or white text on #bdcdcc?

Black. It scores 12.77:1 against #bdcdcc, versus 1.64:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #bdcdcc accessible on a white background?

#bdcdcc on white scores 1.64:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #5D7B79 to reach 4.5:1, or #455B59 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #bdcdcc?

#CDBDBE sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #CDBDC6 and #CDC4BD, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #bdcdcc?

For interface work: #F6F8F8 as the surface, #D1DCDB for borders, #638381 for secondary text, #78545F as an accent and #374947 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #BDCDC4 and #BDC6CD stays calm, while #CDBDBE is the loudest partner.

What is #bdcdcc in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(8%, 0%, 1%, 20%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #bdcdcc 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 #BDCDC6; nudged cooler, #BCC9CE.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #bdcdcc?

The cyan family — its 500 step is #06b6d4, ΔE2000 20.1 away. That is a visible difference, so define #bdcdcc as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #bdcdcc in Tailwind CSS?

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

rgba(189, 205, 204, 0.5), or #bdcdcc80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #DEE6E6; over black, #5F6766.

Is #bdcdcc a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #CCCCCC, ΔE2000 7.2 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #bdcdcc 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 #bdcdcc?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #E0E7E7, #bdcdcc 45%, #374947). For more colour, a short hue run to #ACB2C0 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #bdcdcc in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

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