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blue · cool

#dadce3

a pale, muted blue · cool · closest name: Gainsboro

Token name suggestion: Mist Harbour

RGB
218, 220, 227
HSL
227°, 14%, 87%
CMYK
4, 3, 0, 11
Luminance
0.7164

#dadce3 is a pale muted blue, 227° on the wheel and 66/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (15.33:1). As text it scores 1.37:1 on white — use #6C748F instead. Nearest name is Gainsboro, nearest Tailwind family is cyan.

hsl(227 14% 87%)rgb(218 220 227)Base step 200AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #dadce3 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#dadce3
Hue
227°
blue
Saturation
14%
muted
Lightness
87%
pale
Brightness
89%
HSV value
Perceived
86%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.7164
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
66/100 cool
Color family
Blue
Tone
Muted
Best ink
Black
15.33:1
Closest name
Gainsboro
ΔE2000 3.5
Chroma
3.7
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.895
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
cyan
500 · ΔE 27
Web-safe
#CCCCCC
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue227° of 360°
Saturation14%
Lightness87%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #dadce3.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool66% 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%
Blue8%

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

Every format

HEX#dadce3
HEX (8-digit)#dadce3ff
RGBrgb(218, 220, 227)
RGBArgba(218, 220, 227, 1)
HSLhsl(227, 14%, 87%)
HSV / HSBhsv(227, 4%, 89%)
HWBhwb(227 85% 11%)
CMYKcmyk(4%, 3%, 0%, 11%)
LABlab(87.8 0.6 -3.7)
LCHlch(87.8 3.7 279.5)
OKLCHoklch(0.895 0.010 273.3)
XYZ (D65)xyz(68.37, 71.64, 82.88)
Decimal14343395
Display P3color(display-p3 0.855 0.863 0.890)
Web-safe#CCCCCC

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #dadce3;
background-color: #dadce3;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #dadce3;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#dadce3] bg-[#dadce3]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #dadce3;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.855, green: 0.863, blue: 0.890)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.855, green: 0.863, blue: 0.890, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#DADCE3</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFDADCE3)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFDADCE3)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(227, 220, 218)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(218, 220, 227)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(218, 220, 227)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 218, 220, 227)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.8549f, 0.8627f, 0.8902f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{218,220,227}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #dadce3 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #dadce3 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#373B49, #DCDEE5);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #dadce3 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: #dadce3;
  --brand-300: #BFC3CF;
  --brand-400: #9FA4B6;
  --brand-500: #7F869E;
  --brand-600: #6A718B;
  --brand-700: #585E74;
  --brand-800: #464B5D;
  --brand-900: #353945;
  --brand-950: #21242B;
  --brand: #dadce3;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F6F7F8;
  --brand-border: #D1D3DC;
  --brand-hover: #C6C9D4;
  --brand-pressed: #B2B6C4;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #181A20;
    --brand-ink: #DCDEE5;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F7F7F8',
        100: '#EEEFF1',
        200: '#dadce3',
        300: '#BFC3CF',
        400: '#9FA4B6',
        500: '#7F869E',
        600: '#6A718B',
        700: '#585E74',
        800: '#464B5D',
        900: '#353945',
        950: '#21242B',
        DEFAULT: '#dadce3',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F7F7F8,
  '100': #EEEFF1,
  '200': #dadce3,
  '300': #BFC3CF,
  '400': #9FA4B6,
  '500': #7F869E,
  '600': #6A718B,
  '700': #585E74,
  '800': #464B5D,
  '900': #353945,
  '950': #21242B,
);
$brand-base: #dadce3;
$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": "#dadce3", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#BFC3CF", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#9FA4B6", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#7F869E", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#6A718B", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#585E74", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#464B5D", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#353945", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#21242B", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #dadce3 · 15.33:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 1.37:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 15.33:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #dadce3 as text scores 1.37:1 on white and 15.33:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #373B49 at 8.13:1.

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
#6C748F · 4.63:1
AA on white−38% L
#6C748F
The quick fox
#52586C · 7.07:1
AAA on white−50% L
#52586C
The quick fox
#dadce3 · 15.33:1
AA on blackalready passes
#dadce3
The quick fox
#dadce3 · 15.33:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#dadce3

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #8C92A8 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
#dadce3 on white: 1.37:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#dadce3 on black: 15.33:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #dadce3 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #dadce3.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White1.37:1AaAa
Slate 501.31:1AaAa
Slate 1001.25:1AaAa
Slate 2001.11:1AaAa
Slate 3001.08:1AaAa
Slate 4001.87:1AaAa
Slate 5003.47:1AaAa
Slate 6005.53:1AaAa
Slate 7007.56:1AaAa
Slate 80010.68:1AaAa
Slate 90013.03:1AaAa
Black15.33:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #DADCE3
deuteranopia · #DADCE3
tritanopia · #D8DDDE

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. #dadce3 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.

#F7F7F8
#EEEFF1
#dadce3
#BFC3CF
#9FA4B6
#7F869E
#6A718B
#585E74
#464B5D
#353945
#21242B
Base = 200Lightest = 50 · #F7F7F8Darkest = 950 · #21242BText 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 0.002 273.3);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.004 273.3);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.006 273.3);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.008 273.3);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.009 273.3);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.010 273.3);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.010 273.3);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.009 273.3);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.008 273.3);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.007 273.3);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.005 273.3);
}

Colors that work with #dadce3

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#D1D3DC
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#636A83
Captions on the surface
Accent#776855
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#373B49
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#F0F1F4
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#181A20
Dark-mode background
Hover#C6C9D4
One step down in lightness
Pressed#B2B6C4
Two steps down
Disabled#F3F4F6
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#E4E6EE
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 #dadce3

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 #373B49
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #8C92A8

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 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
  • FormalityMedium
  • EnergyLow
  • Weight13/100
  • 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#E3E1DA
Analogous left#DAE1E3
Analogous right#DDDAE3
Split-complement 1#E3DDDA
Split-complement 2#E1E3DA
Triadic 1#E3DADC
Triadic 2#DCE3DA
Tetradic#E3DAE1
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°227°

#dadce3 sits at 227°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red85.5%
Green86.3%
Blue89.0%
R · 0–255
218
0xda
G · 0–255
220
0xdc
B · 0–255
227
0xe3

CMYK percentages

Cyan4.0%
Magenta3.1%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)11.0%

Total ink coverage is 18%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#dadce3 text on a black background

contrast 15.33:1

Card sample

#dadce3 text on a white background

contrast 1.37:1

Card sample

#dadce3 on grey

1.25:1

#dadce3 on its own surface

1.28:1

#dadce3 on its dark surface

12.69:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #dadce3;
Background color
Panel with #dadce3 background
background-color: #dadce3;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #dadce3;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(218, 220, 227, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(218, 220, 227, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #dadce3;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #dadce3, #DEDAE3);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #dadce3, #E0DAE3);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #dadce3;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #dadce3;
caret-color: #dadce3;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #dadce3;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #F0F1F4;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #dadce3;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#dadce3 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #dadce3 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(218, 220, 227, 0.5)
rgb(218 220 227 / 50%)
#dadce380
hsl(227 14% 87% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #dadce3 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#dadce31a#FBFCFC
20%#dadce333#F8F8F9
40%#dadce366#F0F1F4
60%#dadce399#E9EAEE
80%#dadce3cc#E1E3E9

Gradients from #dadce3

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, #F3F4F6, #dadce3 45%, #373B49);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #dadce3, #D0C9D6);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #dadce3, #E3E1DA);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #F6F7F8 0%, #dadce3 45%, #373B49 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%, #F7F9F9 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #EDECF0 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #373B49 0%, transparent 65%), #dadce3;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #dadce3

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.

#dadce3 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

Very light tints can drop out on uncoated stock; check it at 100% size before signing off.

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 15.33:1.

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.

#dadce3, answered

What color is #dadce3?

#dadce3 is a pale muted blue, closest to Gainsboro (ΔE2000 3.5). It sits at 227° on the hue wheel with 14% saturation and 87% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #dadce3?

rgb(218, 220, 227) — 218 red, 220 green and 227 blue out of 255, or 85.5% / 86.3% / 89% by channel.

What is #dadce3 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(227, 14%, 87%) and hsv(227, 4%, 89%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #dadce3 a light or a dark color?

It is a light color. Relative luminance is 0.7164 and perceived brightness is 86%, so black text on it reaches 15.33:1.

Should I use black or white text on #dadce3?

Black. It scores 15.33:1 against #dadce3, versus 1.37:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #dadce3 accessible on a white background?

#dadce3 on white scores 1.37:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #6C748F to reach 4.5:1, or #52586C for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #dadce3?

#E3E1DA sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #E3DDDA and #E1E3DA, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #dadce3?

For interface work: #F6F7F8 as the surface, #D1D3DC for borders, #636A83 for secondary text, #776855 as an accent and #373B49 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #DAE1E3 and #DDDAE3 stays calm, while #E3E1DA is the loudest partner.

What is #dadce3 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(4%, 3%, 0%, 11%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #dadce3 warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 66 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #DBDAE3; nudged cooler, #D9DEE4.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #dadce3?

The cyan family — its 500 step is #06b6d4, ΔE2000 27 away. That is a visible difference, so define #dadce3 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #dadce3 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#dadce3] or text-[#dadce3], 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 #dadce3 with 50% opacity?

rgba(218, 220, 227, 0.5), or #dadce380 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #EDEEF1; over black, #6D6E72.

Is #dadce3 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #CCCCCC, ΔE2000 5.1 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #dadce3 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 #dadce3?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #F3F4F6, #dadce3 45%, #373B49). For more colour, a short hue run to #D0C9D6 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #dadce3 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #dadce3 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.