Powder blue color: hex codes, shades and palettes
Palettes built around powder blue. Click any swatch to copy its hex code.
A pale, quiet blue with a hint of grey. Light enough to work as a background, which is most of what it gets used for.
Powder blue hex, RGB, HSL and OKLCH
- HEX
#A8C4DC- RGB
rgb(168, 196, 220)- HSL
hsl(208, 43%, 76%)- OKLCH
oklch(80.7% 0.046 244.2)- On white
- 1.81:1
- On black
- 11.59:1
Shades of powder blue
9 steps from one base color, generated in OKLCH so each step is an equal perceived step rather than an equal numeric one. Click a swatch to copy it.
Powder blue color values
| RGB | 168 | 196 | 220 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HSL | 208° | 43% | 76% | |
| HSV | 208° | 24% | 86% | |
| CMYK | 0.24 | 0.11 | 0.00 | 0.14 |
| XYZ | 48.8031 | 52.9704 | 75.3492 | |
| Yxy | 52.9704 | 0.2755 | 0.2991 | |
| CIE-Lab | 77.8575 | -4.1779 | -15.0801 | |
| Hunter Lab | 72.7808 | -7.6734 | -10.4358 | |
| OKLCH | 80.7% | 0.046 | 244.2° |
#A8C4DC is 168 red, 196 green and 220 blue. Its blue channel carries the most of it. The nearest of the 216 web safe colors is #99CCCC.
CIE-Lab, XYZ and Yxy are measured against D65, the white point sRGB itself is defined against. Hunter Lab uses the original illuminant C constants, which is what paint and plastics specifications quote, so the two Lab rows are not directly comparable. CMYK is the plain arithmetic conversion: real ink values depend on the press, the paper and the profile.
| Base | Red | Green | Blue |
|---|---|---|---|
| Binary | 10101000 | 11000100 | 11011100 |
| Octal | 250 | 304 | 334 |
| Decimal | 168 | 196 | 220 |
| Hex | A8 | C4 | DC |
#a8c4dc mixed with black
Ten even steps of the classic shade ramp, worked out in RGB, which is how the term has always been defined and how other references list it. The OKLCH scale further down this page answers a different question: it steps by equal perceived amounts, so its values are not the same.
- #A8C4DC
- #97B0C6
- #869CB0
- #75899A
- #647584
- #54626E
- #434E58
- #323A42
- #21272B
- #101315
- #000000
#a8c4dc mixed with white
The tint ramp, by the same rule in the other direction.
- #A8C4DC
- #B0C9DF
- #B9CFE3
- #C2D5E6
- #CADBEA
- #D3E1ED
- #DCE7F1
- #E4EDF4
- #EDF3F8
- #F6F9FB
- #FFFFFF
Channel shares
Color schemes
Turned in OKLCH rather than HSL, so every member keeps the lightness and chroma of the original instead of one of them arriving washed out.
Complementary
- #A8C4DC
- #D6BBA2
Triadic
- #A8C4DC
- #DBB4BC
- #BAC6A6
Analogous
- #A8C4DC
- #B7BFDE
- #9FC8D2
Monochromatic
- #3F586C
- #607A90
- #839EB5
- #A8C4DC
- #D3EAFF
- #F3F9FF
- #F3F9FF
#a8c4dc on black and on white
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. 11.59:1
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. 1.81:1
Body text needs 4.5:1 to meet AA and large text needs 3:1, so a ratio tells you which of the two backgrounds this color can be read on, and at what size.
CSS for #a8c4dc
color: #a8c4dc;
background-color: #a8c4dc;
border: 3px solid #a8c4dc;
box-shadow: 1px 1px 3px 2px #a8c4dc;
text-shadow: 4px 4px 2px rgba(168, 196, 220, 0.8);
/* Perceptually even, and what a modern stylesheet wants */
color: oklch(80.7% 0.046 244.2);The OKLCH form is the same color stated so that lightening or darkening it moves by an amount the eye agrees with. Every current browser understands it.
Contrast and readability
Powder blue on white measures 1.81:1 and on black 11.59:1. WCAG AA asks for 4.5:1 on normal text and 3:1 on large text and UI components, so the higher of those two decides which background it belongs on. In the scale above, 500 is the first to clear 4.5:1 on white, at 5.23:1.
The contrast checker reports every level for a given pair and suggests the nearest passing shade on the same hue. The color picker builds this same scale from any color you paste in.
Related colors: pastel, wisteria. See every shade on the colors index.
No powder blue palettes yet
Run npm run generate to build the dataset.
