Light steel blue

#aaa9b8

Hex, rgb, cmyk and Pantone values for light steel blue, with shades, tints, matching colors and free print quality patterns.

This is Light steel blue, a grey blue at 244 degrees. A mid blue this balanced is a workhorse for corporate identity. Warm oranges and ambers opposite it add energy and grey keeps it professional.

Light steel blue color values

Every conversion for #aaa9b8, ready to copy. Hex, rgb, hsl, hsv, cmyk, cie-lab, xyz, decimal, web safe and the nearest Pantone.

Hex#aaa9b8

RGB170, 169, 184

HSL244, 10%, 69%

HSV244, 8%, 72%

CMYK8%, 8%, 0%, 28%

Lab69.74, 3.29, -7.56

XYZ39.42, 40.38, 51.06

Decimal11184568

Web safe#9999cc

Pantone536 C

Shades of light steel blue

#9997a9 #87869b #76748c #67657b #585769 #494857 #3a3a46 #2c2b34 #1d1c22 #0e0e11

Tints of light steel blue

#b2b1be #b9b8c5 #c1c0cb #c8c7d1 #d0cfd7 #d7d7de #dfdee4 #e6e6ea #eeeef1 #f5f5f7

Colors that go with light steel blue

Complementary#b7b8a9 Analogous#a9b0b8 Analogous#b2a9b8 Triadic#b8aaa9 Triadic#a9b8aa Split complementary#b8b2a9 Split complementary#b0b8a9

Light steel blue in print

The cmyk build is well inside gamut, so what you see on screen is close to what prints. The cmyk build is 8, 8, 0, 28.

The same color needs a different cmyk build depending on the paper. Here is #aaa9b8 on both.

Coated stockgloss or silk, C

8 8 0 28

Ink sits on the surface, so colors stay bright and close to screen.

Uncoated stocknatural or matte, U

11 11 4 34

The stock absorbs ink and gains dot, so it needs a heavier build and reads a touch softer.

This color converts to cmyk comfortably and should hold on press.

See how it converts in the rgb to cmyk converter, or read rgb vs cmyk for print and what the k in cmyk means.

Light steel blue in css

Copy #aaa9b8 straight into your stylesheet.

.background { background-color: #aaa9b8; }
.text { color: #aaa9b8; }
.border { border: 2px solid #aaa9b8; }

How light steel blue looks on light and dark

Sample text on black

Sample text on white

Text on this color

Light steel blue and accessibility

Contrast ratios for #aaa9b8 against black and white text, measured to the WCAG standard.

Use black text on this color for readable body copy. To test #aaa9b8 against any other color, not just black and white, run the pair through our contrast checker for a live WCAG reading.

Light steel blue on a business card, sticker and pattern

A quick look at how #aaa9b8 sits on real print products. Start any of these in the maker.

Business card

Sticker

Repeat pattern

Building a full palette around light steel blue? Pull matching colors from any photo with the color palette generator, or check a design for print with the rgb to cmyk converter.

Turn light steel blue into a seamless pattern

Four patterns built from #aaa9b8 and its shades, free at print quality. Click any one to keep editing in the pattern maker.

Arches Signature stripes Gem Shingles

Make posters, wallpaper and packaging art from light steel blue, free and print ready.

Open in pattern maker

How we calculate these values

Here is how the numbers for #aaa9b8 are worked out. Rgb, hsl, hsv, lab and xyz are derived through the usual sRGB conversion formulas. Two cmyk builds are shown because coated and uncoated papers behave differently, uncoated soaks up ink and needs more of it to hit the same target. The Pantone figure is the nearest match in our reference set by perceptual distance and it is an approximation, not an exact spot color.