Thistle

#ab99b6

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

Thistle falls in the purple range, mid and muted. A mid purple this rich reads creative and a little premium. Pair it with warm yellows for contrast, or with charcoal for a moody scheme.

Thistle color values

Every conversion for #ab99b6, ready to copy. Hex, rgb, hsl, hsv, cmyk, cie-lab, xyz, decimal, web safe and the nearest Pantone.

Hex#ab99b6

RGB171, 153, 182

HSL277, 17%, 66%

HSV277, 16%, 71%

CMYK6%, 16%, 0%, 29%

Lab65.61, 12.11, -12.61

XYZ36.63, 34.82, 49.05

Decimal11246006

Web safe#9999cc

Pantone666 C

Shades of thistle

#9c87a9 #8e769d #7f668e #6f597c #5f4c6b #4f4059 #3f3347 #302635 #201924 #100d12

Tints of thistle

#b3a2bd #baabc3 #c2b4ca #c9bed0 #d1c7d7 #d8d0dd #e0d9e4 #e7e2ea #efebf1 #f6f5f8

Colors that go with thistle

Complementary#a4b699 Analogous#9d99b6 Analogous#b699b2 Triadic#b6ab99 Triadic#99b6ab Split complementary#b3b699 Split complementary#99b69d

Thistle in print

It sits in a comfortable part of the gamut and reproduces reliably on press. The cmyk build is 6, 16, 0, 29.

The same color needs a different cmyk build depending on the paper. Here is #ab99b6 on both.

Coated stockgloss or silk, C

6 16 0 29

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

Uncoated stocknatural or matte, U

10 19 4 35

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.

Thistle in css

Copy #ab99b6 straight into your stylesheet.

.background { background-color: #ab99b6; }
.text { color: #ab99b6; }
.border { border: 2px solid #ab99b6; }

How thistle looks on light and dark

Sample text on black

Sample text on white

Text on this color

Thistle and accessibility

Contrast ratios for #ab99b6 against black and white text, measured to the WCAG standard.

Use black text on this color for readable body copy. To test #ab99b6 against any other color, not just black and white, run the pair through our contrast checker for a live WCAG reading.

Thistle on a business card, sticker and pattern

A quick look at how #ab99b6 sits on real print products. Start any of these in the maker.

Business card

Sticker

Repeat pattern

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

Turn thistle into a seamless pattern

Four patterns built from #ab99b6 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 thistle, free and print ready.

Open in pattern maker

How we calculate these values

The figures for #ab99b6 come from standard color math, shown so you can check them. Rgb, hsl, hsv, lab and xyz are derived through the usual sRGB conversion formulas. The uncoated cmyk build carries more ink than the coated one, which is what a printer would compensate for when the same color runs on a rougher stock. For Pantone we return the nearest reference by perceptual distance, which gets you close but is not a substitute for a physical swatch book.