A light blue, black text passes AA
What color is lightsteelblue?
lightsteelblue is a light blue: #b0c4de in hex, rgb(176 196 222). Black text on it reaches 11.80:1, passing WCAG AAA. Recolor (recolor.page) shows it on a real page below.
Last updated
| Format | Value |
|---|---|
| Keyword | lightsteelblue |
| Hex | #b0c4de |
| RGB | rgb(176 196 222) |
| HSL | hsl(214 41% 78%) |
| OKLCH | oklch(81.4% 0.043 255.0) |
| Nearest Tailwind color | blue-300 #8ec5ff, 0.058 away in OKLab |
| White text | 1.78:1: AA fails, AAA fails, large text fails |
| Black text | 11.80:1: AA passes, AAA passes, large text passes |
About lightsteelblue
In OKLCH terms lightsteelblue has a lightness of 81.4%, a chroma of 0.043 and a hue of 255.0 degrees, a light blue to the eye.
HSL and OKLCH agree on how light it is, 78% and 81.4%. Among the CSS keywords, silver (#c0c0c0) comes closest at 0.043 in OKLab, close enough to stand in for it in a sketch.
For text, lightsteelblue wants black: 11.80:1 clears even AAA's 7:1, and white at 1.78:1 fails AA. In the hue-sorted table of named colors it sits between lightskyblue and deepskyblue.
In Tailwind CSS 4.3.3 the nearest default color is blue-300 (#8ec5ff), 0.058 away in OKLab; for the exact color, an arbitrary value such as bg-[#b0c4de] works.
Tints and shades
- #f2f5fa
- #e4ebf4
- #d7e1ef
- #cad7e9
- #bdcee4
- #b0c4de
- #8999ae
- #647080
- #424a55
- #22272e
- #07080b
From light to dark: 5 toward white and 5 toward black, mixed in OKLCH a sixth of the way at a time with the hue kept. A step that would repeat its neighbor is left out.
A palette around it
- #b0c4de
- #4e617b
- #e0f5ff
- #4983c5
- #1d2530
Locked as the first of five swatches, lightsteelblue gets #4e617b, #e0f5ff, #4983c5, #1d2530 from Recolor's generator, a monochromatic palette, one hue in five lightnesses. The seed is its hex, so the palette stays the same. Open it in Recolor.
Using lightsteelblue
As a text color, lightsteelblue on a black page gives the same 11.80:1.
.notice {
background-color: lightsteelblue; /* #b0c4de */
color: black; /* 11.80:1 */
}Common questions
Does white text pass WCAG AA on lightsteelblue?
No. White text measures 1.78:1 on lightsteelblue, under AA's 4.5:1; black text measures 11.80:1 and passes.
Can lightsteelblue be written in OKLCH?
Yes: oklch(81.4% 0.043 255.0), computed from #b0c4de. A named color is an sRGB color, so its OKLCH value converts back to the same hex.
Is there a named color close to lightsteelblue?
Yes: silver (#c0c0c0) is the nearest, 0.043 away in OKLab, then skyblue at 0.049.