Powder Blue Color Codes

Powder Blue is a light, muted teal with the hex code #B0E0E6, RGB values of 176, 224, 230 and an HSL value of hsl(187, 52%, 80%).

HEX	#B0E0E6
RGB	176, 224, 230
HSL	hsl(187, 52%, 80%)
HSV	187°, 23%, 90%
CMYK	23%, 3%, 0%, 10%
LAB	86.13, -14.09, -8.01
CIELCHuv	86.13, 26.48, 202.45°

Nearest Pantone: PMS 304 C ΔE 3.0 · approximate
Nearest CSS name: powderblue ΔE 0.0

Source CSS Color Module Level 4 keyword 'PowderBlue'

Powder Blue Color Hex Code

The Powder Blue color hex code is #B0E0E6. Those six digits are three pairs, B0 for red, E0 for green and E6 for blue, which is the same triplet a browser reads from the CSS value below.

#B0E0E6

Powder Blue Color RGB Code

The Powder Blue RGB code is rgb(176, 224, 230). Blue carries the most light at 230 of 255, which is what puts this color where it sits on the wheel.

rgb(176, 224, 230)

Powder Blue Color HSV Code

The Powder Blue HSV code is 187°, 23%, 90%. Read it as a hue of 187 degrees, 23% saturation and 90% value, which is the form most color pickers use because moving one number changes one thing.

187°, 23%, 90%

Powder Blue Color CIELChuv Code

The Powder Blue CIELCHuv code is 86.13, 26.48, 202.45°. Unlike hex or RGB this one is perceptual: lightness 86 means light to the eye rather than to the screen, and chroma 26 is how far it sits from grey.

86.13, 26.48, 202.45°

Tonal scale

What are Powder Blue Color Palettes?

A shade mixes toward black, a tint toward white, a tone toward grey. Every step keeps the hue and is copy-ready.

Shades, toward black

Tints, toward white

Tones, toward grey

Open in the shades & tints generator →

Palettes

What are Powder Blue Color Palette Codes?

Each of these is a hue rotation from #B0E0E6. They are generated, not curated, so they are exact.

Complementary

The opposite hue is #E6B6B0, a light, muted red. Complements carry the strongest contrast of any two-color scheme, so this pair suits a call to action better than a background. Neither is especially saturated, so this pairing stays calm enough for large areas of both.

Analogous

Its two neighbours are #B0E6D1 and #B0C5E6. Because they overlap heavily in hue, nothing in the group competes, and the eye reads the whole set as a single color with variation.

Triadic

#E6B0E0 and #E0E6B0 complete an even 120 degree split. Three fully independent hues, so one has to lead: keep this base dominant and let the other two appear in small quantities.

Split-complementary

Instead of the direct complement, this takes the two hues either side of it: #E6B0C5 and #E6D1B0. Almost the same contrast, without the edge shimmer a true complementary pair produces at high saturation.

Tetradic

Two complementary pairs forming a rectangle: this base with #E6B6B0, and #D1B0E6 with #C5E6B0. The richest of the five and the hardest to balance, so treat the darkest of the four as the lead and hold the other three well back.

See these on the color wheel →

Accessibility

Measured against white and against black, with a separate verdict for each element type. Small text, large text and UI components have different thresholds, so one pass or fail for the whole color would be wrong roughly a third of the time.

White background

1.43:1

1.43

contrast ratio on white background

Element	AA	AAA
Small text needs 4.5:1 / 7:1	Fails	Fails
Large text needs 3:1 / 4.5:1	Fails	Fails
UI component needs 3:1	Fails	n/a

Black background

14.65:1

14.65

contrast ratio on black background

Element	AA	AAA
Small text needs 4.5:1 / 7:1	Passes	Passes
Large text needs 3:1 / 4.5:1	Passes	Passes
UI component needs 3:1	Passes	n/a

At 1.43:1 against white, Powder Blue is a fill color rather than a text color. Use it for surfaces, borders and large display type, and set the copy in ink. Text placed on it should be black, which gives 14.65:1.

Check Powder Blue against another color →

Color vision

How Powder Blue looks with color blindness

Around 300 million people see color differently from the way it is specified. Each card shows the actual color beside how it appears, and how common that form of vision is.

Protanopia

About 1% of men

actual

#C7C7E5

Powder Blue shifts noticeably here. ΔE 21.7

No working red cones. Reds darken sharply and drift toward the same muddy olive as green.

Deuteranopia

About 1% of men

actual

#C4C0E4

Powder Blue changes substantially here. ΔE 25.4

No working green cones. With the milder deuteranomaly at nearer 6% of men, this is by far the most common form, and the one worth designing around.

Tritanopia

About 1 in 10,000

actual

#B3E3E3

Powder Blue shifts slightly here. ΔE 3.3

No working blue cones. Blues shift toward green and yellows toward pink. Rare, and unlike the others it is not sex-linked, so it affects men and women equally.

Achromatopsia

About 1 in 30,000

actual

#D7D7D7

Powder Blue shifts noticeably here. ΔE 16.2

No color vision at all. Also a fair proxy for how the color survives a greyscale print or a failing screen.

To a deuteranope, the most common form, Powder Blue reads as #C4C0E4. That is a shift of ΔE 25.4, so it is a different color to roughly one man in sixteen. The widest shift is under deuteranopia, at ΔE 25.4. The rule this leads to needs no simulator: never let color be the only thing carrying a message. Add a label, an icon, or a clear difference in lightness, and the problem disappears for everyone.

Simulate a whole palette →

Snippets

Using Powder Blue in code

:root {
  --powder-blue: #B0E0E6;
}

.example {
  color: var(--powder-blue);
}

// tailwind.config.js
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      'powder-blue': '#B0E0E6',
    },
  },
}

// SwiftUI takes 0–1 components, not 0–255.
let powderBlue = Color(
    red: 0.690,
    green: 0.878,
    blue: 0.902
)

<!-- res/values/colors.xml -->
<color name="powder_blue">#B0E0E6</color>

// Flutter wants ARGB: FF for full opacity, then the hex.
const powderBlue = Color(0xFFB0E0E6);

Meaning

What is the Meaning of Powder Blue Color?

Powder Blue reads as distance and quiet. It is light enough to sit behind text rather than compete with it, and at 52% saturation with a perceptual lightness of 86 it behaves as a cool color, which is the practical reason it turns up where it does.

What are Other Names of Powder Blue Color?

In CSS you can write PowderBlue instead of the hex and get the same color: the two are 0.0 apart, which no eye resolves. For print the nearest Pantone is PMS 304 C at #A5DDE2. The name Powder Blue comes from the community color-name index rather than a standards body, so you will meet it under other names elsewhere.

How is Powder Blue Color Made?

On a screen Powder Blue is made by additive light: 176 red, 224 green and 230 blue out of 255, with blue leading and 176 as the floor. In print it is subtractive instead, mixed as 23%, 3%, 0%, 10%. Starting from the pure hue at 187 degrees, Powder Blue is a tint, so it is that hue with white added.