Photo in the color Pale silver
Pictured: Pale silver, the closest color we have a photo of (#C9C0BB)
rgb(201, 193, 177)
#C9C1B1

Oatmeal #C9C1B1 RGB Color Code

Name from the community color list.

Oatmeal (#C9C1B1) is a light neutral gray. In RGB it is made of 79% red, 76% green and 69% blue (R 201, G 193, B 177). The red channel is the strongest. In HSL it has a hue of 40°, 18% saturation and 74% lightness. Its relative luminance is 0.537, so black text is easier to read on top of it. For print, a rough CMYK match is 0% cyan, 4% magenta, 12% yellow and 21% black. Check it against your printer's ICC profile before you print. It is a neutral color. It goes well with warm oranges and reds for contrast. For a calm, matching look, use nearby cool tones.

Open in color picker
ConverterPalette generatorContrast checkerGradient builderUI previewSimilar names

Oatmeal color codes

#C9C1B1 in every common color format. Click a value to copy it.

FormatValueNotesCopy
HEX #C9C1B1 Valid CSS
RGB rgb(201, 193, 177) Valid CSS
HSL hsl(40, 18%, 74%) Valid CSS
HSV / HSB hsv(40, 12%, 79%) Not a CSS format
HWB hwb(40 69% 21%) Valid CSS
CMYK cmyk(0%, 4%, 12%, 21%) Approximate (no ICC profile)
OKLCH oklch(81.3% 0.0237 84.59) Valid CSS
OKLab oklab(81.3% 0.0022 0.0236) Valid CSS
CIELAB lab(78.4% 0.87 9.14) D50, as in CSS
CIELCH lch(78.4% 9.18 84.58) Valid CSS
Display P3 color(display-p3 0.7828 0.7579 0.7006) Valid CSS
XYZ (D65) color(xyz-d65 0.5109 0.5373 0.4928) Valid CSS
Decimal 13222321 Integer (0xRRGGBB)

CMYK here is a rough screen match without an ICC profile. See CMYK and print. Relative luminance: 0.5373. Nearest web-safe color: #CCCC99.

Mix Oatmeal with other colors

See what #C9C1B1 makes with red paint, under a green light, printed with cyan ink and in a digital blend with blue. Click a picture to change the colors and amounts in the color mixer.

PaintOatmeal and red paintOpen in the color mixer
LightOatmeal and green lightOpen in the color mixer
PrintOatmeal and cyan inkOpen in the color mixer
DigitalOatmeal blended with blueOpen in the color mixer

Use Oatmeal in your code

Ready to paste into CSS, Sass, Tailwind, iOS, Android and Flutter. Click the icon to copy a line.

WhereCodeCopy
CSS variable--oatmeal: #C9C1B1;
Sass variable$oatmeal: #C9C1B1;
Tailwind CSS v4@theme { --color-oatmeal: #C9C1B1; }
Tailwind CSS v3 configcolors: { 'oatmeal': '#C9C1B1' }
SwiftUIColor(red: 0.788, green: 0.757, blue: 0.694)
UIKitUIColor(red: 0.788, green: 0.757, blue: 0.694, alpha: 1)
Android XML<color name="oatmeal">#FFC9C1B1</color>
Flutter and Jetpack ComposeColor(0xFFC9C1B1)

Accessibility and contrast

Black text works best on #C9C1B1 (11.75:1, AAA). Here is how #C9C1B1 does as a text color:

Large heading text
Body text at 16px. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
1.79:1 on white
APCA Lc 33
Fails AATry #7D7667
Large heading text
Body text at 16px. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
11.75:1 on black
APCA Lc -70
AAA

Check this color against any background in the contrast checker. WCAG ratios and APCA Lc values measure different things, so one can't stand in for the other. Learn more.

How people with color blindness see Oatmeal

#C9C1B1 next to its complement and its two triadic colors, as seen with each type of color blindness.

  • Normal visionhow most people see it
  • Protanopiano red cones, about 1% of men
  • Deuteranopiano green cones, the most common type
  • Tritanopiano blue cones, very rare
  • Achromatopsiano color at all, very rare

#C9C1B1 has almost no hue, so it looks much the same with every type of color blindness. Only its lightness counts. Try your own colors in the color blindness simulator.

About the color Oatmeal

A name from a modern list

Oatmeal is a soft beige gray named after cooked oats. This name and its code, #C9C1B1, come from an open list of color names gathered online. The list gives no older source for the code, and we could not find one either.

The Crayola crayon is lighter

Crayola sells a crayon called Oatmeal. It was one of the new shades in its Colors of Kindness crayons, as the list of Crayola crayon colors on Wikipedia shows. That list gives the crayon as #D9DAD2. It is paler and grayer than the oatmeal on this page, so the two codes do not match.

For other quiet neutrals, look at bone and mushroom.

Oatmeal in a user interface

A sample app screen with #C9C1B1 as the main color, on a light and a dark theme.

Light theme

Dark theme

Buttons and bars use #C9C1B1 as it is. On the light theme, #C9C1B1 is too hard to read as text (1.79:1), so links, the badge and outline text use #7D7667 there (4.51:1). Build a full color scheme around it in the UI color preview.

Color harmonies for Oatmeal

These schemes turn the hue of #C9C1B1 around the color wheel. Each swatch links to its own page.

Complementary

Two colors on opposite sides of the wheel. This gives the most contrast.

Open palette
this#C9C1B1#B1B9C9

Analogous

Hues that sit next to each other and look good together.

Open palette
#C9B5B1this#C9C1B1#C5C9B1

Triadic

Three hues spaced evenly around the wheel. Bold, but still balanced.

Open palette
this#C9C1B1#B1C9C1#C1B1C9

Split complementary

A base color plus the two hues on each side of its opposite. Strong contrast that clashes less.

Open palette
this#C9C1B1#B1C5C9#B5B1C9

Tetradic (rectangle)

Two pairs of opposite colors. Let one color lead and use the others less.

Open palette
this#C9C1B1#B9C9B1#B1B9C9#C1B1C9

Square

Four hues 90° apart, spread evenly around the wheel.

Open palette
this#C9C1B1#B1C9B5#B1B9C9#C9B1C5

Monochromatic

One hue at different levels of lightness and saturation.

Open palette
#3C362A#6D624C#9C8D70#BEB4A1#E0DBD2

Gradients with Oatmeal

Four CSS gradients made from #C9C1B1. Copy the code, or open one in the gradient generator to change it.

Soft tint

From a pale tint to the full color.

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #F4F2EF, #C9C1B1);

Edit in the gradient generator

Deep shade

The color fading into a dark shade.

background: linear-gradient(180deg, #C9C1B1, #36342F);

Edit in the gradient generator

Analogous

Its two neighbors on the color wheel.

background: linear-gradient(135deg, #C9B5B1, #C9C1B1, #C5C9B1);

Edit in the gradient generator

Triadic

A bold blend with a triadic color, through a clean middle.

background: linear-gradient(135deg, #C9C1B1, #BDC5B9, #B1C9C1);

Edit in the gradient generator

Shades, tints and tones of Oatmeal

Shades are darker, tints are lighter and tones are grayer. We make them in OKLCH so the steps look even. Hover a step to see its code, or click it to open it.

Design system scale (50 to 950)

Oatmeal sits at step 300. Export the full scale as CSS variables or Tailwind tokens from the picker.

  1. 50
    F9F6F1
  2. 100
    F0ECE5
  3. 200
    DFDAD0
  4. 300
    C9C1B1
  5. 400
    AAA293
  6. 500
    8D8576
  7. 600
    726B5D
  8. 700
    5B5548
  9. 800
    474237
  10. 900
    343028
  11. 950
    1F1D18

Closest RAL, Tailwind and CSS colors

The nearest match to #C9C1B1 in three color systems that designers and builders use.

RAL ClassicRAL 7044 Silk grey#BDBDB2, very close (ΔE 2.1)Tailwind CSSstone-300 #D6D3D1, close (ΔE 5.9)CSS color namessilver #C0C0C0, very close (ΔE 2.4)

ΔE is the distance in OKLab: under 2 is hard to see, over 10 is a clearly different color. Browse all RAL colors, the Tailwind palette or the 148 CSS color names. RAL values on screens are only a guide, so check a real color chart before you order paint.

The named colors that look closest to this one (ΔE in OKLab). Browse all shades of gray or search the color library.