Dull Color Palette – HEX, RGB & Design Inspiration
Color Details
HEX: #A88C8C
RGB: 168, 140, 140
HEX: #9AA88C
RGB: 154, 168, 140
HEX: #8CA8A8
RGB: 140, 168, 168
HEX: #9A8CA8
RGB: 154, 140, 168
HEX: #AAAAAA
RGB: 170, 170, 170
Text on White/Black Backgrounds
Color Pair Combinations (10 total)
WCAG Contrast Standards:
- AAA (7:1): Enhanced contrast for maximum readability
- AA (4.5:1): Minimum for normal text (under 18pt)
- AA Large (3:1): Acceptable for large text (18pt+ or 14pt+ bold)
- Fail: Below WCAG standards, not recommended for text
Recommended Text Colors
Horizontal (Left to Right)
background: linear-gradient(to right, #A88C8C 0%, #9AA88C 25%, #8CA8A8 50%, #9A8CA8 75%, #AAAAAA 100%);Vertical (Top to Bottom)
background: linear-gradient(to bottom, #A88C8C 0%, #9AA88C 25%, #8CA8A8 50%, #9A8CA8 75%, #AAAAAA 100%);Diagonal (Top Left to Bottom Right)
background: linear-gradient(to bottom right, #A88C8C 0%, #9AA88C 25%, #8CA8A8 50%, #9A8CA8 75%, #AAAAAA 100%);Usage Tips:
- Copy the CSS code and paste directly into your stylesheets
- Linear gradients work great for backgrounds and hero sections
- Radial gradients are perfect for spotlights and focus effects
- Conic gradients create eye-catching loading spinners and progress indicators
- Smooth transitions ensure seamless color blending
Normal Vision
No color vision deficiency
Color Swatches
#A88C8C
#9AA88C
#8CA8A8
#9A8CA8
#AAAAAA
Full Palette View
How people with Normal Vision see it:
Overall Mood & Feel
Balanced and versatile
Emotional Impact
Calming and contemplative, promoting feelings of trust, stability, and peace. The balanced lightness creates versatility across different contexts
Psychological Effect
This 5-color palette creates a balanced and versatile. It stimulates activity and engagement, increasing heart rate and mental alertness. The combination works together to create memorable visual experiences that influence consumer perception, decision-making, and brand recall. The rich variety provides versatility while maintaining cohesive emotional messaging across touchpoints.
Brand Personality Traits
Perfect For These Industries
Target Audience
Affluent consumers seeking premium, high-quality products and experiences
Individual Color Psychology
#A88C8C
Warm and romantic
Emotions Evoked
Personality Traits
Brand Traits
Ideal Industries
Marketing Use
Creates urgency, stimulates appetite, increases heart rate, and grabs attention. Perfect for clearance sales, food brands, and call-to-action buttons.
Cultural Meanings
Color Harmony Analysis
Palette Mood
Temperature
This palette combines balanced moods with warm and neutral and cool tones, making it versatile for various design applications.
Professional Implementation Guide
This complementary dull palette features 5 carefully selected balanced tones that create a balanced and versatile aesthetic. With low contrast levels and muted saturation, this palette is optimized for .
Web Design & Development
For web development, implement this palette with CSS variables for easy theme switching. Consider adding darker variants for better text readability.
- Apply the 60-30-10 rule for visual hierarchy
- Use accent colors for CTAs and hover states
- Maintain consistent color usage across all pages
- Test responsive behavior on multiple devices
Mobile App Interfaces
In mobile applications, these balanced tones provide excellent battery efficiency on OLED screens. Use the subtle color variations to define clear touch targets.
- Design both light and dark mode variants
- Consider thumb-reach zones for color placement
- Test under direct sunlight and low light
- Use color to indicate interactive elements
Brand Identity Systems
Build a cohesive brand identity by designating specific colors for specific purposes. Establish your primary brand color from the most distinctive shade and create comprehensive brand guidelines specifying exact usage scenarios.
- Define primary, secondary, and accent colors
- Create usage rules for marketing materials
- Specify minimum sizes and clear space
- Document do's and don'ts for consistency
Frontend Development
Developers can integrate this palette efficiently using modern CSS techniques. Export as CSS variables for maximum flexibility, allowing theme switching and dynamic color updates without rewriting stylesheets.
- Use CSS custom properties for theming
- Implement semantic color naming conventions
- Create utility classes for rapid prototyping
- Consider CSS-in-JS for component-scoped colors
Print Design
For print materials, convert to CMYK using #A88C8C as the dominant color for headers and #AAAAAA for accents. These colors translate well to print with minimal adjustment.
- Add to your design software color library
- Create swatches for quick color access
- Use CMYK values for print production
- Request color proofs before final print
Marketing Campaigns
Marketing materials benefit from consistent color usage that reinforces brand recognition. Apply this palette across email campaigns, landing pages, advertisements, and social media for maximum impact and memorability.
- Maintain color consistency across channels
- A/B test color variations for conversion
- Consider cultural color associations
- Align colors with campaign messaging
Strategic Color Distribution
Professional designers follow the 60-30-10 rule for balanced color distribution. Here's how to apply this principle with the Dull:
Dominant Color
#A88C8CUse #A88C8C as your primary color for backgrounds, main content areas. This red tone should occupy about 60% of your design space.
Secondary Color
#8CA8A8Apply #8CA8A8 as your secondary color for subtle backgrounds and card components. Allocate approximately 30% of your layout to this color.
Accent Color
#AAAAAAReserve #AAAAAA for accent elements like buttons, links, and important highlights. This gray accent should be used sparingly (10% of design) to draw attention to key actions.
Professional Best Practices
✓ Smart Usage Tips
- •Add white or black text overlays to improve readability on colored backgrounds
- •Test your palette across different devices and lighting conditions before finalizing
✗ Common Mistakes to Avoid
- •Don't use all colors equally—establish clear visual hierarchy through color weight
- •Avoid low-contrast text combinations that strain readability
- •Don't rely solely on color to convey meaning (use icons, text, and patterns too)
- •Avoid inconsistent color usage across different pages or screens
- •Don't assume screen colors match print output—always request physical proofs
Palette Overview & Statistics
5
Total Colors
4
Associated Tags
5
Categories
1300
Community Likes
Color Analysis & Technical Guide
Detailed breakdown of each color's role, characteristics, and optimal applications. This complementary palette creates a balanced and versatile aesthetic perfect for .
Individual Color Breakdown
Each color in this balanced palette has been analyzed for its properties and ideal usage scenarios. The low contrast and muted saturation ensure harmonious visual relationships.
#A88C8C
RED
#A88C8C serves as the primary/dominant color in this palette. This medium red (muted) brings energy and warmth Use it for headers, navigation bars, and brand elements.
Light toneH: 0°S: 14%L: 60%#9AA88C
GREEN
#9AA88C serves as the secondary/supporting color in this palette. This medium green (muted) brings freshness and growth Use it for cards, borders, section dividers, and supporting UI components.
Light toneH: 90°S: 14%L: 60%#8CA8A8
CYAN
#8CA8A8 serves as the secondary/supporting color in this palette. This medium cyan (muted) brings clarity and innovation Use it for cards, borders, section dividers, and supporting UI components.
Light toneH: 180°S: 14%L: 60%#9A8CA8
PURPLE
#9A8CA8 serves as the secondary/supporting color in this palette. This medium purple (muted) brings creative and luxurious Use it for cards, borders, section dividers, and supporting UI components.
Light toneH: 270°S: 14%L: 60%#AAAAAA
GRAY
#AAAAAA serves as the accent/highlight color in this palette. This medium gray (muted) brings neutrality and balance Use it for call-to-action buttons, links, important notifications, and interactive elements.
Light toneH: 0°S: 0%L: 67%
Palette Characteristics
This palette exhibits distinct characteristics that make it particularly suitable for specific design applications and industries.
Balanced temperature offers versatility across various design contexts and industries.
Low contrast creates subtle, sophisticated aesthetics but requires careful attention to text legibility.
Muted saturation offers sophistication and reduces visual fatigue, ideal for content-heavy applications.
Balanced brightness provides flexibility for both light and dark design elements.
💡 Pro Tips for This Palette
- Perfect for: . The complementary color relationship creates natural visual flow.
- Mood & Psychology: This palette evokes a balanced and versatile feeling, making it ideal for brands seeking to convey those qualities.
- Accessibility: Test text combinations carefully with contrast checkers to ensure accessibility compliance.
- Extensions: Create tints (add white) and shades (add black) to expand this 5-color palette into a comprehensive design system.
- Cultural Context: Cool tones are generally perceived as professional worldwide but always research cultural color meanings.
Export Formats
Explore Dull Palette
The Dull color palette is a masterful blend of muted tones that evoke a sense of calmness and serenity, perfect for designers seeking to create a professional and corporate visual identity. At its core, this palette is about balance and subtlety, with each color working in harmony to create a soothing visual experience that resonates deeply with viewers. The palette's muted quality is particularly evident in the A88C8C shade, a gentle, weathered gray-brown hue that sets the tone for the entire color scheme, while the 9AA88C shade adds a touch of soft, muted turquoise that brings a sense of tranquility to the palette.
As we delve deeper into the palette, we find that each color has been carefully selected to play a specific role in creating a cohesive visual language. The 8CA8A8 shade, with its muted, pale lavender undertones, adds a touch of sophistication and elegance, while the 9A8CA8 shade brings a hint of dusty, muted pink to the table, subtly adding warmth and depth to the overall color scheme. Meanwhile, the AAAAAA shade serves as a versatile neutral background that ties the entire palette together, providing a clean and minimalist canvas for designers to work with. The 9AA88C shade, with its soft turquoise hue, is reminiscent of a still ocean, evoking feelings of calmness and serenity, while the 8CA8A8 shade, with its pale lavender undertones, is similar to the soft color of a misty morning, bringing a sense of freshness and clarity to the palette.
In terms of practical applications, the Dull color palette is incredibly versatile, lending itself perfectly to a wide range of design projects, from websites and apps to branding and marketing materials. Designers working on corporate or tech-related projects will find this palette particularly useful, as it conveys a sense of professionalism and stability. The palette's calming quality also makes it an excellent choice for healthcare or wellness-related projects, where a soothing visual environment is essential. For example, a website for a healthcare company could utilize the A88C8C shade as a primary color, with the 9AA88C shade used as an accent color to add a touch of warmth and approachability.
The psychology behind the Dull color palette is also worth exploring, as the colors used have a profound impact on viewer perception and behavior. The muted, calming quality of the palette can help to reduce anxiety and promote a sense of trust, making it an excellent choice for designs that require a professional or corporate tone. The turquoise and lavender undertones in the 9AA88C and 8CA8A8 shades, respectively, can also help to stimulate creativity and promote a sense of clarity, while the muted pink hue in the 9A8CA8 shade can add a touch of warmth and approachability to the design. Furthermore, the palette's muted quality can help to reduce visual noise and promote a sense of focus, making it an excellent choice for designs that require a high level of concentration and attention to detail.
For designers looking to get the most out of the Dull color palette, it's worth experimenting with complementary colors to add an extra layer of depth and visual interest to their designs. Pairing the palette with rich, bold colors like emerald green or navy blue can create a striking contrast that adds energy and dynamism to the design. Additionally, designers can use the palette's neutral shades as a background to let other design elements take center stage, or use the more vibrant shades as accents to add a pop of color and draw attention to specific elements. By following these pro tips and best practices, designers can unlock the full potential of the Dull color palette and create designs that are both visually stunning and emotionally resonant, with the A88C8C, 9AA88C, 8CA8A8, 9A8CA8, and AAAAAA shades working together in perfect harmony to create a truly unforgettable visual experience.
Palette Image
Below is the generated palette image showing all colors in a vertical layout. Perfect for sharing on social media or using as a reference.

Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you need to know about using and implementing the dull palette effectively in your projects.
