Inspect LightBlue (#ADD8E6) in HEX, RGB, HSL, LCH and OKLCH, check its contrast, and copy the value you need.
LightBlue
#ADD8E6
Black text reads best on this background, at 13.74:1.
LightBlue is one of the 148 CSS named colors, and resolves to #ADD8E6 in every browser. In numbers that is rgb(173, 216, 230) and hsl(195, 53%, 79%). Perceptually it is a light, muted color: OKLCH puts its lightness at 86% and its chroma at 0.049. It sits in the cyans at 220 degrees of OKLCH hue, and reads as a cool color.
White text only reaches 1.53:1 here, so black text is the safer pairing at 13.74:1. That combination of lightness and chroma makes it a workable mid-tone, the kind of value that lands in the middle of a shade scale.
The closest CSS named colors to LightBlue, measured with CIEDE2000, are PowderBlue (#B0E0E6), SkyBlue (#87CEEB), PaleTurquoise (#AFEEEE). If LightBlue is not quite right, those are the nearest keywords to try before reaching for a custom value.
HEX
#ADD8E6
RGB
rgb(173, 216, 230)
HSL
hsl(195, 53%, 79%)
HWB
hwb(195 68% 10%)
CMYK
cmyk(25%, 6%, 0%, 10%)
LAB
lab(83.61 -12.23 -11.78)
LCH
lch(83.61 16.98 223.94)
OKLCH
oklch(85.62% 0.0489 219.65)
WCAG asks for 4.5:1 between body text and its background. On #ADD8E6 white text measures 1.53:1 and black text 13.74:1, so black clears it and white does not.
White text on LightBlue
WCAG 2.2
1.53:1
APCA
Lc 27
Fails AA body text
Fails AAA body text
Fails AA large text
Black text on LightBlue
WCAG 2.2
13.74:1
APCA
Lc 79
Passes AA body text
Passes AAA body text
Passes AA large text
Check LightBlue against any other color in the contrast checker.
LightBlue sits at 86% OKLCH lightness. Holding its hue and chroma and moving only that value carries it up to #EFFBFF and down to #00070B, which keeps the family recognizable instead of letting it drift toward gray the way a plain HSL ramp does.
#B5E0EE
20% lighter
#BDE8F6
40% lighter
#C5F1FF
60% lighter
#DAF6FF
80% lighter
#EFFBFF
100% lighter
#7FA9B6
20% darker
#547C89
40% darker
#2A525E
60% darker
#002B36
80% darker
#00070B
100% darker
Build a full accessible scale from #ADD8E6 in the shade generator.
Hues rotated around #ADD8E6 in OKLCH, then pulled back into the sRGB gamut. Each swatch is labelled with the nearest CSS named color so you have a keyword to start from.
LightBlue sits at 220 degrees. Rotating it a half turn lands on 40 degrees, the hue directly opposite. It is the strongest pairing you can make without changing lightness, and the one most likely to vibrate if you use both at full chroma.
The neighbors of LightBlue at 190 and 250 degrees. They stay close enough to read as the same family, which is what you want for hover states, secondary surfaces and gradients.
220, 340 and 100 degrees divide the wheel into thirds. Balanced enough to carry a whole palette without one color dominating the other two.
Instead of the complement at 40 degrees, this pair flanks it at 10 and 70. You keep most of the contrast of a complementary pairing while losing the harshness.
Explore more combinations around LightBlue on the color wheel.
The biggest shift is under deuteranopia, where #ADD8E6 reads as #C5CDE6, 14.1 CIEDE2000 units away. If LightBlue is the only thing marking a state or a series, roughly one viewer in twelve will miss it.
Protanopia
#CFD4E7
Deuteranopia
#C5CDE6
Tritanopia
#A0DDDC
Achromatopsia
#D0D0D0
The nearest CSS keywords to #ADD8E6, ranked by perceptual distance rather than by how close their hex digits happen to look.