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cyan · cool

#02a78f

a dark, electric cyan · cool · closest name: Light Sea Green

Token name suggestion: Slate Teal

RGB
2, 167, 143
HSL
171°, 98%, 33%
CMYK
99, 0, 14, 35
Luminance
0.2963

#02a78f is a dark electric cyan, 171° on the wheel and 84/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (6.93:1). As text it scores 3.03:1 on white — large text only. Nearest name is Light Sea Green, nearest Tailwind family is teal.

hsl(171 98% 33%)rgb(2 167 143)Base step 800AA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #02a78f is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#02a78f
Hue
171°
cyan
Saturation
98%
electric
Lightness
33%
dark
Brightness
65%
HSV value
Perceived
54%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.2963
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
84/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Electric
Best ink
Black
6.93:1
Closest name
Light Sea Green
ΔE2000 6.8
Chroma
42.1
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.652
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
teal
500 · ΔE 5.6
Web-safe
#009999
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue171° of 360°
Saturation98%
Lightness33%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #02a78f.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool84% cool

Reads cool. Warm and cool siblings keep the same lightness, so you can swap one in without redoing your contrast maths.

Luminance by channel
Red0%
Green93%
Blue7%

Green carries most of what the eye calls brightness — that is why WCAG weights it 0.7152.

Every format

HEX#02a78f
HEX (8-digit)#02a78fff
RGBrgb(2, 167, 143)
RGBArgba(2, 167, 143, 1)
HSLhsl(171, 98%, 33%)
HSV / HSBhsv(171, 99%, 65%)
HWBhwb(171 1% 35%)
CMYKcmyk(99%, 0%, 14%, 35%)
LABlab(61.3 -42.0 2.2)
LCHlch(61.3 42.1 177.0)
OKLCHoklch(0.652 0.120 177.6)
XYZ (D65)xyz(18.80, 29.63, 30.71)
Decimal173967
Display P3color(display-p3 0.008 0.655 0.561)
Web-safe#009999

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #02a78f;
background-color: #02a78f;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #02a78f;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#02a78f] bg-[#02a78f]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #02a78f;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.008, green: 0.655, blue: 0.561)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.008, green: 0.655, blue: 0.561, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#02A78F</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFF02A78F)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFF02A78F)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(143, 167, 2)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(2, 167, 143)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(2, 167, 143)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 2, 167, 143)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.0078f, 0.6549f, 0.5608f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{2,167,143}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #02a78f 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #02a78f 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#027E6C, #D3EEEA);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #02a78f h s calc(l - 7));

Design tokens

The same ramp in the four formats a team actually needs. Paste one and the whole palette lands with it.

css custom propertiesclick to select
:root {
  --brand-50: #F1FDFC;
  --brand-100: #E4FCF8;
  --brand-200: #C1FBF2;
  --brand-300: #90FEEE;
  --brand-400: #59FDE5;
  --brand-500: #21FCDD;
  --brand-600: #03F2CF;
  --brand-700: #02CAAD;
  --brand-800: #02a78f;
  --brand-900: #067464;
  --brand-950: #04493F;
  --brand: #02a78f;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F4FAFA;
  --brand-border: #C0EDE6;
  --brand-hover: #028471;
  --brand-pressed: #016052;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #142422;
    --brand-ink: #D3EEEA;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F1FDFC',
        100: '#E4FCF8',
        200: '#C1FBF2',
        300: '#90FEEE',
        400: '#59FDE5',
        500: '#21FCDD',
        600: '#03F2CF',
        700: '#02CAAD',
        800: '#02a78f',
        900: '#067464',
        950: '#04493F',
        DEFAULT: '#02a78f',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F1FDFC,
  '100': #E4FCF8,
  '200': #C1FBF2,
  '300': #90FEEE,
  '400': #59FDE5,
  '500': #21FCDD,
  '600': #03F2CF,
  '700': #02CAAD,
  '800': #02a78f,
  '900': #067464,
  '950': #04493F,
);
$brand-base: #02a78f;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F1FDFC", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#E4FCF8", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#C1FBF2", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#90FEEE", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#59FDE5", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#21FCDD", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#03F2CF", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#02CAAD", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#02a78f", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#067464", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#04493F", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$value": "#000000", "$type": "color" }
  }
}

Best text color

Only one of black and white can be right. This is the one, with the number that proves it.

Readable at a glance#000000 on #02a78f · 6.93:1
Use #000000AA at every size, AAA for large text only.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 3.03:1
AA fail · AA large pass · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 6.93:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA fail
Reading the other direction: #02a78f as text scores 3.03:1 on white and 6.93:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #027E6C at 1.65:1.

Make it accessible

A contrast checker tells you that you failed. This tells you what to ship instead — same hue, same saturation, lightness moved only as far as WCAG demands.

The quick fox
#028471 · 4.62:1
AA on white−7% L
#028471
The quick fox
#016557 · 7.00:1
AAA on white−13% L
#016557
The quick fox
#02a78f · 6.93:1
AA on blackalready passes
#02a78f
The quick fox
#02AC93 · 7.32:1
AAA on black+1% L
#02AC93

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #02A78F is enough for headings on white. Non-text elements such as icons, chart strokes and focus rings also sit at 3:1 under WCAG 2.2 (1.4.11).

Accessibility — WCAG contrast

Aa
#02a78f on white: 3.03:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#02a78f on black: 6.93:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #02a78f as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #02a78f.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White3.03:1AaAa
Slate 502.90:1AaAa
Slate 1002.77:1AaAa
Slate 2002.46:1AaAa
Slate 3002.04:1AaAa
Slate 4001.18:1AaAa
Slate 5001.57:1AaAa
Slate 6002.50:1AaAa
Slate 7003.42:1AaAa
Slate 8004.83:1AaAa
Slate 9005.89:1AaAa
Black6.93:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #A09C8E
deuteranopia · #8E8F91
tritanopia · #00AAA0

Roughly one man in twelve has some form of colour vision deficiency. If any of the three panels above is hard to tell apart from a neighbouring colour in your palette, add a shape, an icon or a label so the meaning does not rest on hue alone.

Color scale — 50 to 950

A Tailwind-shaped ramp built around this exact hex. #02a78f is pinned to step 800; the rest hold its hue and let saturation ease off at the extremes so the pale end never turns neon.

#F1FDFC
#E4FCF8
#C1FBF2
#90FEEE
#59FDE5
#21FCDD
#03F2CF
#02CAAD
#02a78f
#067464
#04493F
Base = 800Lightest = 50 · #F1FDFCDarkest = 950 · #04493FText step on white = 900
Perceptual ramp — OKLCH

The same eleven steps expressed in OKLCH, where equal lightness numbers actually look equally spaced. HSL ramps go muddy in the yellows and washed out in the blues; this one does not. Modern browsers render it natively — the hex ramp above is the fallback.

50100200300400500600700800900950
oklch tokensclick to select
:root {
  --brand-50: oklch(0.97 0.030 177.6);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.048 177.6);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.072 177.6);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.094 177.6);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.110 177.6);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.120 177.6);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.120 177.6);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.113 177.6);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.101 177.6);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.084 177.6);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.066 177.6);
}

Colors that work with #02a78f

Not a palette — a role sheet. Each swatch answers one question you will hit while building the component.

Text on it#000000
Black wins here
Surface#F4FAFA
Tinted page background
Border#C0EDE6
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B9B8F
Captions on the surface
Accent#A90043
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#027E6C
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#E6FFFB
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#142422
Dark-mode background
Hover#028471
One step down in lightness
Pressed#016052
Two steps down
Disabled#73A69E
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#00BDA2
Offset from the fill so it reads
Light mode
Everything in its place

Surface, border, heading and body all derive from this one hue, so the screen stays coherent without a second palette.

Primary actionSecondaryBadge
Dark mode
Same hue, inverted

Lightness flips, hue holds. The accent stays the anchor in both themes.

Primary actionSecondaryAccent

In real components

The same eight roles, wired into the interface patterns you will actually build with them. Every state below is a computed value, not a mock-up.

Buttons and states
Save changesHoverPressedDisabled
OutlineSubtleLinkFocused
Form field
you@company.com

Focus ring uses the light variant so the field still reads as one shape.

Send me product updates
Notice
Your export is ready

The file stays available for seven days. Download it before it expires.

NewBetaDraft
Data
Storage used68%
Acme LtdActive
NorthwindTrial
GlobexActive

How to use #02a78f

Derived from its contrast, chroma and lightness — not from taste.

Works well for
  • Headings from 24px up on white
  • Text and icons on dark surfaces
  • Primary buttons and calls to action
  • Focus rings, active and selected states
  • Headers, footers and dark-mode surfaces
  • Brand accents, badges and data highlights
Use with care
  • Small text on white — under 4.5:1
  • Full-page backgrounds — tiring over long sessions
  • Black text placed on it
  • Thin strokes and 1px borders — they disappear on light UI
  • Pairing with a same-lightness hue — edges vibrate
Minimum size as text on white
24px / 18.66px bold
Safe as a fill behind white type
No — use #027E6C
Safe as a 1px border on white
Yes

Meaning and mood

What a colour in this family tends to signal, and how this particular chroma and lightness change the reading.

cleantechnicalfreshclinical

Cyan reads as water, air and infrastructure: cool, hygienic, engineered.

At this chroma the association is amplified — it will dominate anything placed beside it, so give it space and use it sparingly. The low lightness adds weight and formality.

Worth knowing

At high lightness it disappears into white surfaces and thin strokes vanish entirely.

Reads as
  • FormalityHigh
  • EnergyHigh
  • Weight67/100
  • TemperatureCool
  • ApproachabilityReserved

Colour associations are cultural and vary by market. Treat these as a starting point for a conversation with your audience, not a finding about them.

Similar colors

One move away from this hex in each direction. Every swatch is its own page.

Color relationships

The wheel positions with their names attached, so you can grab the one you actually need.

Complementary#A7021A
Analogous left#02A73D
Analogous right#026CA7
Split-complement 1#A7026C
Split-complement 2#A73D02
Triadic 1#8F02A7
Triadic 2#A78F02
Tetradic#3D02A7
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°171°

#02a78f sits at 171°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red0.8%
Green65.5%
Blue56.1%
R · 0–255
2
0x02
G · 0–255
167
0xa7
B · 0–255
143
0x8f

CMYK percentages

Cyan98.8%
Magenta0.0%
Yellow14.4%
Key (black)34.5%

Total ink coverage is 148%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#02a78f text on a black background

contrast 6.93:1

Card sample

#02a78f text on a white background

contrast 3.03:1

Card sample

#02a78f on grey

2.77:1

#02a78f on its own surface

2.87:1

#02a78f on its dark surface

5.31:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #02a78f;
Background color
Panel with #02a78f background
background-color: #02a78f;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #02a78f;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(2, 167, 143, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(2, 167, 143, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #02a78f;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #02a78f, #0251A7);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #02a78f, #0228A7);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #02a78f;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #02a78f;
caret-color: #02a78f;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #02a78f;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #E6FFFB;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #02a78f;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#02a78f 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #02a78f over white; the bottom row is the same alpha over a checkerboard, so you can see what survives on a photo or a video.

Bottom row of hexes is the flattened result over white — use those when a design tool refuses transparency, or when you need a solid fallback.

alpha in every syntaxclick to select
rgba(2, 167, 143, 0.5)
rgb(2 167 143 / 50%)
#02a78f80
hsl(171 98% 33% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #02a78f 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#02a78f1a#E6F6F4
20%#02a78f33#CCEDE9
40%#02a78f66#9ADCD2
60%#02a78f99#67CABC
80%#02a78fcc#35B9A5

Gradients from #02a78f

Six recipes, each built from this hex and shown with the exact CSS that produced it.

Elevation
Same hue, three lightnesses — safe anywhere
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #03E3C3, #02a78f 45%, #027E6C);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #02a78f, #023789);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #02a78f, #A7021A);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #09FCD9 0%, #02a78f 45%, #027E6C 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F4FAFA, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #03D93D 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #0270C5 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #027E6C 0%, transparent 65%), #02a78f;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #02a78f

Shades — darker

Tints — lighter

Tones — desaturated

Color harmonies

Nearest named colors

Ranked with CIEDE2000 across all 139 CSS keywords. Under ΔE 2 the eye stops telling them apart; over ΔE 10 they are plainly different colors.

#02a78f in the real world

Where a color in this family tends to land, and the interface roles it is usually asked to play.

Industries
TechnologyTravelHealthcareMedia
Common UI roles
ButtonsLinksFocus statesCharts
Print note

Sits outside most CMYK gamuts — expect a duller press result, or specify a spot ink.

On screens

Holds up across typical panel gamma. Still worth checking on an uncalibrated laptop, where mid-tones shift most.

In dark mode

Usable as-is on a dark surface at 6.93:1.

Explore nearby colors

Small, deliberate steps away from this hex — useful when you are hunting for the version of a colour that finally feels right.

#02a78f, answered

What color is #02a78f?

#02a78f is a dark electric cyan, closest to Light Sea Green (ΔE2000 6.8). It sits at 171° on the hue wheel with 98% saturation and 33% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #02a78f?

rgb(2, 167, 143) — 2 red, 167 green and 143 blue out of 255, or 0.8% / 65.5% / 56.1% by channel.

What is #02a78f in HSL and HSV?

hsl(171, 98%, 33%) and hsv(171, 99%, 65%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #02a78f a light or a dark color?

It is a mid-tone. Relative luminance is 0.2963 and perceived brightness is 54%, so black text on it reaches 6.93:1.

Should I use black or white text on #02a78f?

Black. It scores 6.93:1 against #02a78f, versus 3.03:1 for white — AA at any size.

Is #02a78f accessible on a white background?

#02a78f on white scores 3.03:1, which only clears AA for large text — 18.66px bold or 24px regular and up. Darken it to #028471 to reach 4.5:1, or #016557 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #02a78f?

#A7021A sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #A7026C and #A73D02, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #02a78f?

For interface work: #F4FAFA as the surface, #C0EDE6 for borders, #4B9B8F for secondary text, #A90043 as an accent and #027E6C for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #02A73D and #026CA7 stays calm, while #A7021A is the loudest partner.

What is #02a78f in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(99%, 0%, 14%, 35%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — a color this saturated sits outside most CMYK gamuts and will print duller than it looks here.

Is #02a78f warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 84 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #02A752; nudged cooler, #0083A8.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #02a78f?

The teal family — its 500 step is #14b8a6, ΔE2000 5.6 away. That is a visible difference, so define #02a78f as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #02a78f in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#02a78f] or text-[#02a78f], or register the whole ramp under theme.extend.colors.brand so you get bg-brand-500 and friends. The generated 50–950 scale on this page is ready to paste into your config.

What is #02a78f with 50% opacity?

rgba(2, 167, 143, 0.5), or #02a78f80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #81D3C7; over black, #015448.

Is #02a78f a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #009999, ΔE2000 9.5 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #02a78f mean?

As a cyan, it reads clean, technical, fresh. Cyan reads as water, air and infrastructure: cool, hygienic, engineered. At this chroma the effect is amplified — it will dominate whatever sits beside it.

What gradient works with #02a78f?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #03E3C3, #02a78f 45%, #027E6C). For more colour, a short hue run to #023789 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #02a78f in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #02a78f at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.