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cyan · cool

#033d3c

a deep, electric cyan · cool · closest name: Dark Slate Gray

Token name suggestion: Midnight Glacier

RGB
3, 61, 60
HSL
179°, 91%, 13%
CMYK
95, 0, 2, 76
Luminance
0.0368

#033d3c is a deep electric cyan, 179° on the wheel and 87/100 on the cool side. Put white text on it (12.09:1). As text it scores 12.09:1 on white — safe at any size. Nearest name is Dark Slate Gray, nearest Tailwind family is neutral.

hsl(179 91% 13%)rgb(3 61 60)Base step 950AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #033d3c is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#033d3c
Hue
179°
cyan
Saturation
91%
electric
Lightness
13%
deep
Brightness
24%
HSV value
Perceived
20%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.0368
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
87/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Electric
Best ink
White
12.09:1
Closest name
Dark Slate Gray
ΔE2000 7.6
Chroma
17.8
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.326
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
neutral
500 · ΔE 27
Web-safe
#003333
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue179° of 360°
Saturation91%
Lightness13%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #033d3c.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool87% 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
Red1%
Green91%
Blue9%

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

Every format

HEX#033d3c
HEX (8-digit)#033d3cff
RGBrgb(3, 61, 60)
RGBArgba(3, 61, 60, 1)
HSLhsl(179, 91%, 13%)
HSV / HSBhsv(179, 95%, 24%)
HWBhwb(179 1% 76%)
CMYKcmyk(95%, 0%, 2%, 76%)
LABlab(22.6 -17.2 -4.4)
LCHlch(22.6 17.8 194.2)
OKLCHoklch(0.326 0.054 193.0)
XYZ (D65)xyz(2.52, 3.68, 4.85)
Decimal212284
Display P3color(display-p3 0.012 0.239 0.235)
Web-safe#003333

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #033d3c;
background-color: #033d3c;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #033d3c;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#033d3c] bg-[#033d3c]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #033d3c;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.012, green: 0.239, blue: 0.235)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.012, green: 0.239, blue: 0.235, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#033D3C</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFF033D3C)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFF033D3C)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(60, 61, 3)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(3, 61, 60)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(3, 61, 60)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 3, 61, 60)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.0118f, 0.2392f, 0.2353f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{3,61,60}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #033d3c 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #033d3c 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#067A78, #D3EEEE);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #033d3c 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: #F2FDFD;
  --brand-100: #E5FBFA;
  --brand-200: #C3F9F8;
  --brand-300: #94FAF8;
  --brand-400: #5FF7F5;
  --brand-500: #29F4F1;
  --brand-600: #0CE9E6;
  --brand-700: #0AC2BF;
  --brand-800: #089C99;
  --brand-900: #0A706F;
  --brand-950: #033d3c;
  --brand: #033d3c;
  --brand-ink: #ffffff;
  --brand-surface: #F4FAFA;
  --brand-border: #C0EDEC;
  --brand-hover: #011B1A;
  --brand-pressed: #000000;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #142424;
    --brand-ink: #D3EEEE;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F2FDFD',
        100: '#E5FBFA',
        200: '#C3F9F8',
        300: '#94FAF8',
        400: '#5FF7F5',
        500: '#29F4F1',
        600: '#0CE9E6',
        700: '#0AC2BF',
        800: '#089C99',
        900: '#0A706F',
        950: '#033d3c',
        DEFAULT: '#033d3c',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F2FDFD,
  '100': #E5FBFA,
  '200': #C3F9F8,
  '300': #94FAF8,
  '400': #5FF7F5,
  '500': #29F4F1,
  '600': #0CE9E6,
  '700': #0AC2BF,
  '800': #089C99,
  '900': #0A706F,
  '950': #033d3c,
);
$brand-base: #033d3c;
$brand-ink: #ffffff;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F2FDFD", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#E5FBFA", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#C3F9F8", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#94FAF8", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#5FF7F5", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#29F4F1", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#0CE9E6", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#0AC2BF", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#089C99", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#0A706F", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#033d3c", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$value": "#ffffff", "$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#ffffff on #033d3c · 12.09:1
Use #ffffffAAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 12.09:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Aa
Black text · 1.74:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Reading the other direction: #033d3c as text scores 12.09:1 on white and 1.74:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #E7FEFD at 11.51:1.

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
#033d3c · 12.09:1
AA on whitealready passes
#033d3c
The quick fox
#033d3c · 12.09:1
AAA on whitealready passes
#033d3c
The quick fox
#078684 · 4.75:1
AA on black+15% L
#078684
The quick fox
#08A8A5 · 7.15:1
AAA on black+22% L
#08A8A5

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #033D3C 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
#033d3c on white: 12.09:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#033d3c on black: 1.74:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #033d3c as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #033d3c.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White12.09:1AaAa
Slate 5011.56:1AaAa
Slate 10011.04:1AaAa
Slate 2009.81:1AaAa
Slate 3008.14:1AaAa
Slate 4004.72:1AaAa
Slate 5002.54:1AaAa
Slate 6001.60:1AaAa
Slate 7001.17:1AaAa
Slate 8001.21:1AaAa
Slate 9001.48:1AaAa
Black1.74:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #38393C
deuteranopia · #31343C
tritanopia · #003F3D

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. #033d3c is pinned to step 950; the rest hold its hue and let saturation ease off at the extremes so the pale end never turns neon.

#F2FDFD
#E5FBFA
#C3F9F8
#94FAF8
#5FF7F5
#29F4F1
#0CE9E6
#0AC2BF
#089C99
#0A706F
#033d3c
Base = 950Lightest = 50 · #F2FDFDDarkest = 950 · #033d3cText 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 0.014 193.0);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.022 193.0);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.033 193.0);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.042 193.0);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.050 193.0);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.054 193.0);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.054 193.0);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.051 193.0);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.046 193.0);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.038 193.0);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.030 193.0);
}

Colors that work with #033d3c

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

Text on it#ffffff
White wins here
Surface#F4FAFA
Tinted page background
Border#C0EDEC
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B9B9A
Captions on the surface
Accent#3E0212
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#067A78
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#E7FEFD
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#142424
Dark-mode background
Hover#011B1A
One step down in lightness
Pressed#000000
Two steps down
Disabled#456B6B
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#005453
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 #033d3c

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

Works well for
  • Body text and links on white
  • 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
  • Text on black or near-black surfaces
  • 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
Any size
Safe as a fill behind white type
Yes
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
  • Weight88/100
  • 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#3D0304
Analogous left#033D1F
Analogous right#03213D
Split-complement 1#3D0321
Split-complement 2#3D1F03
Triadic 1#3C033D
Triadic 2#3D3C03
Tetradic#1F033D
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°179°

#033d3c sits at 179°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red1.2%
Green23.9%
Blue23.5%
R · 0–255
3
0x03
G · 0–255
61
0x3d
B · 0–255
60
0x3c

CMYK percentages

Cyan95.1%
Magenta0.0%
Yellow1.6%
Key (black)76.1%

Total ink coverage is 173%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#033d3c text on a black background

contrast 1.74:1

Card sample

#033d3c text on a white background

contrast 12.09:1

Card sample

#033d3c on grey

11.04:1

#033d3c on its own surface

11.46:1

#033d3c on its dark surface

1.33:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #033d3c;
Background color
Panel with #033d3c background
background-color: #033d3c;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #033d3c;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(3, 61, 60, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(3, 61, 60, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #033d3c;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #033d3c, #03173D);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #033d3c, #03093D);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #033d3c;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #033d3c;
caret-color: #033d3c;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #033d3c;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #E7FEFD;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #033d3c;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#033d3c 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #033d3c 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(3, 61, 60, 0.5)
rgb(3 61 60 / 50%)
#033d3c80
hsl(179 91% 13% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #033d3c 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#033d3c1a#E6ECEC
20%#033d3c33#CDD8D8
40%#033d3c66#9AB1B1
60%#033d3c99#688B8A
80%#033d3ccc#356463

Gradients from #033d3c

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, #067775, #033d3c 45%, #067A78);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #033d3c, #020A20);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #033d3c, #3D0304);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #079492 0%, #033d3c 45%, #067A78 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%, #056D2F 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #04295A 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #067A78 0%, transparent 65%), #033d3c;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #033d3c

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.

#033d3c 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

Very dark values collapse into each other on cheap panels — leave more lightness between your darkest steps than the numbers suggest.

In dark mode

Too dim on dark surfaces at 1.74:1 — lift it to #078684 for body text, or reserve it for fills.

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.

#033d3c, answered

What color is #033d3c?

#033d3c is a deep electric cyan, closest to Dark Slate Gray (ΔE2000 7.6). It sits at 179° on the hue wheel with 91% saturation and 13% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #033d3c?

rgb(3, 61, 60) — 3 red, 61 green and 60 blue out of 255, or 1.2% / 23.9% / 23.5% by channel.

What is #033d3c in HSL and HSV?

hsl(179, 91%, 13%) and hsv(179, 95%, 24%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #033d3c a light or a dark color?

It is a dark color. Relative luminance is 0.0368 and perceived brightness is 20%, so white text on it reaches 12.09:1.

Should I use black or white text on #033d3c?

White. It scores 12.09:1 against #033d3c, versus 1.74:1 for black — AAA at any size.

Is #033d3c accessible on a white background?

#033d3c on white scores 12.09:1, which clears AAA at every size.

What is the complementary color of #033d3c?

#3D0304 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #3D0321 and #3D1F03, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #033d3c?

For interface work: #F4FAFA as the surface, #C0EDEC for borders, #4B9B9A for secondary text, #3E0212 as an accent and #067A78 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #033D1F and #03213D stays calm, while #3D0304 is the loudest partner.

What is #033d3c in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(95%, 0%, 2%, 76%). 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 #033d3c warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 87 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #033D27; nudged cooler, #02293D.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #033d3c?

The neutral family — its 500 step is #737373, ΔE2000 27 away. That is a visible difference, so define #033d3c as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #033d3c in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#033d3c] or text-[#033d3c], 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 #033d3c with 50% opacity?

rgba(3, 61, 60, 0.5), or #033d3c80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #819E9E; over black, #021F1E.

Is #033d3c a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #003333, ΔE2000 3.2 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #033d3c 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 #033d3c?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #067775, #033d3c 45%, #067A78). For more colour, a short hue run to #020A20 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #033d3c in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #033d3c at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.