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cyan · cool

#034261

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

Token name suggestion: Abyss Reef

RGB
3, 66, 97
HSL
200°, 94%, 20%
CMYK
97, 32, 0, 62
Luminance
0.0478

#034261 is a deep electric cyan, 200° on the wheel and 96/100 on the cool side. Put white text on it (10.74:1). As text it scores 10.74:1 on white — safe at any size. Nearest name is Dark Slate Gray, nearest Tailwind family is slate.

hsl(200 94% 20%)rgb(3 66 97)Base step 900AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #034261 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#034261
Hue
200°
cyan
Saturation
94%
electric
Lightness
20%
deep
Brightness
38%
HSV value
Perceived
24%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.0478
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
96/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Electric
Best ink
White
10.74:1
Closest name
Dark Slate Gray
ΔE2000 14.8
Chroma
24.0
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.360
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
slate
500 · ΔE 20.2
Web-safe
#003366
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue200° of 360°
Saturation94%
Lightness20%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #034261.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool96% 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%
Green82%
Blue18%

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

Every format

HEX#034261
HEX (8-digit)#034261ff
RGBrgb(3, 66, 97)
RGBArgba(3, 66, 97, 1)
HSLhsl(200, 94%, 20%)
HSV / HSBhsv(200, 97%, 38%)
HWBhwb(200 1% 62%)
CMYKcmyk(97%, 32%, 0%, 62%)
LABlab(26.1 -5.5 -23.3)
LCHlch(26.1 24.0 256.8)
OKLCHoklch(0.360 0.078 238.0)
XYZ (D65)xyz(4.14, 4.78, 12.01)
Decimal213601
Display P3color(display-p3 0.012 0.259 0.380)
Web-safe#003366

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #034261;
background-color: #034261;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #034261;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#034261] bg-[#034261]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #034261;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.012, green: 0.259, blue: 0.380)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.012, green: 0.259, blue: 0.380, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#034261</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFF034261)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFF034261)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(97, 66, 3)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(3, 66, 97)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(3, 66, 97)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 3, 66, 97)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.0118f, 0.2588f, 0.3804f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{3,66,97}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #034261 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #034261 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#04547C, #D3E5EE);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #034261 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: #F2F9FD;
  --brand-100: #E4F4FB;
  --brand-200: #C2E7FA;
  --brand-300: #92D9FC;
  --brand-400: #5CC6FA;
  --brand-500: #25B3F8;
  --brand-600: #07A2ED;
  --brand-700: #0687C6;
  --brand-800: #056C9E;
  --brand-900: #034261;
  --brand-950: #053147;
  --brand: #034261;
  --brand-ink: #ffffff;
  --brand-surface: #F4F8FA;
  --brand-border: #C0DEED;
  --brand-hover: #022A3E;
  --brand-pressed: #01131C;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #141F24;
    --brand-ink: #D3E5EE;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F2F9FD',
        100: '#E4F4FB',
        200: '#C2E7FA',
        300: '#92D9FC',
        400: '#5CC6FA',
        500: '#25B3F8',
        600: '#07A2ED',
        700: '#0687C6',
        800: '#056C9E',
        900: '#034261',
        950: '#053147',
        DEFAULT: '#034261',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F2F9FD,
  '100': #E4F4FB,
  '200': #C2E7FA,
  '300': #92D9FC,
  '400': #5CC6FA,
  '500': #25B3F8,
  '600': #07A2ED,
  '700': #0687C6,
  '800': #056C9E,
  '900': #034261,
  '950': #053147,
);
$brand-base: #034261;
$brand-ink: #ffffff;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F2F9FD", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#E4F4FB", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#C2E7FA", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#92D9FC", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#5CC6FA", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#25B3F8", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#07A2ED", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#0687C6", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#056C9E", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#034261", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#053147", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #034261 · 10.74:1
Use #ffffffAAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 10.74:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Aa
Black text · 1.96:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Reading the other direction: #034261 as text scores 10.74:1 on white and 1.96:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #E6F6FE at 9.70:1.

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
#034261 · 10.74:1
AA on whitealready passes
#034261
The quick fox
#034261 · 10.74:1
AAA on whitealready passes
#034261
The quick fox
#067BB5 · 4.51:1
AA on black+17% L
#067BB5
The quick fox
#07A0EB · 7.24:1
AAA on black+28% L
#07A0EB

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #034261 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
#034261 on white: 10.74:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#034261 on black: 1.96:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #034261 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #034261.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White10.74:1AaAa
Slate 5010.26:1AaAa
Slate 1009.80:1AaAa
Slate 2008.71:1AaAa
Slate 3007.23:1AaAa
Slate 4004.19:1AaAa
Slate 5002.26:1AaAa
Slate 6001.42:1AaAa
Slate 7001.04:1AaAa
Slate 8001.36:1AaAa
Slate 9001.66:1AaAa
Black1.96:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #334262
deuteranopia · #273A60
tritanopia · #004A4D

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. #034261 is pinned to step 900; the rest hold its hue and let saturation ease off at the extremes so the pale end never turns neon.

#F2F9FD
#E4F4FB
#C2E7FA
#92D9FC
#5CC6FA
#25B3F8
#07A2ED
#0687C6
#056C9E
#034261
#053147
Base = 900Lightest = 50 · #F2F9FDDarkest = 950 · #053147Text step on white = 800
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 0.020 238.0);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.031 238.0);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.047 238.0);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.061 238.0);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.072 238.0);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.078 238.0);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.078 238.0);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.073 238.0);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.066 238.0);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.055 238.0);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.043 238.0);
}

Colors that work with #034261

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#F4F8FA
Tinted page background
Border#C0DEED
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B809B
Captions on the surface
Accent#630901
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#04547C
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#E6F6FE
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#141F24
Dark-mode background
Hover#022A3E
One step down in lightness
Pressed#01131C
Two steps down
Disabled#537281
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#005178
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 #034261

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
  • Weight80/100
  • 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#612203
Analogous left#036151
Analogous right#031361
Split-complement 1#610313
Split-complement 2#615103
Triadic 1#610342
Triadic 2#426103
Tetradic#510361
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°200°

#034261 sits at 200°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red1.2%
Green25.9%
Blue38.0%
R · 0–255
3
0x03
G · 0–255
66
0x42
B · 0–255
97
0x61

CMYK percentages

Cyan96.9%
Magenta32.0%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)62.0%

Total ink coverage is 191%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#034261 text on a black background

contrast 1.96:1

Card sample

#034261 text on a white background

contrast 10.74:1

Card sample

#034261 on grey

9.80:1

#034261 on its own surface

10.05:1

#034261 on its dark surface

1.56:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #034261;
Background color
Panel with #034261 background
background-color: #034261;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #034261;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(3, 66, 97, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(3, 66, 97, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #034261;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #034261, #030361);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #034261, #1A0361);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #034261;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #034261;
caret-color: #034261;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #034261;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #E6F6FE;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #034261;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#034261 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #034261 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, 66, 97, 0.5)
rgb(3 66 97 / 50%)
#03426180
hsl(200 94% 20% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #034261 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#0342611a#E6ECEF
20%#03426133#CDD9DF
40%#03426166#9AB3C0
60%#03426199#688EA0
80%#034261cc#356881

Gradients from #034261

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, #056A9C, #034261 45%, #04547C);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #034261, #070243);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #034261, #612203);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #067FBA 0%, #034261 45%, #04547C 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F4F8FA, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #05926E 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #040F7F 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #04547C 0%, transparent 65%), #034261;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #034261

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.

#034261 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 1.96:1 — lift it to #067BB5 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.

#034261, answered

What color is #034261?

#034261 is a deep electric cyan, closest to Dark Slate Gray (ΔE2000 14.8). It sits at 200° on the hue wheel with 94% saturation and 20% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #034261?

rgb(3, 66, 97) — 3 red, 66 green and 97 blue out of 255, or 1.2% / 25.9% / 38% by channel.

What is #034261 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(200, 94%, 20%) and hsv(200, 97%, 38%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #034261 a light or a dark color?

It is a dark color. Relative luminance is 0.0478 and perceived brightness is 24%, so white text on it reaches 10.74:1.

Should I use black or white text on #034261?

White. It scores 10.74:1 against #034261, versus 1.96:1 for black — AAA at any size.

Is #034261 accessible on a white background?

#034261 on white scores 10.74:1, which clears AAA at every size.

What is the complementary color of #034261?

#612203 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #610313 and #615103, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #034261?

For interface work: #F4F8FA as the surface, #C0DEED for borders, #4B809B for secondary text, #630901 as an accent and #04547C for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #036151 and #031361 stays calm, while #612203 is the loudest partner.

What is #034261 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(97%, 32%, 0%, 62%). 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 #034261 warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 96 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #03615E; nudged cooler, #023562.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #034261?

The slate family — its 500 step is #64748b, ΔE2000 20.2 away. That is a visible difference, so define #034261 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #034261 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#034261] or text-[#034261], 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 #034261 with 50% opacity?

rgba(3, 66, 97, 0.5), or #03426180 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #81A1B0; over black, #022131.

Is #034261 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #003366, ΔE2000 7.9 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #034261 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 #034261?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #056A9C, #034261 45%, #04547C). For more colour, a short hue run to #070243 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #034261 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #034261 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.