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cyan · cool

#0488af

a dark, electric cyan · cool · closest name: Steel Blue

Token name suggestion: Slate Lagoon

RGB
4, 136, 175
HSL
194°, 96%, 35%
CMYK
98, 22, 0, 31
Luminance
0.2073

#0488af is a dark electric cyan, 194° on the wheel and 93/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (5.15:1). As text it scores 4.08:1 on white — large text only. Nearest name is Steel Blue, nearest Tailwind family is sky.

hsl(194 96% 35%)rgb(4 136 175)Base step 800AA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #0488af is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#0488af
Hue
194°
cyan
Saturation
96%
electric
Lightness
35%
dark
Brightness
69%
HSV value
Perceived
47%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.2073
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
93/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Electric
Best ink
Black
5.15:1
Closest name
Steel Blue
ΔE2000 8.1
Chroma
33.5
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.585
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
sky
500 · ΔE 11.9
Web-safe
#009999
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue194° of 360°
Saturation96%
Lightness35%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #0488af.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool93% 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%
Green85%
Blue15%

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

Every format

HEX#0488af
HEX (8-digit)#0488afff
RGBrgb(4, 136, 175)
RGBArgba(4, 136, 175, 1)
HSLhsl(194, 96%, 35%)
HSV / HSBhsv(194, 98%, 69%)
HWBhwb(194 2% 31%)
CMYKcmyk(98%, 22%, 0%, 31%)
LABlab(52.6 -16.5 -29.1)
LCHlch(52.6 33.5 240.5)
OKLCHoklch(0.585 0.112 227.1)
XYZ (D65)xyz(16.59, 20.73, 43.68)
Decimal297135
Display P3color(display-p3 0.016 0.533 0.686)
Web-safe#009999

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #0488af;
background-color: #0488af;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #0488af;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#0488af] bg-[#0488af]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #0488af;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.016, green: 0.533, blue: 0.686)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.016, green: 0.533, blue: 0.686, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#0488AF</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFF0488AF)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFF0488AF)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(175, 136, 4)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(4, 136, 175)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(4, 136, 175)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 4, 136, 175)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.0157f, 0.5333f, 0.6863f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{4,136,175}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #0488af 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #0488af 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#03617D, #D3E8EE);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #0488af 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: #F1FBFD;
  --brand-100: #E4F6FC;
  --brand-200: #C2EDFA;
  --brand-300: #91E4FC;
  --brand-400: #5AD7FB;
  --brand-500: #24C9FA;
  --brand-600: #06BAEF;
  --brand-700: #059BC7;
  --brand-800: #0488af;
  --brand-900: #075A73;
  --brand-950: #053948;
  --brand: #0488af;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F4F9FA;
  --brand-border: #C0E2ED;
  --brand-hover: #036D8C;
  --brand-pressed: #025269;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #142124;
    --brand-ink: #D3E8EE;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F1FBFD',
        100: '#E4F6FC',
        200: '#C2EDFA',
        300: '#91E4FC',
        400: '#5AD7FB',
        500: '#24C9FA',
        600: '#06BAEF',
        700: '#059BC7',
        800: '#0488af',
        900: '#075A73',
        950: '#053948',
        DEFAULT: '#0488af',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F1FBFD,
  '100': #E4F6FC,
  '200': #C2EDFA,
  '300': #91E4FC,
  '400': #5AD7FB,
  '500': #24C9FA,
  '600': #06BAEF,
  '700': #059BC7,
  '800': #0488af,
  '900': #075A73,
  '950': #053948,
);
$brand-base: #0488af;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F1FBFD", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#E4F6FC", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#C2EDFA", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#91E4FC", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#5AD7FB", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#24C9FA", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#06BAEF", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#059BC7", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#0488af", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#075A73", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#053948", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #0488af · 5.15:1
Use #000000AA at every size, AAA for large text only.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 4.08:1
AA fail · AA large pass · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 5.15:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA fail
Reading the other direction: #0488af as text scores 4.08:1 on white and 5.15:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #03617D at 1.71:1.

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
#0480A5 · 4.53:1
AA on white−2% L
#0480A5
The quick fox
#035D78 · 7.39:1
AAA on white−11% L
#035D78
The quick fox
#0488af · 5.15:1
AA on blackalready passes
#0488af
The quick fox
#05A3D2 · 7.18:1
AAA on black+7% L
#05A3D2

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #0488AF 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
#0488af on white: 4.08:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#0488af on black: 5.15:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #0488af as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #0488af.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White4.08:1AaAa
Slate 503.90:1AaAa
Slate 1003.73:1AaAa
Slate 2003.31:1AaAa
Slate 3002.75:1AaAa
Slate 4001.59:1AaAa
Slate 5001.17:1AaAa
Slate 6001.86:1AaAa
Slate 7002.54:1AaAa
Slate 8003.58:1AaAa
Slate 9004.37:1AaAa
Black5.15:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #7385B1
deuteranopia · #5F78AE
tritanopia · #009395

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. #0488af 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.

#F1FBFD
#E4F6FC
#C2EDFA
#91E4FC
#5AD7FB
#24C9FA
#06BAEF
#059BC7
#0488af
#075A73
#053948
Base = 800Lightest = 50 · #F1FBFDDarkest = 950 · #053948Text 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 0.028 227.1);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.045 227.1);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.067 227.1);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.088 227.1);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.103 227.1);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.112 227.1);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.112 227.1);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.105 227.1);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.094 227.1);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.079 227.1);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.062 227.1);
}

Colors that work with #0488af

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#F4F9FA
Tinted page background
Border#C0E2ED
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B899B
Captions on the surface
Accent#B30004
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#03617D
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#E6F9FE
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#142124
Dark-mode background
Hover#036D8C
One step down in lightness
Pressed#025269
Two steps down
Disabled#7A9FAA
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#009AC7
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 #0488af

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 #03617D
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
  • Weight65/100
  • 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#AF2B04
Analogous left#04AF81
Analogous right#0432AF
Split-complement 1#AF0432
Split-complement 2#AF8104
Triadic 1#AF0488
Triadic 2#88AF04
Tetradic#8104AF
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°194°

#0488af sits at 194°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red1.6%
Green53.3%
Blue68.6%
R · 0–255
4
0x04
G · 0–255
136
0x88
B · 0–255
175
0xaf

CMYK percentages

Cyan97.7%
Magenta22.3%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)31.4%

Total ink coverage is 151%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#0488af text on a black background

contrast 5.15:1

Card sample

#0488af text on a white background

contrast 4.08:1

Card sample

#0488af on grey

3.73:1

#0488af on its own surface

3.84:1

#0488af on its dark surface

4.04:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #0488af;
Background color
Panel with #0488af background
background-color: #0488af;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #0488af;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(4, 136, 175, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(4, 136, 175, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #0488af;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #0488af, #0416AF);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #0488af, #1D04AF);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #0488af;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #0488af;
caret-color: #0488af;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #0488af;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #E6F9FE;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #0488af;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#0488af 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #0488af 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(4, 136, 175, 0.5)
rgb(4 136 175 / 50%)
#0488af80
hsl(194 96% 35% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #0488af 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#0488af1a#E6F3F7
20%#0488af33#CDE7EF
40%#0488af66#9BCFDF
60%#0488af99#68B8CF
80%#0488afcc#36A0BF

Gradients from #0488af

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, #05B6EB, #0488af 45%, #03617D);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #0488af, #030691);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #0488af, #AF2B04);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #15C5FA 0%, #0488af 45%, #03617D 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F4F9FA, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #05E193 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #052ACD 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #03617D 0%, transparent 65%), #0488af;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #0488af

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.

#0488af 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 5.15:1.

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.

#0488af, answered

What color is #0488af?

#0488af is a dark electric cyan, closest to Steel Blue (ΔE2000 8.1). It sits at 194° on the hue wheel with 96% saturation and 35% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #0488af?

rgb(4, 136, 175) — 4 red, 136 green and 175 blue out of 255, or 1.6% / 53.3% / 68.6% by channel.

What is #0488af in HSL and HSV?

hsl(194, 96%, 35%) and hsv(194, 98%, 69%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #0488af a light or a dark color?

It is a mid-tone. Relative luminance is 0.2073 and perceived brightness is 47%, so black text on it reaches 5.15:1.

Should I use black or white text on #0488af?

Black. It scores 5.15:1 against #0488af, versus 4.08:1 for white — AA at any size.

Is #0488af accessible on a white background?

#0488af on white scores 4.08:1, which only clears AA for large text — 18.66px bold or 24px regular and up. Darken it to #0480A5 to reach 4.5:1, or #035D78 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #0488af?

#AF2B04 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #AF0432 and #AF8104, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #0488af?

For interface work: #F4F9FA as the surface, #C0E2ED for borders, #4B899B for secondary text, #B30004 as an accent and #03617D for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #04AF81 and #0432AF stays calm, while #AF2B04 is the loudest partner.

What is #0488af in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(98%, 22%, 0%, 31%). 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 #0488af warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 93 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #04AF97; nudged cooler, #026DB1.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #0488af?

The sky family — its 500 step is #0ea5e9, ΔE2000 11.9 away. That is a visible difference, so define #0488af as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #0488af in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#0488af] or text-[#0488af], 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 #0488af with 50% opacity?

rgba(4, 136, 175, 0.5), or #0488af80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #82C4D7; over black, #024458.

Is #0488af a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #009999, ΔE2000 15.6 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #0488af 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 #0488af?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #05B6EB, #0488af 45%, #03617D). For more colour, a short hue run to #030691 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #0488af in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #0488af at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.