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cyan · cool

#05daaa

a dark, electric cyan · cool · closest name: Medium Aqua Marine

Token name suggestion: Forest Reef

RGB
5, 218, 170
HSL
167°, 96%, 44%
CMYK
98, 0, 22, 15
Luminance
0.5308

#05daaa is a dark electric cyan, 167° on the wheel and 82/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (11.62:1). As text it scores 1.81:1 on white — use #038568 instead. Nearest name is Medium Aqua Marine, nearest Tailwind family is emerald.

hsl(167 96% 44%)rgb(5 218 170)Base step 700AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #05daaa is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#05daaa
Hue
167°
cyan
Saturation
96%
electric
Lightness
44%
dark
Brightness
85%
HSV value
Perceived
69%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.5308
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
82/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Electric
Best ink
Black
11.62:1
Closest name
Medium Aqua Marine
ΔE2000 5.8
Chroma
56.7
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.790
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
emerald
500 · ΔE 9.1
Web-safe
#00CC99
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue167° of 360°
Saturation96%
Lightness44%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #05daaa.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool82% 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%
Green94%
Blue5%

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

Every format

HEX#05daaa
HEX (8-digit)#05daaaff
RGBrgb(5, 218, 170)
RGBArgba(5, 218, 170, 1)
HSLhsl(167, 96%, 44%)
HSV / HSBhsv(166, 98%, 85%)
HWBhwb(167 2% 15%)
CMYKcmyk(98%, 0%, 22%, 15%)
LABlab(77.9 -55.6 11.3)
LCHlch(77.9 56.7 168.6)
OKLCHoklch(0.790 0.157 169.5)
XYZ (D65)xyz(32.39, 53.07, 46.56)
Decimal383658
Display P3color(display-p3 0.020 0.855 0.667)
Web-safe#00CC99

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #05daaa;
background-color: #05daaa;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #05daaa;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#05daaa] bg-[#05daaa]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #05daaa;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.020, green: 0.855, blue: 0.667)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.020, green: 0.855, blue: 0.667, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#05DAAA</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFF05DAAA)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFF05DAAA)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(170, 218, 5)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(5, 218, 170)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(5, 218, 170)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 5, 218, 170)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.0196f, 0.8549f, 0.6667f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{5,218,170}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #05daaa 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #05daaa 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#037D61, #D3EEE8);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #05daaa 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: #F1FDFB;
  --brand-100: #E4FCF6;
  --brand-200: #C2FAED;
  --brand-300: #91FCE4;
  --brand-400: #5AFBD7;
  --brand-500: #24FACA;
  --brand-600: #06EFBB;
  --brand-700: #05daaa;
  --brand-800: #04A07C;
  --brand-900: #07735B;
  --brand-950: #054839;
  --brand: #05daaa;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F4FAF9;
  --brand-border: #C0EDE3;
  --brand-hover: #04B78F;
  --brand-pressed: #039474;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #142421;
    --brand-ink: #D3EEE8;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F1FDFB',
        100: '#E4FCF6',
        200: '#C2FAED',
        300: '#91FCE4',
        400: '#5AFBD7',
        500: '#24FACA',
        600: '#06EFBB',
        700: '#05daaa',
        800: '#04A07C',
        900: '#07735B',
        950: '#054839',
        DEFAULT: '#05daaa',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F1FDFB,
  '100': #E4FCF6,
  '200': #C2FAED,
  '300': #91FCE4,
  '400': #5AFBD7,
  '500': #24FACA,
  '600': #06EFBB,
  '700': #05daaa,
  '800': #04A07C,
  '900': #07735B,
  '950': #054839,
);
$brand-base: #05daaa;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F1FDFB", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#E4FCF6", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#C2FAED", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#91FCE4", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#5AFBD7", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#24FACA", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#06EFBB", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#05daaa", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#04A07C", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#07735B", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#054839", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #05daaa · 11.62:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 1.81:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 11.62:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #05daaa as text scores 1.81:1 on white and 11.62:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #037D61 at 2.83:1.

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
#038568 · 4.61:1
AA on white−17% L
#038568
The quick fox
#02624D · 7.35:1
AAA on white−24% L
#02624D
The quick fox
#05daaa · 11.62:1
AA on blackalready passes
#05daaa
The quick fox
#05daaa · 11.62:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#05daaa

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #04A883 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
#05daaa on white: 1.81:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#05daaa on black: 11.62:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #05daaa as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #05daaa.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White1.81:1AaAa
Slate 501.73:1AaAa
Slate 1001.65:1AaAa
Slate 2001.47:1AaAa
Slate 3001.22:1AaAa
Slate 4001.42:1AaAa
Slate 5002.63:1AaAa
Slate 6004.19:1AaAa
Slate 7005.73:1AaAa
Slate 8008.09:1AaAa
Slate 9009.87:1AaAa
Black11.62:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #D4CAA8
deuteranopia · #BEBAAD
tritanopia · #00DBCC

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. #05daaa is pinned to step 700; the rest hold its hue and let saturation ease off at the extremes so the pale end never turns neon.

#F1FDFB
#E4FCF6
#C2FAED
#91FCE4
#5AFBD7
#24FACA
#06EFBB
#05daaa
#04A07C
#07735B
#054839
Base = 700Lightest = 50 · #F1FDFBDarkest = 950 · #054839Text 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 0.039 169.5);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.063 169.5);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.094 169.5);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.122 169.5);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.144 169.5);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.157 169.5);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.157 169.5);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.147 169.5);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.132 169.5);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.110 169.5);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.086 169.5);
}

Colors that work with #05daaa

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#F4FAF9
Tinted page background
Border#C0EDE3
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B9B89
Captions on the surface
Accent#DE016A
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#037D61
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#E6FEF9
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#142421
Dark-mode background
Hover#04B78F
One step down in lightness
Pressed#039474
Two steps down
Disabled#94BBB2
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#00F3BD
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 #05daaa

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

Works well for
  • 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
  • Text of any size on white — fails WCAG AA
  • 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
Not as text
Safe as a fill behind white type
No — use #037D61
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #04A883

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
  • Weight56/100
  • 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#DA0535
Analogous left#05DA40
Analogous right#059FDA
Split-complement 1#DA059F
Split-complement 2#DA4005
Triadic 1#AA05DA
Triadic 2#DAAA05
Tetradic#4005DA
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°167°

#05daaa sits at 167°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red2.0%
Green85.5%
Blue66.7%
R · 0–255
5
0x05
G · 0–255
218
0xda
B · 0–255
170
0xaa

CMYK percentages

Cyan97.7%
Magenta0.0%
Yellow22.0%
Key (black)14.5%

Total ink coverage is 134%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#05daaa text on a black background

contrast 11.62:1

Card sample

#05daaa text on a white background

contrast 1.81:1

Card sample

#05daaa on grey

1.65:1

#05daaa on its own surface

1.71:1

#05daaa on its dark surface

8.91:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #05daaa;
Background color
Panel with #05daaa background
background-color: #05daaa;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #05daaa;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(5, 218, 170, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(5, 218, 170, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #05daaa;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #05daaa, #057CDA);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #05daaa, #0547DA);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #05daaa;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #05daaa;
caret-color: #05daaa;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #05daaa;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #E6FEF9;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #05daaa;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#05daaa 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #05daaa 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(5, 218, 170, 0.5)
rgb(5 218 170 / 50%)
#05daaa80
hsl(167 96% 44% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #05daaa 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#05daaa1a#E6FBF7
20%#05daaa33#CDF8EE
40%#05daaa66#9BF0DD
60%#05daaa99#69E9CC
80%#05daaacc#37E1BB

Gradients from #05daaa

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, #22FAC9, #05daaa 45%, #037D61);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #05daaa, #045CBC);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #05daaa, #DA0535);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #40FBD1 0%, #05daaa 45%, #037D61 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F4FAF9, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #18FA43 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #06A1F8 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #037D61 0%, transparent 65%), #05daaa;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #05daaa

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.

#05daaa 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 11.62:1.

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.

#05daaa, answered

What color is #05daaa?

#05daaa is a dark electric cyan, closest to Medium Aqua Marine (ΔE2000 5.8). It sits at 167° on the hue wheel with 96% saturation and 44% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #05daaa?

rgb(5, 218, 170) — 5 red, 218 green and 170 blue out of 255, or 2% / 85.5% / 66.7% by channel.

What is #05daaa in HSL and HSV?

hsl(167, 96%, 44%) and hsv(166, 98%, 85%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #05daaa a light or a dark color?

It is a light color. Relative luminance is 0.5308 and perceived brightness is 69%, so black text on it reaches 11.62:1.

Should I use black or white text on #05daaa?

Black. It scores 11.62:1 against #05daaa, versus 1.81:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #05daaa accessible on a white background?

#05daaa on white scores 1.81:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #038568 to reach 4.5:1, or #02624D for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #05daaa?

#DA0535 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #DA059F and #DA4005, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #05daaa?

For interface work: #F4FAF9 as the surface, #C0EDE3 for borders, #4B9B89 for secondary text, #DE016A as an accent and #037D61 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #05DA40 and #059FDA stays calm, while #DA0535 is the loudest partner.

What is #05daaa in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(98%, 0%, 22%, 15%). 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 #05daaa warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 82 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #05DA5C; nudged cooler, #03BDDC.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #05daaa?

The emerald family — its 500 step is #10b981, ΔE2000 9.1 away. That is a visible difference, so define #05daaa as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #05daaa in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#05daaa] or text-[#05daaa], 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 #05daaa with 50% opacity?

rgba(5, 218, 170, 0.5), or #05daaa80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #82EDD5; over black, #036D55.

Is #05daaa a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #00CC99, ΔE2000 3.7 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #05daaa 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 #05daaa?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #22FAC9, #05daaa 45%, #037D61). For more colour, a short hue run to #045CBC keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #05daaa in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #05daaa at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.