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cyan · cool

#05dcab

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

Token name suggestion: Slate Lagoon

RGB
5, 220, 171
HSL
166°, 96%, 44%
CMYK
98, 0, 22, 14
Luminance
0.5416

#05dcab is a dark electric cyan, 166° on the wheel and 82/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (11.83:1). As text it scores 1.77:1 on white — use #038265 instead. Nearest name is Medium Aqua Marine, nearest Tailwind family is emerald.

hsl(166 96% 44%)rgb(5 220 171)Base step 600AAA inkCool

At a glance

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

Hex
#05dcab
Hue
166°
cyan
Saturation
96%
electric
Lightness
44%
dark
Brightness
86%
HSV value
Perceived
70%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.5416
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
82/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Electric
Best ink
Black
11.83:1
Closest name
Medium Aqua Marine
ΔE2000 6.1
Chroma
57.3
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.795
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
emerald
500 · ΔE 9.5
Web-safe
#00CC99
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue166° 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 #05dcab.

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%
Green95%
Blue5%

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

Every format

HEX#05dcab
HEX (8-digit)#05dcabff
RGBrgb(5, 220, 171)
RGBArgba(5, 220, 171, 1)
HSLhsl(166, 96%, 44%)
HSV / HSBhsv(166, 98%, 86%)
HWBhwb(166 2% 14%)
CMYKcmyk(98%, 0%, 22%, 14%)
LABlab(78.5 -56.1 11.6)
LCHlch(78.5 57.3 168.3)
OKLCHoklch(0.795 0.158 169.2)
XYZ (D65)xyz(33.00, 54.15, 47.23)
Decimal384171
Display P3color(display-p3 0.020 0.863 0.671)
Web-safe#00CC99

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #05dcab;
background-color: #05dcab;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #05dcab;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#05dcab] bg-[#05dcab]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #05dcab;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.020, green: 0.863, blue: 0.671)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.020, green: 0.863, blue: 0.671, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#05DCAB</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFF05DCAB)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFF05DCAB)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(171, 220, 5)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(5, 220, 171)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(5, 220, 171)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 5, 220, 171)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.0196f, 0.8627f, 0.6706f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{5,220,171}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #05dcab 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #05dcab 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#037D61, #D3EEE8);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #05dcab 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: #C1FAED;
  --brand-300: #91FDE4;
  --brand-400: #5AFBD7;
  --brand-500: #24FAC9;
  --brand-600: #05dcab;
  --brand-700: #04C89B;
  --brand-800: #04A07C;
  --brand-900: #07735A;
  --brand-950: #054839;
  --brand: #05dcab;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F4FAF9;
  --brand-border: #C0EDE2;
  --brand-hover: #04B990;
  --brand-pressed: #039675;
}
@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: '#C1FAED',
        300: '#91FDE4',
        400: '#5AFBD7',
        500: '#24FAC9',
        600: '#05dcab',
        700: '#04C89B',
        800: '#04A07C',
        900: '#07735A',
        950: '#054839',
        DEFAULT: '#05dcab',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F1FDFB,
  '100': #E4FCF6,
  '200': #C1FAED,
  '300': #91FDE4,
  '400': #5AFBD7,
  '500': #24FAC9,
  '600': #05dcab,
  '700': #04C89B,
  '800': #04A07C,
  '900': #07735A,
  '950': #054839,
);
$brand-base: #05dcab;
$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": "#C1FAED", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#91FDE4", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#5AFBD7", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#24FAC9", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#05dcab", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#04C89B", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#04A07C", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#07735A", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$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 #05dcab · 11.83:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 1.77:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 11.83:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #05dcab as text scores 1.77:1 on white and 11.83:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #037D61 at 2.88:1.

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
#038265 · 4.79:1
AA on white−18% L
#038265
The quick fox
#02644E · 7.15:1
AAA on white−24% L
#02644E
The quick fox
#05dcab · 11.83:1
AA on blackalready passes
#05dcab
The quick fox
#05dcab · 11.83:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#05dcab

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #04A580 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
#05dcab on white: 1.77:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#05dcab on black: 11.83:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

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

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White1.77:1AaAa
Slate 501.70:1AaAa
Slate 1001.62:1AaAa
Slate 2001.44:1AaAa
Slate 3001.20:1AaAa
Slate 4001.44:1AaAa
Slate 5002.68:1AaAa
Slate 6004.27:1AaAa
Slate 7005.83:1AaAa
Slate 8008.24:1AaAa
Slate 90010.06:1AaAa
Black11.83:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #D6CCA8
deuteranopia · #BFBCAE
tritanopia · #00DDCE

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. #05dcab is pinned to step 600; the rest hold its hue and let saturation ease off at the extremes so the pale end never turns neon.

#F1FDFB
#E4FCF6
#C1FAED
#91FDE4
#5AFBD7
#24FAC9
#05dcab
#04C89B
#04A07C
#07735A
#054839
Base = 600Lightest = 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 0.040 169.2);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.063 169.2);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.095 169.2);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.123 169.2);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.146 169.2);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.158 169.2);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.158 169.2);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.149 169.2);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.133 169.2);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.111 169.2);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.087 169.2);
}

Colors that work with #05dcab

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#C0EDE2
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B9B89
Captions on the surface
Accent#E0006C
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#037D61
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#E6FEF9
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#142421
Dark-mode background
Hover#04B990
One step down in lightness
Pressed#039675
Two steps down
Disabled#96BCB3
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#00F5BD
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 #05dcab

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 #04A580

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#DC0536
Analogous left#05DC3F
Analogous right#05A2DC
Split-complement 1#DC05A2
Split-complement 2#DC3F05
Triadic 1#AB05DC
Triadic 2#DCAB05
Tetradic#3F05DC
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°166°

#05dcab sits at 166°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red2.0%
Green86.3%
Blue67.1%
R · 0–255
5
0x05
G · 0–255
220
0xdc
B · 0–255
171
0xab

CMYK percentages

Cyan97.7%
Magenta0.0%
Yellow22.3%
Key (black)13.7%

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

Color previews

#05dcab text on a black background

contrast 11.83:1

Card sample

#05dcab text on a white background

contrast 1.77:1

Card sample

#05dcab on grey

1.62:1

#05dcab on its own surface

1.68:1

#05dcab on its dark surface

9.07:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

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

Glowing headline

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

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(5, 220, 171, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(5, 220, 171, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #05dcab;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #05dcab, #057EDC);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #05dcab, #0548DC);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #05dcab;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

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

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #05dcab 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, 220, 171, 0.5)
rgb(5 220 171 / 50%)
#05dcab80
hsl(166 96% 44% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #05dcab 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#05dcab1a#E6FCF7
20%#05dcab33#CDF8EE
40%#05dcab66#9BF1DD
60%#05dcab99#69EACD
80%#05dcabcc#37E3BC

Gradients from #05dcab

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, #24FAC9, #05dcab 45%, #037D61);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #05dcab, #045DBE);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #05dcab, #DC0536);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #42FBD1 0%, #05dcab 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%, #1AFA44 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #06A3F9 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #037D61 0%, transparent 65%), #05dcab;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #05dcab

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.

#05dcab 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 11.83:1.

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.

#05dcab, answered

What color is #05dcab?

#05dcab is a dark electric cyan, closest to Medium Aqua Marine (ΔE2000 6.1). It sits at 166° on the hue wheel with 96% saturation and 44% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #05dcab?

rgb(5, 220, 171) — 5 red, 220 green and 171 blue out of 255, or 2% / 86.3% / 67.1% by channel.

What is #05dcab in HSL and HSV?

hsl(166, 96%, 44%) and hsv(166, 98%, 86%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #05dcab a light or a dark color?

It is a light color. Relative luminance is 0.5416 and perceived brightness is 70%, so black text on it reaches 11.83:1.

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

Black. It scores 11.83:1 against #05dcab, versus 1.77:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #05dcab accessible on a white background?

#05dcab on white scores 1.77:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #038265 to reach 4.5:1, or #02644E for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #05dcab?

#DC0536 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #DC05A2 and #DC3F05, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #05dcab?

For interface work: #F4FAF9 as the surface, #C0EDE2 for borders, #4B9B89 for secondary text, #E0006C as an accent and #037D61 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #05DC3F and #05A2DC stays calm, while #DC0536 is the loudest partner.

What is #05dcab in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(98%, 0%, 22%, 14%). 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 #05dcab 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 #05DC5C; nudged cooler, #03C0DE.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #05dcab?

The emerald family — its 500 step is #10b981, ΔE2000 9.5 away. That is a visible difference, so define #05dcab as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #05dcab in Tailwind CSS?

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

rgba(5, 220, 171, 0.5), or #05dcab80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #82EED5; over black, #036E56.

Is #05dcab a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #00CC99, ΔE2000 4.1 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #05dcab 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 #05dcab?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #24FAC9, #05dcab 45%, #037D61). For more colour, a short hue run to #045DBE keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #05dcab in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

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