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cyan · cool

#09becf

a dark, electric cyan · cool · closest name: Dark Turquoise

Token name suggestion: Slate Reef

RGB
9, 190, 207
HSL
185°, 92%, 42%
CMYK
96, 8, 0, 19
Luminance
0.4139

#09becf is a dark electric cyan, 185° on the wheel and 90/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (9.28:1). As text it scores 2.26:1 on white — use #067F8B instead. Nearest name is Dark Turquoise, nearest Tailwind family is cyan.

hsl(185 92% 42%)rgb(9 190 207)Base step 700AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #09becf is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#09becf
Hue
185°
cyan
Saturation
92%
electric
Lightness
42%
dark
Brightness
81%
HSV value
Perceived
63%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.4139
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
90/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Electric
Best ink
Black
9.28:1
Closest name
Dark Turquoise
ΔE2000 6.4
Chroma
38.5
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.733
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
cyan
500 · ΔE 4.9
Web-safe
#00CCCC
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue185° of 360°
Saturation92%
Lightness42%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #09becf.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool90% 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%
Green89%
Blue11%

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

Every format

HEX#09becf
HEX (8-digit)#09becfff
RGBrgb(9, 190, 207)
RGBArgba(9, 190, 207, 1)
HSLhsl(185, 92%, 42%)
HSV / HSBhsv(185, 96%, 81%)
HWBhwb(185 4% 19%)
CMYKcmyk(96%, 8%, 0%, 19%)
LABlab(70.5 -33.0 -19.7)
LCHlch(70.5 38.5 210.9)
OKLCHoklch(0.733 0.124 206.2)
XYZ (D65)xyz(29.78, 41.39, 65.44)
Decimal638671
Display P3color(display-p3 0.035 0.745 0.812)
Web-safe#00CCCC

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #09becf;
background-color: #09becf;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #09becf;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#09becf] bg-[#09becf]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #09becf;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.035, green: 0.745, blue: 0.812)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.035, green: 0.745, blue: 0.812, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#09BECF</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFF09BECF)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFF09BECF)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(207, 190, 9)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(9, 190, 207)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(9, 190, 207)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 9, 190, 207)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.0353f, 0.7451f, 0.8118f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{9,190,207}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #09becf 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #09becf 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#05707A, #D3ECEE);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #09becf 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: #F2FCFD;
  --brand-100: #E4F9FB;
  --brand-200: #C3F4F9;
  --brand-300: #93F1FA;
  --brand-400: #5EEBF8;
  --brand-500: #28E4F6;
  --brand-600: #0AD7EB;
  --brand-700: #09becf;
  --brand-800: #078F9C;
  --brand-900: #0A6871;
  --brand-950: #064147;
  --brand: #09becf;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F4FAFA;
  --brand-border: #C0E9ED;
  --brand-hover: #079FAD;
  --brand-pressed: #067F8B;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #142324;
    --brand-ink: #D3ECEE;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F2FCFD',
        100: '#E4F9FB',
        200: '#C3F4F9',
        300: '#93F1FA',
        400: '#5EEBF8',
        500: '#28E4F6',
        600: '#0AD7EB',
        700: '#09becf',
        800: '#078F9C',
        900: '#0A6871',
        950: '#064147',
        DEFAULT: '#09becf',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F2FCFD,
  '100': #E4F9FB,
  '200': #C3F4F9,
  '300': #93F1FA,
  '400': #5EEBF8,
  '500': #28E4F6,
  '600': #0AD7EB,
  '700': #09becf,
  '800': #078F9C,
  '900': #0A6871,
  '950': #064147,
);
$brand-base: #09becf;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F2FCFD", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#E4F9FB", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#C3F4F9", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#93F1FA", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#5EEBF8", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#28E4F6", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#0AD7EB", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#09becf", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#078F9C", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#0A6871", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#064147", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #09becf · 9.28:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 2.26:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 9.28:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #09becf as text scores 2.26:1 on white and 9.28:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #05707A at 2.57:1.

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
#067F8B · 4.76:1
AA on white−14% L
#067F8B
The quick fox
#056069 · 7.28:1
AAA on white−21% L
#056069
The quick fox
#09becf · 9.28:1
AA on blackalready passes
#09becf
The quick fox
#09becf · 9.28:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#09becf

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #08A3B2 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
#09becf on white: 2.26:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#09becf on black: 9.28:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #09becf as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #09becf.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White2.26:1AaAa
Slate 502.16:1AaAa
Slate 1002.07:1AaAa
Slate 2001.84:1AaAa
Slate 3001.52:1AaAa
Slate 4001.13:1AaAa
Slate 5002.10:1AaAa
Slate 6003.35:1AaAa
Slate 7004.57:1AaAa
Slate 8006.46:1AaAa
Slate 9007.89:1AaAa
Black9.28:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #ACB6D0
deuteranopia · #95A5CF
tritanopia · #00C7C3

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. #09becf 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.

#F2FCFD
#E4F9FB
#C3F4F9
#93F1FA
#5EEBF8
#28E4F6
#0AD7EB
#09becf
#078F9C
#0A6871
#064147
Base = 700Lightest = 50 · #F2FCFDDarkest = 950 · #064147Text 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 0.031 206.2);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.050 206.2);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.075 206.2);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.097 206.2);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.114 206.2);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.124 206.2);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.124 206.2);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.117 206.2);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.104 206.2);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.087 206.2);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.068 206.2);
}

Colors that work with #09becf

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#F4FAFA
Tinted page background
Border#C0E9ED
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B949B
Captions on the surface
Accent#D40526
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#05707A
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#E7FCFE
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#142324
Dark-mode background
Hover#079FAD
One step down in lightness
Pressed#067F8B
Two steps down
Disabled#90B5B8
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#00D8ED
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 #09becf

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 #05707A
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #08A3B2

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
  • Weight58/100
  • 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#CF1A09
Analogous left#09CF7D
Analogous right#095BCF
Split-complement 1#CF095B
Split-complement 2#CF7D09
Triadic 1#CF09BE
Triadic 2#BECF09
Tetradic#7D09CF
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°185°

#09becf sits at 185°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red3.5%
Green74.5%
Blue81.2%
R · 0–255
9
0x09
G · 0–255
190
0xbe
B · 0–255
207
0xcf

CMYK percentages

Cyan95.7%
Magenta8.2%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)18.8%

Total ink coverage is 123%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#09becf text on a black background

contrast 9.28:1

Card sample

#09becf text on a white background

contrast 2.26:1

Card sample

#09becf on grey

2.07:1

#09becf on its own surface

2.14:1

#09becf on its dark surface

7.16:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #09becf;
Background color
Panel with #09becf background
background-color: #09becf;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #09becf;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(9, 190, 207, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(9, 190, 207, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #09becf;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #09becf, #093ACF);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #09becf, #0A09CF);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #09becf;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #09becf;
caret-color: #09becf;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #09becf;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #E7FCFE;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #09becf;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#09becf 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #09becf 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(9, 190, 207, 0.5)
rgb(9 190 207 / 50%)
#09becf80
hsl(185 92% 42% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #09becf 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#09becf1a#E6F9FA
20%#09becf33#CEF2F5
40%#09becf66#9DE5EC
60%#09becf99#6BD8E2
80%#09becfcc#3ACBD9

Gradients from #09becf

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, #20E3F5, #09becf 45%, #05707A);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #09becf, #0824B2);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #09becf, #CF1A09);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #3DE7F7 0%, #09becf 45%, #05707A 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%, #16F586 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #0A55ED 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #05707A 0%, transparent 65%), #09becf;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #09becf

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.

#09becf 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 9.28:1.

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.

#09becf, answered

What color is #09becf?

#09becf is a dark electric cyan, closest to Dark Turquoise (ΔE2000 6.4). It sits at 185° on the hue wheel with 92% saturation and 42% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #09becf?

rgb(9, 190, 207) — 9 red, 190 green and 207 blue out of 255, or 3.5% / 74.5% / 81.2% by channel.

What is #09becf in HSL and HSV?

hsl(185, 92%, 42%) and hsv(185, 96%, 81%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #09becf a light or a dark color?

It is a mid-tone. Relative luminance is 0.4139 and perceived brightness is 63%, so black text on it reaches 9.28:1.

Should I use black or white text on #09becf?

Black. It scores 9.28:1 against #09becf, versus 2.26:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #09becf accessible on a white background?

#09becf on white scores 2.26:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #067F8B to reach 4.5:1, or #056069 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #09becf?

#CF1A09 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #CF095B and #CF7D09, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #09becf?

For interface work: #F4FAFA as the surface, #C0E9ED for borders, #4B949B for secondary text, #D40526 as an accent and #05707A for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #09CF7D and #095BCF stays calm, while #CF1A09 is the loudest partner.

What is #09becf in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(96%, 8%, 0%, 19%). 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 #09becf warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 90 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #09CF98; nudged cooler, #0794D1.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #09becf?

The cyan family — its 500 step is #06b6d4, ΔE2000 4.9 away. That is a visible difference, so define #09becf as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #09becf in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#09becf] or text-[#09becf], 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 #09becf with 50% opacity?

rgba(9, 190, 207, 0.5), or #09becf80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #84DFE7; over black, #055F68.

Is #09becf a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #00CCCC, ΔE2000 7 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #09becf 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 #09becf?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #20E3F5, #09becf 45%, #05707A). For more colour, a short hue run to #0824B2 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #09becf in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #09becf at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.