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cyan · cool

#106973

a dark, electric cyan · cool · closest name: Teal

Token name suggestion: Slate Glacier

RGB
16, 105, 115
HSL
186°, 76%, 26%
CMYK
86, 9, 0, 55
Luminance
0.1145

#106973 is a dark electric cyan, 186° on the wheel and 90/100 on the cool side. Put white text on it (6.38:1). As text it scores 6.38:1 on white — safe at any size. Nearest name is Teal, nearest Tailwind family is slate.

hsl(186 76% 26%)rgb(16 105 115)Base step 900AA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #106973 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#106973
Hue
186°
cyan
Saturation
76%
electric
Lightness
26%
dark
Brightness
45%
HSV value
Perceived
35%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.1145
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
90/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Electric
Best ink
White
6.38:1
Closest name
Teal
ΔE2000 9.4
Chroma
24.0
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.478
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
slate
500 · ΔE 18.2
Web-safe
#006666
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue186° of 360°
Saturation76%
Lightness26%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #106973.

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
Red1%
Green88%
Blue11%

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

Every format

HEX#106973
HEX (8-digit)#106973ff
RGBrgb(16, 105, 115)
RGBArgba(16, 105, 115, 1)
HSLhsl(186, 76%, 26%)
HSV / HSBhsv(186, 86%, 45%)
HWBhwb(186 6% 55%)
CMYKcmyk(86%, 9%, 0%, 55%)
LABlab(40.3 -20.4 -12.6)
LCHlch(40.3 24.0 211.7)
OKLCHoklch(0.478 0.078 206.9)
XYZ (D65)xyz(8.36, 11.45, 17.99)
Decimal1075571
Display P3color(display-p3 0.063 0.412 0.451)
Web-safe#006666

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #106973;
background-color: #106973;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #106973;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#106973] bg-[#106973]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #106973;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.063, green: 0.412, blue: 0.451)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.063, green: 0.412, blue: 0.451, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#106973</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFF106973)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFF106973)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(115, 105, 16)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(16, 105, 115)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(16, 105, 115)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 16, 105, 115)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.0627f, 0.4118f, 0.4510f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{16,105,115}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #106973 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #106973 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#106670, #D3EBEE);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #106973 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: #F3FBFC;
  --brand-100: #E7F7F9;
  --brand-200: #C8EFF4;
  --brand-300: #9CE9F1;
  --brand-400: #6BDEEA;
  --brand-500: #3AD2E4;
  --brand-600: #1EC4D7;
  --brand-700: #19A3B3;
  --brand-800: #14838F;
  --brand-900: #106973;
  --brand-950: #0C3B41;
  --brand: #106973;
  --brand-ink: #ffffff;
  --brand-surface: #F4FAFA;
  --brand-border: #C0E8ED;
  --brand-hover: #0C4C54;
  --brand-pressed: #073034;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #142324;
    --brand-ink: #D3EBEE;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F3FBFC',
        100: '#E7F7F9',
        200: '#C8EFF4',
        300: '#9CE9F1',
        400: '#6BDEEA',
        500: '#3AD2E4',
        600: '#1EC4D7',
        700: '#19A3B3',
        800: '#14838F',
        900: '#106973',
        950: '#0C3B41',
        DEFAULT: '#106973',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F3FBFC,
  '100': #E7F7F9,
  '200': #C8EFF4,
  '300': #9CE9F1,
  '400': #6BDEEA,
  '500': #3AD2E4,
  '600': #1EC4D7,
  '700': #19A3B3,
  '800': #14838F,
  '900': #106973,
  '950': #0C3B41,
);
$brand-base: #106973;
$brand-ink: #ffffff;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F3FBFC", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#E7F7F9", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#C8EFF4", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#9CE9F1", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#6BDEEA", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#3AD2E4", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#1EC4D7", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#19A3B3", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#14838F", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#106973", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#0C3B41", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #106973 · 6.38:1
Use #ffffffAA at every size, AAA for large text only.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 6.38:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 3.29:1
AA fail · AA large pass · AAA fail
Reading the other direction: #106973 as text scores 6.38:1 on white and 3.29:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #E9FAFC at 5.94:1.

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
#106973 · 6.38:1
AA on whitealready passes
#106973
The quick fox
#0F616A · 7.15:1
AAA on white−2% L
#0F616A
The quick fox
#14828E · 4.61:1
AA on black+6% L
#14828E
The quick fox
#19A6B6 · 7.17:1
AAA on black+15% L
#19A6B6

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #106973 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
#106973 on white: 6.38:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#106973 on black: 3.29:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #106973 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #106973.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White6.38:1AaAa
Slate 506.10:1AaAa
Slate 1005.83:1AaAa
Slate 2005.18:1AaAa
Slate 3004.30:1AaAa
Slate 4002.49:1AaAa
Slate 5001.34:1AaAa
Slate 6001.19:1AaAa
Slate 7001.62:1AaAa
Slate 8002.29:1AaAa
Slate 9002.80:1AaAa
Black3.29:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #5F6474
deuteranopia · #525B73
tritanopia · #006E6C

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. #106973 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.

#F3FBFC
#E7F7F9
#C8EFF4
#9CE9F1
#6BDEEA
#3AD2E4
#1EC4D7
#19A3B3
#14838F
#106973
#0C3B41
Base = 900Lightest = 50 · #F3FBFCDarkest = 950 · #0C3B41Text 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 0.019 206.9);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.031 206.9);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.047 206.9);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.061 206.9);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.071 206.9);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.078 206.9);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.078 206.9);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.073 206.9);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.065 206.9);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.054 206.9);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.043 206.9);
}

Colors that work with #106973

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#F4FAFA
Tinted page background
Border#C0E8ED
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B939B
Captions on the surface
Accent#760D1D
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#106670
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#E9FAFC
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#142324
Dark-mode background
Hover#0C4C54
One step down in lightness
Pressed#073034
Two steps down
Disabled#5F8F94
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#0B7F8D
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 #106973

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
  • 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
  • Weight74/100
  • 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#731A10
Analogous left#10734C
Analogous right#103773
Split-complement 1#731037
Split-complement 2#734C10
Triadic 1#731069
Triadic 2#697310
Tetradic#4C1073
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°186°

#106973 sits at 186°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red6.3%
Green41.2%
Blue45.1%
R · 0–255
16
0x10
G · 0–255
105
0x69
B · 0–255
115
0x73

CMYK percentages

Cyan86.1%
Magenta8.7%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)54.9%

Total ink coverage is 150%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#106973 text on a black background

contrast 3.29:1

Card sample

#106973 text on a white background

contrast 6.38:1

Card sample

#106973 on grey

5.83:1

#106973 on its own surface

6.05:1

#106973 on its dark surface

2.54:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #106973;
Background color
Panel with #106973 background
background-color: #106973;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #106973;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(16, 105, 115, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(16, 105, 115, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #106973;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #106973, #102773);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #106973, #121073);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #106973;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #106973;
caret-color: #106973;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #106973;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #E9FAFC;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #106973;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#106973 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #106973 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(16, 105, 115, 0.5)
rgb(16 105 115 / 50%)
#10697380
hsl(186 76% 26% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #106973 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#1069731a#E7F0F1
20%#10697333#CFE1E3
40%#10697366#9FC3C7
60%#10697399#70A5AB
80%#106973cc#40878F

Gradients from #106973

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, #179AA9, #106973 45%, #106670);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #106973, #0C1858);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #106973, #731A10);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #1BB3C4 0%, #106973 45%, #106670 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%, #16A05E 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #143A8E 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #106670 0%, transparent 65%), #106973;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #106973

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.

#106973 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

Too dim on dark surfaces at 3.29:1 — lift it to #14828E 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.

#106973, answered

What color is #106973?

#106973 is a dark electric cyan, closest to Teal (ΔE2000 9.4). It sits at 186° on the hue wheel with 76% saturation and 26% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #106973?

rgb(16, 105, 115) — 16 red, 105 green and 115 blue out of 255, or 6.3% / 41.2% / 45.1% by channel.

What is #106973 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(186, 76%, 26%) and hsv(186, 86%, 45%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #106973 a light or a dark color?

It is a dark color. Relative luminance is 0.1145 and perceived brightness is 35%, so white text on it reaches 6.38:1.

Should I use black or white text on #106973?

White. It scores 6.38:1 against #106973, versus 3.29:1 for black — AA at any size.

Is #106973 accessible on a white background?

#106973 on white scores 6.38:1, which clears AA at every size but not AAA.

What is the complementary color of #106973?

#731A10 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #731037 and #734C10, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #106973?

For interface work: #F4FAFA as the surface, #C0E8ED for borders, #4B939B for secondary text, #760D1D as an accent and #106670 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #10734C and #103773 stays calm, while #731A10 is the loudest partner.

What is #106973 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(86%, 9%, 0%, 55%). 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 #106973 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 #107359; nudged cooler, #0F4D74.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #106973?

The slate family — its 500 step is #64748b, ΔE2000 18.2 away. That is a visible difference, so define #106973 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #106973 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#106973] or text-[#106973], 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 #106973 with 50% opacity?

rgba(16, 105, 115, 0.5), or #10697380 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #88B4B9; over black, #08353A.

Is #106973 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #006666, ΔE2000 5 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #106973 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 #106973?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #179AA9, #106973 45%, #106670). For more colour, a short hue run to #0C1858 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #106973 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #106973 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.