Skip to content
cyan · cool

#11ddee

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

Token name suggestion: Signal Glacier

RGB
17, 221, 238
HSL
185°, 87%, 50%
CMYK
93, 7, 0, 7
Luminance
0.5801

#11ddee is a balanced electric cyan, 185° on the wheel and 89/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (12.60:1). As text it scores 1.67:1 on white — use #0A808A instead. Nearest name is Dark Turquoise, nearest Tailwind family is cyan.

hsl(185 87% 50%)rgb(17 221 238)Base step 600AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #11ddee is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#11ddee
Hue
185°
cyan
Saturation
87%
electric
Lightness
50%
balanced
Brightness
93%
HSV value
Perceived
74%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.5801
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
89/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Electric
Best ink
Black
12.60:1
Closest name
Dark Turquoise
ΔE2000 5.9
Chroma
43.0
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.820
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
cyan
500 · ΔE 10.9
Web-safe
#00CCFF
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue185° of 360°
Saturation87%
Lightness50%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #11ddee.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool89% 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#11ddee
HEX (8-digit)#11ddeeff
RGBrgb(17, 221, 238)
RGBArgba(17, 221, 238, 1)
HSLhsl(185, 87%, 50%)
HSV / HSBhsv(185, 93%, 93%)
HWBhwb(185 7% 7%)
CMYKcmyk(93%, 7%, 0%, 7%)
LABlab(80.7 -37.6 -20.8)
LCHlch(80.7 43.0 209.0)
OKLCHoklch(0.820 0.138 204.8)
XYZ (D65)xyz(41.51, 58.00, 89.88)
Decimal1170926
Display P3color(display-p3 0.067 0.867 0.933)
Web-safe#00CCFF

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #11ddee;
background-color: #11ddee;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #11ddee;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#11ddee] bg-[#11ddee]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #11ddee;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.067, green: 0.867, blue: 0.933)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.067, green: 0.867, blue: 0.933, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#11DDEE</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFF11DDEE)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFF11DDEE)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(238, 221, 17)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(17, 221, 238)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(17, 221, 238)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 17, 221, 238)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.0667f, 0.8667f, 0.9333f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{17,221,238}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #11ddee 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #11ddee 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#086F77, #D3ECEE);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #11ddee 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: #E5F9FA;
  --brand-200: #C4F3F7;
  --brand-300: #96F0F8;
  --brand-400: #62E9F4;
  --brand-500: #2EE1F0;
  --brand-600: #11ddee;
  --brand-700: #0EB1BE;
  --brand-800: #0B8D98;
  --brand-900: #0C676E;
  --brand-950: #084045;
  --brand: #11ddee;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F4FAFA;
  --brand-border: #C0E9ED;
  --brand-hover: #0FBECD;
  --brand-pressed: #0C9FAB;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #142324;
    --brand-ink: #D3ECEE;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F2FCFD',
        100: '#E5F9FA',
        200: '#C4F3F7',
        300: '#96F0F8',
        400: '#62E9F4',
        500: '#2EE1F0',
        600: '#11ddee',
        700: '#0EB1BE',
        800: '#0B8D98',
        900: '#0C676E',
        950: '#084045',
        DEFAULT: '#11ddee',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F2FCFD,
  '100': #E5F9FA,
  '200': #C4F3F7,
  '300': #96F0F8,
  '400': #62E9F4,
  '500': #2EE1F0,
  '600': #11ddee,
  '700': #0EB1BE,
  '800': #0B8D98,
  '900': #0C676E,
  '950': #084045,
);
$brand-base: #11ddee;
$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": "#E5F9FA", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#C4F3F7", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#96F0F8", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#62E9F4", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#2EE1F0", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#11ddee", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#0EB1BE", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#0B8D98", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#0C676E", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#084045", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #11ddee · 12.60:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 1.67:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 12.60:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #11ddee as text scores 1.67:1 on white and 12.60:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #086F77 at 3.55:1.

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
#0A808A · 4.70:1
AA on white−21% L
#0A808A
The quick fox
#076169 · 7.18:1
AAA on white−28% L
#076169
The quick fox
#11ddee · 12.60:1
AA on blackalready passes
#11ddee
The quick fox
#11ddee · 12.60:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#11ddee

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #0DA4B0 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
#11ddee on white: 1.67:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#11ddee on black: 12.60:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #11ddee as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #11ddee.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White1.67:1AaAa
Slate 501.59:1AaAa
Slate 1001.52:1AaAa
Slate 2001.35:1AaAa
Slate 3001.12:1AaAa
Slate 4001.54:1AaAa
Slate 5002.86:1AaAa
Slate 6004.55:1AaAa
Slate 7006.21:1AaAa
Slate 8008.78:1AaAa
Slate 90010.71:1AaAa
Black12.60:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #C9D3EF
deuteranopia · #AFC0EF
tritanopia · #00E7E2

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. #11ddee 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.

#F2FCFD
#E5F9FA
#C4F3F7
#96F0F8
#62E9F4
#2EE1F0
#11ddee
#0EB1BE
#0B8D98
#0C676E
#084045
Base = 600Lightest = 50 · #F2FCFDDarkest = 950 · #084045Text 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 0.035 204.8);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.055 204.8);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.083 204.8);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.108 204.8);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.127 204.8);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.138 204.8);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.138 204.8);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.130 204.8);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.116 204.8);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.097 204.8);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.076 204.8);
}

Colors that work with #11ddee

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#4B959B
Captions on the surface
Accent#F30C34
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#086F77
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#E7FCFD
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#142324
Dark-mode background
Hover#0FBECD
One step down in lightness
Pressed#0C9FAB
Two steps down
Disabled#A8C5C7
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#18EAFB
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 #11ddee

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
  • Brand accents, badges and data highlights
  • Chart series and data categories
Use with care
  • Text of any size on white — fails WCAG AA
  • Full-page backgrounds — tiring over long sessions
  • 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 #086F77
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #0DA4B0

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 mid lightness keeps it versatile in both themes.

Worth knowing

At high lightness it disappears into white surfaces and thin strokes vanish entirely.

Reads as
  • FormalityLow
  • EnergyHigh
  • Weight50/100
  • 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#EE2211
Analogous left#11EE90
Analogous right#116FEE
Split-complement 1#EE116F
Split-complement 2#EE9011
Triadic 1#EE11DD
Triadic 2#DDEE11
Tetradic#9011EE
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°185°

#11ddee sits at 185°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red6.7%
Green86.7%
Blue93.3%
R · 0–255
17
0x11
G · 0–255
221
0xdd
B · 0–255
238
0xee

CMYK percentages

Cyan92.9%
Magenta7.1%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)6.7%

Total ink coverage is 107%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#11ddee text on a black background

contrast 12.60:1

Card sample

#11ddee text on a white background

contrast 1.67:1

Card sample

#11ddee on grey

1.52:1

#11ddee on its own surface

1.58:1

#11ddee on its dark surface

9.73:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #11ddee;
Background color
Panel with #11ddee background
background-color: #11ddee;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #11ddee;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(17, 221, 238, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(17, 221, 238, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #11ddee;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #11ddee, #114AEE);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #11ddee, #1112EE);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #11ddee;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #11ddee;
caret-color: #11ddee;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #11ddee;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #E7FCFD;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #11ddee;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#11ddee 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #11ddee 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(17, 221, 238, 0.5)
rgb(17 221 238 / 50%)
#11ddee80
hsl(185 87% 50% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #11ddee 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#11ddee1a#E7FCFD
20%#11ddee33#CFF8FC
40%#11ddee66#A0F1F8
60%#11ddee99#70EBF5
80%#11ddeecc#41E4F1

Gradients from #11ddee

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, #4AE5F2, #11ddee 45%, #086F77);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #11ddee, #0F31D1);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #11ddee, #EE2211);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #67E9F4 0%, #11ddee 45%, #086F77 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%, #41F198 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #2E70F0 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #086F77 0%, transparent 65%), #11ddee;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #11ddee

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.

#11ddee 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 12.60:1.

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.

#11ddee, answered

What color is #11ddee?

#11ddee is a balanced electric cyan, closest to Dark Turquoise (ΔE2000 5.9). It sits at 185° on the hue wheel with 87% saturation and 50% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #11ddee?

rgb(17, 221, 238) — 17 red, 221 green and 238 blue out of 255, or 6.7% / 86.7% / 93.3% by channel.

What is #11ddee in HSL and HSV?

hsl(185, 87%, 50%) and hsv(185, 93%, 93%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #11ddee a light or a dark color?

It is a light color. Relative luminance is 0.5801 and perceived brightness is 74%, so black text on it reaches 12.60:1.

Should I use black or white text on #11ddee?

Black. It scores 12.60:1 against #11ddee, versus 1.67:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #11ddee accessible on a white background?

#11ddee on white scores 1.67:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #0A808A to reach 4.5:1, or #076169 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #11ddee?

#EE2211 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #EE116F and #EE9011, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #11ddee?

For interface work: #F4FAFA as the surface, #C0E9ED for borders, #4B959B for secondary text, #F30C34 as an accent and #086F77 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #11EE90 and #116FEE stays calm, while #EE2211 is the loudest partner.

What is #11ddee in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(93%, 7%, 0%, 7%). 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 #11ddee warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 89 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #11EEAE; nudged cooler, #0EB0F1.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #11ddee?

The cyan family — its 500 step is #06b6d4, ΔE2000 10.9 away. That is a visible difference, so define #11ddee as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #11ddee in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#11ddee] or text-[#11ddee], 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 #11ddee with 50% opacity?

rgba(17, 221, 238, 0.5), or #11ddee80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #88EEF7; over black, #096F77.

Is #11ddee a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #00CCFF, ΔE2000 11 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #11ddee 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 #11ddee?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #4AE5F2, #11ddee 45%, #086F77). For more colour, a short hue run to #0F31D1 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #11ddee in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #11ddee at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.