Skip to content
cyan · cool

#166152

a deep, vivid cyan · cool · closest name: Dark Slate Gray

Token name suggestion: Cellar Glacier

RGB
22, 97, 82
HSL
168°, 63%, 23%
CMYK
77, 0, 16, 62
Luminance
0.0933

#166152 is a deep vivid cyan, 168° on the wheel and 83/100 on the cool side. Put white text on it (7.33:1). As text it scores 7.33:1 on white — safe at any size. Nearest name is Dark Slate Gray, nearest Tailwind family is neutral.

hsl(168 63% 23%)rgb(22 97 82)Base step 900AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #166152 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#166152
Hue
168°
cyan
Saturation
63%
vivid
Lightness
23%
deep
Brightness
38%
HSV value
Perceived
31%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.0933
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
83/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Vivid
Best ink
White
7.33:1
Closest name
Dark Slate Gray
ΔE2000 11.1
Chroma
26.4
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.444
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
neutral
500 · ΔE 23.2
Web-safe
#006666
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue168° of 360°
Saturation63%
Lightness23%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #166152.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool83% 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
Red2%
Green92%
Blue7%

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

Every format

HEX#166152
HEX (8-digit)#166152ff
RGBrgb(22, 97, 82)
RGBArgba(22, 97, 82, 1)
HSLhsl(168, 63%, 23%)
HSV / HSBhsv(168, 77%, 38%)
HWBhwb(168 9% 62%)
CMYKcmyk(77%, 0%, 16%, 62%)
LABlab(36.6 -26.3 2.1)
LCHlch(36.6 26.4 175.4)
OKLCHoklch(0.444 0.075 176.0)
XYZ (D65)xyz(6.13, 9.33, 9.46)
Decimal1466706
Display P3color(display-p3 0.086 0.380 0.322)
Web-safe#006666

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #166152;
background-color: #166152;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #166152;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#166152] bg-[#166152]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #166152;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.086, green: 0.380, blue: 0.322)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.086, green: 0.380, blue: 0.322, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#166152</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFF166152)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFF166152)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(82, 97, 22)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(22, 97, 82)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(22, 97, 82)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 22, 97, 82)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.0863f, 0.3804f, 0.3216f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{22,97,82}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #166152 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #166152 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#186858, #D3EEE9);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #166152 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: #F4FBFA;
  --brand-100: #E8F7F4;
  --brand-200: #CBF0E9;
  --brand-300: #A4EADC;
  --brand-400: #76E0CB;
  --brand-500: #48D5B9;
  --brand-600: #2DC8A9;
  --brand-700: #26A68D;
  --brand-800: #1E8570;
  --brand-900: #166152;
  --brand-950: #103C34;
  --brand: #166152;
  --brand-ink: #ffffff;
  --brand-surface: #F4FAF9;
  --brand-border: #C0EDE4;
  --brand-hover: #0F4439;
  --brand-pressed: #092721;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #142421;
    --brand-ink: #D3EEE9;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F4FBFA',
        100: '#E8F7F4',
        200: '#CBF0E9',
        300: '#A4EADC',
        400: '#76E0CB',
        500: '#48D5B9',
        600: '#2DC8A9',
        700: '#26A68D',
        800: '#1E8570',
        900: '#166152',
        950: '#103C34',
        DEFAULT: '#166152',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F4FBFA,
  '100': #E8F7F4,
  '200': #CBF0E9,
  '300': #A4EADC,
  '400': #76E0CB,
  '500': #48D5B9,
  '600': #2DC8A9,
  '700': #26A68D,
  '800': #1E8570,
  '900': #166152,
  '950': #103C34,
);
$brand-base: #166152;
$brand-ink: #ffffff;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F4FBFA", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#E8F7F4", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#CBF0E9", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#A4EADC", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#76E0CB", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#48D5B9", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#2DC8A9", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#26A68D", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#1E8570", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#166152", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#103C34", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #166152 · 7.33:1
Use #ffffffAAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 7.33:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Aa
Black text · 2.87:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Reading the other direction: #166152 as text scores 7.33:1 on white and 2.87:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #EAFAF7 at 6.81:1.

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
#166152 · 7.33:1
AA on whitealready passes
#166152
The quick fox
#166152 · 7.33:1
AAA on whitealready passes
#166152
The quick fox
#1E8671 · 4.70:1
AA on black+9% L
#1E8671
The quick fox
#26A88E · 7.07:1
AAA on black+17% L
#26A88E

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #166152 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
#166152 on white: 7.33:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#166152 on black: 2.87:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #166152 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #166152.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White7.33:1AaAa
Slate 507.00:1AaAa
Slate 1006.69:1AaAa
Slate 2005.94:1AaAa
Slate 3004.94:1AaAa
Slate 4002.86:1AaAa
Slate 5001.54:1AaAa
Slate 6001.03:1AaAa
Slate 7001.41:1AaAa
Slate 8002.00:1AaAa
Slate 9002.44:1AaAa
Black2.87:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #5D5A51
deuteranopia · #535353
tritanopia · #00625D

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. #166152 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.

#F4FBFA
#E8F7F4
#CBF0E9
#A4EADC
#76E0CB
#48D5B9
#2DC8A9
#26A68D
#1E8570
#166152
#103C34
Base = 900Lightest = 50 · #F4FBFADarkest = 950 · #103C34Text step on white = 800
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 0.019 176.0);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.030 176.0);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.045 176.0);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.058 176.0);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.069 176.0);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.075 176.0);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.075 176.0);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.070 176.0);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.063 176.0);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.052 176.0);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.041 176.0);
}

Colors that work with #166152

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#F4FAF9
Tinted page background
Border#C0EDE4
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B9B8B
Captions on the surface
Accent#631437
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#186858
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#EAFAF7
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#142421
Dark-mode background
Hover#0F4439
One step down in lightness
Pressed#092721
Two steps down
Disabled#5A8D83
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#137864
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 #166152

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
  • Text on black or near-black surfaces
  • 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.

This is a confident chroma: strong enough to lead a brand, restrained enough to live in an interface all day. 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
  • EnergyMedium-high
  • Weight77/100
  • 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#611625
Analogous left#16612C
Analogous right#164A61
Split-complement 1#61164A
Split-complement 2#612C16
Triadic 1#521661
Triadic 2#615216
Tetradic#2C1661
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°168°

#166152 sits at 168°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red8.6%
Green38.0%
Blue32.2%
R · 0–255
22
0x16
G · 0–255
97
0x61
B · 0–255
82
0x52

CMYK percentages

Cyan77.3%
Magenta0.0%
Yellow15.5%
Key (black)62.0%

Total ink coverage is 155%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#166152 text on a black background

contrast 2.87:1

Card sample

#166152 text on a white background

contrast 7.33:1

Card sample

#166152 on grey

6.69:1

#166152 on its own surface

6.94:1

#166152 on its dark surface

2.20:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #166152;
Background color
Panel with #166152 background
background-color: #166152;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #166152;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(22, 97, 82, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(22, 97, 82, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #166152;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #166152, #163E61);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #166152, #162B61);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #166152;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #166152;
caret-color: #166152;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #166152;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #EAFAF7;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #166152;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#166152 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #166152 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(22, 97, 82, 0.5)
rgb(22 97 82 / 50%)
#16615280
hsl(168 63% 23% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #166152 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#1661521a#E8EFEE
20%#16615233#D0DFDC
40%#16615266#A2C0BA
60%#16615299#73A097
80%#166152cc#458175

Gradients from #166152

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, #21937C, #166152 45%, #186858);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #166152, #102948);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #166152, #611625);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #27AC91 0%, #166152 45%, #186858 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%, #1F8A37 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #1C567A 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #186858 0%, transparent 65%), #166152;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #166152

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.

#166152 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

Converts to four-color process without much drama. Proof it anyway.

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 2.87:1 — lift it to #1E8671 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.

#166152, answered

What color is #166152?

#166152 is a deep vivid cyan, closest to Dark Slate Gray (ΔE2000 11.1). It sits at 168° on the hue wheel with 63% saturation and 23% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #166152?

rgb(22, 97, 82) — 22 red, 97 green and 82 blue out of 255, or 8.6% / 38% / 32.2% by channel.

What is #166152 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(168, 63%, 23%) and hsv(168, 77%, 38%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #166152 a light or a dark color?

It is a dark color. Relative luminance is 0.0933 and perceived brightness is 31%, so white text on it reaches 7.33:1.

Should I use black or white text on #166152?

White. It scores 7.33:1 against #166152, versus 2.87:1 for black — AAA at any size.

Is #166152 accessible on a white background?

#166152 on white scores 7.33:1, which clears AAA at every size.

What is the complementary color of #166152?

#611625 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #61164A and #612C16, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #166152?

For interface work: #F4FAF9 as the surface, #C0EDE4 for borders, #4B9B8B for secondary text, #631437 as an accent and #186858 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #16612C and #164A61 stays calm, while #611625 is the loudest partner.

What is #166152 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(77%, 0%, 16%, 62%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #166152 warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 83 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #166136; nudged cooler, #155562.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #166152?

The neutral family — its 500 step is #737373, ΔE2000 23.2 away. That is a visible difference, so define #166152 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #166152 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#166152] or text-[#166152], 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 #166152 with 50% opacity?

rgba(22, 97, 82, 0.5), or #16615280 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #8BB0A9; over black, #0B3129.

Is #166152 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #006666, ΔE2000 7 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #166152 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 #166152?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #21937C, #166152 45%, #186858). For more colour, a short hue run to #102948 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #166152 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #166152 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.