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cyan · cool

#17ade6

a balanced, electric cyan · cool · closest name: Deep Sky Blue

Token name suggestion: Signal Glacier

RGB
23, 173, 230
HSL
197°, 82%, 50%
CMYK
90, 25, 0, 10
Luminance
0.3578

#17ade6 is a balanced electric cyan, 197° on the wheel and 94/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (8.16:1). As text it scores 2.57:1 on white — use #117CA5 instead. Nearest name is Deep Sky Blue, nearest Tailwind family is sky.

hsl(197 82% 50%)rgb(23 173 230)Base step 600AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #17ade6 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#17ade6
Hue
197°
cyan
Saturation
82%
electric
Lightness
50%
balanced
Brightness
90%
HSV value
Perceived
60%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.3578
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
94/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Electric
Best ink
Black
8.16:1
Closest name
Deep Sky Blue
ΔE2000 5
Chroma
41.9
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.703
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
sky
500 · ΔE 3.7
Web-safe
#0099FF
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue197° of 360°
Saturation82%
Lightness50%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #17ade6.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool94% 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%
Green84%
Blue16%

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

Every format

HEX#17ade6
HEX (8-digit)#17ade6ff
RGBrgb(23, 173, 230)
RGBArgba(23, 173, 230, 1)
HSLhsl(197, 82%, 50%)
HSV / HSBhsv(197, 90%, 90%)
HWBhwb(197 9% 10%)
CMYKcmyk(90%, 25%, 0%, 10%)
LABlab(66.3 -16.1 -38.6)
LCHlch(66.3 41.9 247.3)
OKLCHoklch(0.703 0.139 231.8)
XYZ (D65)xyz(29.57, 35.78, 80.19)
Decimal1551846
Display P3color(display-p3 0.090 0.678 0.902)
Web-safe#0099FF

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #17ade6;
background-color: #17ade6;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #17ade6;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#17ade6] bg-[#17ade6]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #17ade6;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.090, green: 0.678, blue: 0.902)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.090, green: 0.678, blue: 0.902, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#17ADE6</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFF17ADE6)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFF17ADE6)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(230, 173, 23)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(23, 173, 230)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(23, 173, 230)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 23, 173, 230)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.0902f, 0.6784f, 0.9020f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{23,173,230}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #17ade6 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #17ade6 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#0C5774, #D3E7EE);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #17ade6 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: #F2FAFC;
  --brand-100: #E6F4F9;
  --brand-200: #C6E9F6;
  --brand-300: #99DCF5;
  --brand-400: #66CAF0;
  --brand-500: #33B8EB;
  --brand-600: #17ade6;
  --brand-700: #138CB9;
  --brand-800: #0F7094;
  --brand-900: #0F526B;
  --brand-950: #093343;
  --brand: #17ade6;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F4F9FA;
  --brand-border: #C0E0ED;
  --brand-hover: #1495C5;
  --brand-pressed: #117CA5;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #142024;
    --brand-ink: #D3E7EE;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F2FAFC',
        100: '#E6F4F9',
        200: '#C6E9F6',
        300: '#99DCF5',
        400: '#66CAF0',
        500: '#33B8EB',
        600: '#17ade6',
        700: '#138CB9',
        800: '#0F7094',
        900: '#0F526B',
        950: '#093343',
        DEFAULT: '#17ade6',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F2FAFC,
  '100': #E6F4F9,
  '200': #C6E9F6,
  '300': #99DCF5,
  '400': #66CAF0,
  '500': #33B8EB,
  '600': #17ade6,
  '700': #138CB9,
  '800': #0F7094,
  '900': #0F526B,
  '950': #093343,
);
$brand-base: #17ade6;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F2FAFC", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#E6F4F9", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#C6E9F6", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#99DCF5", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#66CAF0", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#33B8EB", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#17ade6", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#138CB9", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#0F7094", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#0F526B", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#093343", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #17ade6 · 8.16:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 2.57:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 8.16:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #17ade6 as text scores 2.57:1 on white and 8.16:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #0C5774 at 3.10:1.

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
#117CA5 · 4.72:1
AA on white−14% L
#117CA5
The quick fox
#0D6080 · 7.00:1
AAA on white−22% L
#0D6080
The quick fox
#17ade6 · 8.16:1
AA on blackalready passes
#17ade6
The quick fox
#17ade6 · 8.16:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#17ade6

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #159FD3 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
#17ade6 on white: 2.57:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#17ade6 on black: 8.16:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #17ade6 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #17ade6.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White2.57:1AaAa
Slate 502.46:1AaAa
Slate 1002.35:1AaAa
Slate 2002.09:1AaAa
Slate 3001.73:1AaAa
Slate 4001.00:1AaAa
Slate 5001.85:1AaAa
Slate 6002.94:1AaAa
Slate 7004.02:1AaAa
Slate 8005.68:1AaAa
Slate 9006.93:1AaAa
Black8.16:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #90ABE9
deuteranopia · #769AE5
tritanopia · #00BCC0

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. #17ade6 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.

#F2FAFC
#E6F4F9
#C6E9F6
#99DCF5
#66CAF0
#33B8EB
#17ade6
#138CB9
#0F7094
#0F526B
#093343
Base = 600Lightest = 50 · #F2FAFCDarkest = 950 · #093343Text 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 0.035 231.8);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.056 231.8);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.083 231.8);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.108 231.8);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.128 231.8);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.139 231.8);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.139 231.8);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.131 231.8);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.117 231.8);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.097 231.8);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.076 231.8);
}

Colors that work with #17ade6

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#F4F9FA
Tinted page background
Border#C0E0ED
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B859B
Captions on the surface
Accent#EB1712
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#0C5774
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#E8F7FD
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#142024
Dark-mode background
Hover#1495C5
One step down in lightness
Pressed#117CA5
Two steps down
Disabled#A7BEC7
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#1CBAF5
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 #17ade6

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 #0C5774
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #159FD3

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#E65017
Analogous left#17E6B7
Analogous right#1746E6
Split-complement 1#E61746
Split-complement 2#E6B717
Triadic 1#E617AD
Triadic 2#ADE617
Tetradic#B717E6
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°197°

#17ade6 sits at 197°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red9.0%
Green67.8%
Blue90.2%
R · 0–255
23
0x17
G · 0–255
173
0xad
B · 0–255
230
0xe6

CMYK percentages

Cyan90.0%
Magenta24.8%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)9.8%

Total ink coverage is 125%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#17ade6 text on a black background

contrast 8.16:1

Card sample

#17ade6 text on a white background

contrast 2.57:1

Card sample

#17ade6 on grey

2.35:1

#17ade6 on its own surface

2.42:1

#17ade6 on its dark surface

6.46:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #17ade6;
Background color
Panel with #17ade6 background
background-color: #17ade6;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #17ade6;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(23, 173, 230, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(23, 173, 230, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #17ade6;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #17ade6, #1723E6);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #17ade6, #3F17E6);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #17ade6;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #17ade6;
caret-color: #17ade6;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #17ade6;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #E8F7FD;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #17ade6;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#17ade6 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #17ade6 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(23, 173, 230, 0.5)
rgb(23 173 230 / 50%)
#17ade680
hsl(197 82% 50% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #17ade6 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#17ade61a#E8F7FD
20%#17ade633#D1EFFA
40%#17ade666#A2DEF5
60%#17ade699#74CEF0
80%#17ade6cc#45BDEB

Gradients from #17ade6

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, #4DC1ED, #17ade6 45%, #0C5774);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #17ade6, #1914CA);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #17ade6, #E65017);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #69CBF0 0%, #17ade6 45%, #0C5774 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F4F9FA, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #44ECB8 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #314BEA 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #0C5774 0%, transparent 65%), #17ade6;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #17ade6

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.

#17ade6 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 8.16:1.

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.

#17ade6, answered

What color is #17ade6?

#17ade6 is a balanced electric cyan, closest to Deep Sky Blue (ΔE2000 5). It sits at 197° on the hue wheel with 82% saturation and 50% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #17ade6?

rgb(23, 173, 230) — 23 red, 173 green and 230 blue out of 255, or 9% / 67.8% / 90.2% by channel.

What is #17ade6 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(197, 82%, 50%) and hsv(197, 90%, 90%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #17ade6 a light or a dark color?

It is a mid-tone. Relative luminance is 0.3578 and perceived brightness is 60%, so black text on it reaches 8.16:1.

Should I use black or white text on #17ade6?

Black. It scores 8.16:1 against #17ade6, versus 2.57:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #17ade6 accessible on a white background?

#17ade6 on white scores 2.57:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #117CA5 to reach 4.5:1, or #0D6080 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #17ade6?

#E65017 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #E61746 and #E6B717, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #17ade6?

For interface work: #F4F9FA as the surface, #C0E0ED for borders, #4B859B for secondary text, #EB1712 as an accent and #0C5774 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #17E6B7 and #1746E6 stays calm, while #E65017 is the loudest partner.

What is #17ade6 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(90%, 25%, 0%, 10%). 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 #17ade6 warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 94 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #17E6D3; nudged cooler, #1494E8.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #17ade6?

The sky family — its 500 step is #0ea5e9, ΔE2000 3.7 away. That is a visible difference, so define #17ade6 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #17ade6 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#17ade6] or text-[#17ade6], 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 #17ade6 with 50% opacity?

rgba(23, 173, 230, 0.5), or #17ade680 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #8BD6F3; over black, #0C5773.

Is #17ade6 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #0099FF, ΔE2000 10.5 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #17ade6 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 #17ade6?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #4DC1ED, #17ade6 45%, #0C5774). For more colour, a short hue run to #1914CA keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #17ade6 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #17ade6 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.