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green · cool

#238d39

a dark, vivid green · cool · closest name: Forest Green

Token name suggestion: Shadow Moss

RGB
35, 141, 57
HSL
133°, 60%, 35%
CMYK
75, 0, 60, 45
Luminance
0.1970

#238d39 is a dark vivid green, 133° on the wheel and 68/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (4.94:1). As text it scores 4.25:1 on white — large text only. Nearest name is Forest Green, nearest Tailwind family is emerald.

hsl(133 60% 35%)rgb(35 141 57)Base step 800AA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #238d39 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#238d39
Hue
133°
green
Saturation
60%
vivid
Lightness
35%
dark
Brightness
55%
HSV value
Perceived
44%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.1970
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
68/100 cool
Color family
Green
Tone
Vivid
Best ink
Black
4.94:1
Closest name
Forest Green
ΔE2000 3.3
Chroma
59.6
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.566
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
emerald
500 · ΔE 16.1
Web-safe
#339933
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue133° of 360°
Saturation60%
Lightness35%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #238d39.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool68% 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%
Green97%
Blue1%

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

Every format

HEX#238d39
HEX (8-digit)#238d39ff
RGBrgb(35, 141, 57)
RGBArgba(35, 141, 57, 1)
HSLhsl(133, 60%, 35%)
HSV / HSBhsv(132, 75%, 55%)
HWBhwb(133 14% 45%)
CMYKcmyk(75%, 0%, 60%, 45%)
LABlab(51.5 -47.6 35.9)
LCHlch(51.5 59.6 143.0)
OKLCHoklch(0.566 0.154 146.5)
XYZ (D65)xyz(10.96, 19.70, 7.10)
Decimal2329913
Display P3color(display-p3 0.137 0.553 0.224)
Web-safe#339933

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #238d39;
background-color: #238d39;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #238d39;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#238d39] bg-[#238d39]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #238d39;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.137, green: 0.553, blue: 0.224)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.137, green: 0.553, blue: 0.224, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#238D39</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFF238D39)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFF238D39)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(57, 141, 35)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(35, 141, 57)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(35, 141, 57)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 35, 141, 57)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.1373f, 0.5529f, 0.2235f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{35,141,57}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #238d39 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #238d39 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#196629, #D3EED8);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #238d39 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: #F4FBF5;
  --brand-100: #E9F7EC;
  --brand-200: #CCEFD4;
  --brand-300: #A5E9B3;
  --brand-400: #78DE8D;
  --brand-500: #4BD267;
  --brand-600: #31C44F;
  --brand-700: #29A342;
  --brand-800: #238d39;
  --brand-900: #1B5F29;
  --brand-950: #113B1A;
  --brand: #238d39;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F4FAF6;
  --brand-border: #C0EDC9;
  --brand-hover: #1C702D;
  --brand-pressed: #155422;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #142417;
    --brand-ink: #D3EED8;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F4FBF5',
        100: '#E9F7EC',
        200: '#CCEFD4',
        300: '#A5E9B3',
        400: '#78DE8D',
        500: '#4BD267',
        600: '#31C44F',
        700: '#29A342',
        800: '#238d39',
        900: '#1B5F29',
        950: '#113B1A',
        DEFAULT: '#238d39',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F4FBF5,
  '100': #E9F7EC,
  '200': #CCEFD4,
  '300': #A5E9B3,
  '400': #78DE8D,
  '500': #4BD267,
  '600': #31C44F,
  '700': #29A342,
  '800': #238d39,
  '900': #1B5F29,
  '950': #113B1A,
);
$brand-base: #238d39;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F4FBF5", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#E9F7EC", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#CCEFD4", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#A5E9B3", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#78DE8D", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#4BD267", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#31C44F", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#29A342", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#238d39", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#1B5F29", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#113B1A", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #238d39 · 4.94:1
Use #000000AA at every size, AAA for large text only.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 4.25:1
AA fail · AA large pass · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 4.94:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA fail
Reading the other direction: #238d39 as text scores 4.25:1 on white and 4.94:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #196629 at 1.66:1.

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
#218536 · 4.69:1
AA on white−2% L
#218536
The quick fox
#196429 · 7.25:1
AAA on white−10% L
#196429
The quick fox
#238d39 · 4.94:1
AA on blackalready passes
#238d39
The quick fox
#2BAE46 · 7.25:1
AAA on black+8% L
#2BAE46

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #238D39 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
#238d39 on white: 4.25:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#238d39 on black: 4.94:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #238d39 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #238d39.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White4.25:1AaAa
Slate 504.06:1AaAa
Slate 1003.88:1AaAa
Slate 2003.45:1AaAa
Slate 3002.86:1AaAa
Slate 4001.66:1AaAa
Slate 5001.12:1AaAa
Slate 6001.78:1AaAa
Slate 7002.44:1AaAa
Slate 8003.44:1AaAa
Slate 9004.20:1AaAa
Black4.94:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #8F8031
deuteranopia · #837740
tritanopia · #008A7B

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. #238d39 is pinned to step 800; the rest hold its hue and let saturation ease off at the extremes so the pale end never turns neon.

#F4FBF5
#E9F7EC
#CCEFD4
#A5E9B3
#78DE8D
#4BD267
#31C44F
#29A342
#238d39
#1B5F29
#113B1A
Base = 800Lightest = 50 · #F4FBF5Darkest = 950 · #113B1AText 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 0.038 146.5);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.062 146.5);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.092 146.5);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.120 146.5);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.142 146.5);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.154 146.5);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.154 146.5);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.145 146.5);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.129 146.5);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.108 146.5);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.085 146.5);
}

Colors that work with #238d39

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#F4FAF6
Tinted page background
Border#C0EDC9
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B9B5B
Captions on the surface
Accent#8C1F90
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#196629
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#EBFAEE
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#142417
Dark-mode background
Hover#1C702D
One step down in lightness
Pressed#155422
Two steps down
Disabled#78A882
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#1DA73A
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 #238d39

Derived from its contrast, chroma and lightness — not from taste.

Works well for
  • Headings from 24px up on white
  • 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
  • Small text on white — under 4.5:1
  • Full-page backgrounds — tiring over long sessions
  • Black text placed on it
  • Status meaning — pair it with an icon or label, never colour alone
  • Pairing with a same-lightness hue — edges vibrate
Minimum size as text on white
24px / 18.66px bold
Safe as a fill behind white type
No — use #196629
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.

safegrowingnaturalpermissive

Green means go, well, and grown. It carries finance, sustainability and health with almost no explanation needed.

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

Red/green pairs are the most common colour-blindness failure — never let the two carry meaning alone.

Reads as
  • FormalityHigh
  • EnergyMedium-high
  • Weight66/100
  • 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#8D2377
Analogous left#428D23
Analogous right#238D6E
Split-complement 1#6E238D
Split-complement 2#8D2342
Triadic 1#39238D
Triadic 2#8D3923
Tetradic#23428D
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°133°

#238d39 sits at 133°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red13.7%
Green55.3%
Blue22.4%
R · 0–255
35
0x23
G · 0–255
141
0x8d
B · 0–255
57
0x39

CMYK percentages

Cyan75.2%
Magenta0.0%
Yellow59.6%
Key (black)44.7%

Total ink coverage is 180%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#238d39 text on a black background

contrast 4.94:1

Card sample

#238d39 text on a white background

contrast 4.25:1

Card sample

#238d39 on grey

3.88:1

#238d39 on its own surface

4.02:1

#238d39 on its dark surface

3.82:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #238d39;
Background color
Panel with #238d39 background
background-color: #238d39;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #238d39;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(35, 141, 57, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(35, 141, 57, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #238d39;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #238d39, #238D80);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #238d39, #23808D);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #238d39;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #238d39;
caret-color: #238d39;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #238d39;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #EBFAEE;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #238d39;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#238d39 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #238d39 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(35, 141, 57, 0.5)
rgb(35 141 57 / 50%)
#238d3980
hsl(133 60% 35% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #238d39 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#238d391a#E9F4EB
20%#238d3933#D3E8D7
40%#238d3966#A7D1B0
60%#238d3999#7BBB88
80%#238d39cc#4FA461

Gradients from #238d39

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, #2FBE4D, #238d39 45%, #196629);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #238d39, #1D7471);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #238d39, #8D2377);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #3DCF5B 0%, #238d39 45%, #196629 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F4FAF6, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #60B62D 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #29A58C 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #196629 0%, transparent 65%), #238d39;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #238d39

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.

#238d39 in the real world

Where a color in this family tends to land, and the interface roles it is usually asked to play.

Industries
SustainabilityFinanceHealth and wellnessAgriculture
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

Usable as-is on a dark surface at 4.94:1.

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.

#238d39, answered

What color is #238d39?

#238d39 is a dark vivid green, closest to Forest Green (ΔE2000 3.3). It sits at 133° on the hue wheel with 60% saturation and 35% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #238d39?

rgb(35, 141, 57) — 35 red, 141 green and 57 blue out of 255, or 13.7% / 55.3% / 22.4% by channel.

What is #238d39 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(133, 60%, 35%) and hsv(132, 75%, 55%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #238d39 a light or a dark color?

It is a mid-tone. Relative luminance is 0.1970 and perceived brightness is 44%, so black text on it reaches 4.94:1.

Should I use black or white text on #238d39?

Black. It scores 4.94:1 against #238d39, versus 4.25:1 for white — AA at any size.

Is #238d39 accessible on a white background?

#238d39 on white scores 4.25:1, which only clears AA for large text — 18.66px bold or 24px regular and up. Darken it to #218536 to reach 4.5:1, or #196429 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #238d39?

#8D2377 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #6E238D and #8D2342, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #238d39?

For interface work: #F4FAF6 as the surface, #C0EDC9 for borders, #4B9B5B for secondary text, #8C1F90 as an accent and #196629 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #428D23 and #238D6E stays calm, while #8D2377 is the loudest partner.

What is #238d39 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(75%, 0%, 60%, 45%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #238d39 warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 68 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #348D23; nudged cooler, #218F60.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #238d39?

The emerald family — its 500 step is #10b981, ΔE2000 16.1 away. That is a visible difference, so define #238d39 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #238d39 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#238d39] or text-[#238d39], 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 #238d39 with 50% opacity?

rgba(35, 141, 57, 0.5), or #238d3980 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #91C69C; over black, #12471D.

Is #238d39 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #339933, ΔE2000 4.9 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #238d39 mean?

As a green, it reads safe, growing, natural. Green means go, well, and grown. It carries finance, sustainability and health with almost no explanation needed. At this chroma the effect is amplified — it will dominate whatever sits beside it.

What gradient works with #238d39?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #2FBE4D, #238d39 45%, #196629). For more colour, a short hue run to #1D7471 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #238d39 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #238d39 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.