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cyan · cool

#27adbb

a dark, vivid cyan · cool · closest name: Cadet Blue

Token name suggestion: Slate Glacier

RGB
39, 173, 187
HSL
186°, 66%, 44%
CMYK
79, 8, 0, 27
Luminance
0.3391

#27adbb is a dark vivid cyan, 186° on the wheel and 90/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (7.78:1). As text it scores 2.70:1 on white — use #1D828D instead. Nearest name is Cadet Blue, nearest Tailwind family is cyan.

hsl(186 66% 44%)rgb(39 173 187)Base step 600AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #27adbb is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#27adbb
Hue
186°
cyan
Saturation
66%
vivid
Lightness
44%
dark
Brightness
73%
HSV value
Perceived
58%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.3391
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
90/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Vivid
Best ink
Black
7.78:1
Closest name
Cadet Blue
ΔE2000 7.3
Chroma
34.0
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.686
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
cyan
500 · ΔE 5.6
Web-safe
#3399CC
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue186° of 360°
Saturation66%
Lightness44%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #27adbb.

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#27adbb
HEX (8-digit)#27adbbff
RGBrgb(39, 173, 187)
RGBArgba(39, 173, 187, 1)
HSLhsl(186, 66%, 44%)
HSV / HSBhsv(186, 79%, 73%)
HWBhwb(186 15% 27%)
CMYKcmyk(79%, 8%, 0%, 27%)
LABlab(64.9 -29.4 -17.1)
LCHlch(64.9 34.0 210.2)
OKLCHoklch(0.686 0.109 205.8)
XYZ (D65)xyz(24.75, 33.90, 52.24)
Decimal2600379
Display P3color(display-p3 0.153 0.678 0.733)
Web-safe#3399CC

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #27adbb;
background-color: #27adbb;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #27adbb;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#27adbb] bg-[#27adbb]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #27adbb;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.153, green: 0.678, blue: 0.733)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.153, green: 0.678, blue: 0.733, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#27ADBB</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFF27ADBB)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFF27ADBB)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(187, 173, 39)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(39, 173, 187)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(39, 173, 187)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 39, 173, 187)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.1529f, 0.6784f, 0.7333f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{39,173,187}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #27adbb 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #27adbb 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#16626A, #D3ECEE);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #27adbb 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: #F3FBFB;
  --brand-100: #E8F6F8;
  --brand-200: #CBEDF1;
  --brand-300: #A2E5EC;
  --brand-400: #74D7E2;
  --brand-500: #45CAD8;
  --brand-600: #27adbb;
  --brand-700: #239CA9;
  --brand-800: #1C7D87;
  --brand-900: #185B62;
  --brand-950: #0F393D;
  --brand: #27adbb;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F4FAFA;
  --brand-border: #C0E8ED;
  --brand-hover: #21929D;
  --brand-pressed: #1B7680;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #142324;
    --brand-ink: #D3ECEE;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F3FBFB',
        100: '#E8F6F8',
        200: '#CBEDF1',
        300: '#A2E5EC',
        400: '#74D7E2',
        500: '#45CAD8',
        600: '#27adbb',
        700: '#239CA9',
        800: '#1C7D87',
        900: '#185B62',
        950: '#0F393D',
        DEFAULT: '#27adbb',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F3FBFB,
  '100': #E8F6F8,
  '200': #CBEDF1,
  '300': #A2E5EC,
  '400': #74D7E2,
  '500': #45CAD8,
  '600': #27adbb,
  '700': #239CA9,
  '800': #1C7D87,
  '900': #185B62,
  '950': #0F393D,
);
$brand-base: #27adbb;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F3FBFB", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#E8F6F8", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#CBEDF1", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#A2E5EC", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#74D7E2", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#45CAD8", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#27adbb", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#239CA9", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#1C7D87", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#185B62", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#0F393D", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #27adbb · 7.78:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 2.70:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 7.78:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #27adbb as text scores 2.70:1 on white and 7.78:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #16626A at 2.60:1.

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
#1D828D · 4.54:1
AA on white−11% L
#1D828D
The quick fox
#155F67 · 7.33:1
AAA on white−20% L
#155F67
The quick fox
#27adbb · 7.78:1
AA on blackalready passes
#27adbb
The quick fox
#27adbb · 7.78:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#27adbb

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #24A1AE 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
#27adbb on white: 2.70:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#27adbb on black: 7.78:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #27adbb as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #27adbb.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White2.70:1AaAa
Slate 502.58:1AaAa
Slate 1002.46:1AaAa
Slate 2002.19:1AaAa
Slate 3001.82:1AaAa
Slate 4001.05:1AaAa
Slate 5001.76:1AaAa
Slate 6002.81:1AaAa
Slate 7003.84:1AaAa
Slate 8005.42:1AaAa
Slate 9006.62:1AaAa
Black7.78:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #9EA6BC
deuteranopia · #8A97BB
tritanopia · #00B5B1

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. #27adbb 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.

#F3FBFB
#E8F6F8
#CBEDF1
#A2E5EC
#74D7E2
#45CAD8
#27adbb
#239CA9
#1C7D87
#185B62
#0F393D
Base = 600Lightest = 50 · #F3FBFBDarkest = 950 · #0F393DText 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 0.027 205.8);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.044 205.8);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.066 205.8);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.085 205.8);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.101 205.8);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.109 205.8);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.109 205.8);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.103 205.8);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.092 205.8);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.077 205.8);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.060 205.8);
}

Colors that work with #27adbb

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#C0E8ED
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B939B
Captions on the surface
Accent#BF223B
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#16626A
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#EAF9FB
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#142324
Dark-mode background
Hover#21929D
One step down in lightness
Pressed#1B7680
Two steps down
Disabled#96B8BC
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#1EC6D8
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 #27adbb

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
  • Headers, footers and dark-mode surfaces
  • Brand accents, badges and data highlights
Use with care
  • Text of any size on white — fails WCAG AA
  • 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
Not as text
Safe as a fill behind white type
No — use #16626A
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #24A1AE

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
  • Weight56/100
  • 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#BB3527
Analogous left#27BB7F
Analogous right#2763BB
Split-complement 1#BB2763
Split-complement 2#BB7F27
Triadic 1#BB27AD
Triadic 2#ADBB27
Tetradic#7F27BB
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°186°

#27adbb sits at 186°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red15.3%
Green67.8%
Blue73.3%
R · 0–255
39
0x27
G · 0–255
173
0xad
B · 0–255
187
0xbb

CMYK percentages

Cyan79.1%
Magenta7.5%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)26.7%

Total ink coverage is 113%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#27adbb text on a black background

contrast 7.78:1

Card sample

#27adbb text on a white background

contrast 2.70:1

Card sample

#27adbb on grey

2.46:1

#27adbb on its own surface

2.56:1

#27adbb on its dark surface

6.01:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #27adbb;
Background color
Panel with #27adbb background
background-color: #27adbb;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #27adbb;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(39, 173, 187, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(39, 173, 187, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #27adbb;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #27adbb, #274ABB);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #27adbb, #2927BB);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #27adbb;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #27adbb;
caret-color: #27adbb;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #27adbb;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #EAF9FB;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #27adbb;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#27adbb 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #27adbb 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(39, 173, 187, 0.5)
rgb(39 173 187 / 50%)
#27adbb80
hsl(186 66% 44% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #27adbb 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#27adbb1a#E9F7F8
20%#27adbb33#D4EFF1
40%#27adbb66#A9DEE4
60%#27adbb99#7DCED6
80%#27adbbcc#52BDC9

Gradients from #27adbb

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, #47CBD9, #27adbb 45%, #16626A);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #27adbb, #2236A2);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #27adbb, #BB3527);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #60D2DE 0%, #27adbb 45%, #16626A 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%, #3ED78C 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #2D63D3 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #16626A 0%, transparent 65%), #27adbb;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #27adbb

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.

#27adbb 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

Usable as-is on a dark surface at 7.78:1.

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.

#27adbb, answered

What color is #27adbb?

#27adbb is a dark vivid cyan, closest to Cadet Blue (ΔE2000 7.3). It sits at 186° on the hue wheel with 66% saturation and 44% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #27adbb?

rgb(39, 173, 187) — 39 red, 173 green and 187 blue out of 255, or 15.3% / 67.8% / 73.3% by channel.

What is #27adbb in HSL and HSV?

hsl(186, 66%, 44%) and hsv(186, 79%, 73%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #27adbb a light or a dark color?

It is a mid-tone. Relative luminance is 0.3391 and perceived brightness is 58%, so black text on it reaches 7.78:1.

Should I use black or white text on #27adbb?

Black. It scores 7.78:1 against #27adbb, versus 2.70:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #27adbb accessible on a white background?

#27adbb on white scores 2.70:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #1D828D to reach 4.5:1, or #155F67 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #27adbb?

#BB3527 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #BB2763 and #BB7F27, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #27adbb?

For interface work: #F4FAFA as the surface, #C0E8ED for borders, #4B939B for secondary text, #BF223B as an accent and #16626A for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #27BB7F and #2763BB stays calm, while #BB3527 is the loudest partner.

What is #27adbb in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(79%, 8%, 0%, 27%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #27adbb 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 #27BB93; nudged cooler, #2589BD.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #27adbb?

The cyan family — its 500 step is #06b6d4, ΔE2000 5.6 away. That is a visible difference, so define #27adbb as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #27adbb in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#27adbb] or text-[#27adbb], 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 #27adbb with 50% opacity?

rgba(39, 173, 187, 0.5), or #27adbb80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #93D6DD; over black, #14575E.

Is #27adbb a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #3399CC, ΔE2000 14.2 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #27adbb 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 #27adbb?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #47CBD9, #27adbb 45%, #16626A). For more colour, a short hue run to #2236A2 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #27adbb in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #27adbb at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.