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cyan · cool

#2ba7ad

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

Token name suggestion: Shadow Teal

RGB
43, 167, 173
HSL
183°, 60%, 42%
CMYK
75, 4, 0, 32
Luminance
0.3117

#2ba7ad is a dark vivid cyan, 183° on the wheel and 89/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (7.23:1). As text it scores 2.90:1 on white — use #218084 instead. Nearest name is Cadet Blue, nearest Tailwind family is cyan.

hsl(183 60% 42%)rgb(43 167 173)Base step 700AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #2ba7ad is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#2ba7ad
Hue
183°
cyan
Saturation
60%
vivid
Lightness
42%
dark
Brightness
68%
HSV value
Perceived
56%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.3117
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
89/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Vivid
Best ink
Black
7.23:1
Closest name
Cadet Blue
ΔE2000 5.7
Chroma
32.9
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.666
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
cyan
500 · ΔE 9
Web-safe
#339999
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue183° of 360°
Saturation60%
Lightness42%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #2ba7ad.

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
Red2%
Green89%
Blue10%

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

Every format

HEX#2ba7ad
HEX (8-digit)#2ba7adff
RGBrgb(43, 167, 173)
RGBArgba(43, 167, 173, 1)
HSLhsl(183, 60%, 42%)
HSV / HSBhsv(183, 75%, 68%)
HWBhwb(183 17% 32%)
CMYKcmyk(75%, 4%, 0%, 32%)
LABlab(62.6 -30.4 -12.7)
LCHlch(62.6 32.9 202.7)
OKLCHoklch(0.666 0.103 199.9)
XYZ (D65)xyz(22.35, 31.17, 44.36)
Decimal2860973
Display P3color(display-p3 0.169 0.655 0.678)
Web-safe#339999

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #2ba7ad;
background-color: #2ba7ad;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #2ba7ad;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#2ba7ad] bg-[#2ba7ad]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #2ba7ad;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.169, green: 0.655, blue: 0.678)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.169, green: 0.655, blue: 0.678, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#2BA7AD</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFF2BA7AD)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFF2BA7AD)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(173, 167, 43)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(43, 167, 173)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(43, 167, 173)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 43, 167, 173)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.1686f, 0.6549f, 0.6784f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{43,167,173}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #2ba7ad 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #2ba7ad 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#196366, #D3EDEE);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #2ba7ad 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: #F4FBFB;
  --brand-100: #E9F6F7;
  --brand-200: #CCEEEF;
  --brand-300: #A5E6E9;
  --brand-400: #78D9DE;
  --brand-500: #4BCCD2;
  --brand-600: #31BDC4;
  --brand-700: #2ba7ad;
  --brand-800: #207E83;
  --brand-900: #1B5C5F;
  --brand-950: #11393B;
  --brand: #2ba7ad;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F4FAFA;
  --brand-border: #C0EBED;
  --brand-hover: #248C91;
  --brand-pressed: #1D7074;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #142424;
    --brand-ink: #D3EDEE;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F4FBFB',
        100: '#E9F6F7',
        200: '#CCEEEF',
        300: '#A5E6E9',
        400: '#78D9DE',
        500: '#4BCCD2',
        600: '#31BDC4',
        700: '#2ba7ad',
        800: '#207E83',
        900: '#1B5C5F',
        950: '#11393B',
        DEFAULT: '#2ba7ad',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F4FBFB,
  '100': #E9F6F7,
  '200': #CCEEEF,
  '300': #A5E6E9,
  '400': #78D9DE,
  '500': #4BCCD2,
  '600': #31BDC4,
  '700': #2ba7ad,
  '800': #207E83,
  '900': #1B5C5F,
  '950': #11393B,
);
$brand-base: #2ba7ad;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F4FBFB", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#E9F6F7", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#CCEEEF", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#A5E6E9", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#78D9DE", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#4BCCD2", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#31BDC4", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#2ba7ad", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#207E83", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#1B5C5F", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#11393B", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #2ba7ad · 7.23:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 2.90:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 7.23:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #2ba7ad as text scores 2.90:1 on white and 7.23:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #196366 at 2.40:1.

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
#218084 · 4.68:1
AA on white−10% L
#218084
The quick fox
#196064 · 7.25:1
AAA on white−18% L
#196064
The quick fox
#2ba7ad · 7.23:1
AA on blackalready passes
#2ba7ad
The quick fox
#2ba7ad · 7.23:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#2ba7ad

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #2AA3A9 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
#2ba7ad on white: 2.90:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#2ba7ad on black: 7.23:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #2ba7ad as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #2ba7ad.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White2.90:1AaAa
Slate 502.77:1AaAa
Slate 1002.65:1AaAa
Slate 2002.35:1AaAa
Slate 3001.96:1AaAa
Slate 4001.13:1AaAa
Slate 5001.64:1AaAa
Slate 6002.61:1AaAa
Slate 7003.57:1AaAa
Slate 8005.04:1AaAa
Slate 9006.15:1AaAa
Black7.23:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #9A9FAE
deuteranopia · #8892AE
tritanopia · #00ADA9

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. #2ba7ad is pinned to step 700; the rest hold its hue and let saturation ease off at the extremes so the pale end never turns neon.

#F4FBFB
#E9F6F7
#CCEEEF
#A5E6E9
#78D9DE
#4BCCD2
#31BDC4
#2ba7ad
#207E83
#1B5C5F
#11393B
Base = 700Lightest = 50 · #F4FBFBDarkest = 950 · #11393BText 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 0.026 199.9);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.041 199.9);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.062 199.9);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.081 199.9);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.095 199.9);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.103 199.9);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.103 199.9);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.097 199.9);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.087 199.9);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.072 199.9);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.057 199.9);
}

Colors that work with #2ba7ad

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#C0EBED
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B979B
Captions on the surface
Accent#B22743
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#196366
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#EBF9FA
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#142424
Dark-mode background
Hover#248C91
One step down in lightness
Pressed#1D7074
Two steps down
Disabled#90B6B8
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#23C2C9
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 #2ba7ad

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 #196366
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #2AA3A9

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
  • Weight58/100
  • 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#AD312B
Analogous left#2BAD72
Analogous right#2B66AD
Split-complement 1#AD2B66
Split-complement 2#AD722B
Triadic 1#AD2BA7
Triadic 2#A7AD2B
Tetradic#722BAD
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°183°

#2ba7ad sits at 183°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red16.9%
Green65.5%
Blue67.8%
R · 0–255
43
0x2b
G · 0–255
167
0xa7
B · 0–255
173
0xad

CMYK percentages

Cyan75.1%
Magenta3.5%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)32.2%

Total ink coverage is 111%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#2ba7ad text on a black background

contrast 7.23:1

Card sample

#2ba7ad text on a white background

contrast 2.90:1

Card sample

#2ba7ad on grey

2.65:1

#2ba7ad on its own surface

2.75:1

#2ba7ad on its dark surface

5.53:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #2ba7ad;
Background color
Panel with #2ba7ad background
background-color: #2ba7ad;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #2ba7ad;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(43, 167, 173, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(43, 167, 173, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #2ba7ad;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #2ba7ad, #2B50AD);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #2ba7ad, #2B30AD);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #2ba7ad;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #2ba7ad;
caret-color: #2ba7ad;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #2ba7ad;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #EBF9FA;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #2ba7ad;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#2ba7ad 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #2ba7ad 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(43, 167, 173, 0.5)
rgb(43 167 173 / 50%)
#2ba7ad80
hsl(183 60% 42% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #2ba7ad 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#2ba7ad1a#EAF6F7
20%#2ba7ad33#D5EDEF
40%#2ba7ad66#AADCDE
60%#2ba7ad99#80CACE
80%#2ba7adcc#55B9BD

Gradients from #2ba7ad

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, #45CAD1, #2ba7ad 45%, #196366);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #2ba7ad, #253C95);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #2ba7ad, #AD312B);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #5DD1D7 0%, #2ba7ad 45%, #196366 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%, #3DCF80 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #3168C6 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #196366 0%, transparent 65%), #2ba7ad;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #2ba7ad

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.

#2ba7ad 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 7.23:1.

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.

#2ba7ad, answered

What color is #2ba7ad?

#2ba7ad is a dark vivid cyan, closest to Cadet Blue (ΔE2000 5.7). It sits at 183° on the hue wheel with 60% saturation and 42% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #2ba7ad?

rgb(43, 167, 173) — 43 red, 167 green and 173 blue out of 255, or 16.9% / 65.5% / 67.8% by channel.

What is #2ba7ad in HSL and HSV?

hsl(183, 60%, 42%) and hsv(183, 75%, 68%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #2ba7ad a light or a dark color?

It is a mid-tone. Relative luminance is 0.3117 and perceived brightness is 56%, so black text on it reaches 7.23:1.

Should I use black or white text on #2ba7ad?

Black. It scores 7.23:1 against #2ba7ad, versus 2.90:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #2ba7ad accessible on a white background?

#2ba7ad on white scores 2.90:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #218084 to reach 4.5:1, or #196064 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #2ba7ad?

#AD312B sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #AD2B66 and #AD722B, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #2ba7ad?

For interface work: #F4FAFA as the surface, #C0EBED for borders, #4B979B for secondary text, #B22743 as an accent and #196366 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #2BAD72 and #2B66AD stays calm, while #AD312B is the loudest partner.

What is #2ba7ad in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(75%, 4%, 0%, 32%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #2ba7ad 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 #2BAD84; nudged cooler, #2982AF.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #2ba7ad?

The cyan family — its 500 step is #06b6d4, ΔE2000 9 away. That is a visible difference, so define #2ba7ad as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #2ba7ad in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#2ba7ad] or text-[#2ba7ad], 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 #2ba7ad with 50% opacity?

rgba(43, 167, 173, 0.5), or #2ba7ad80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #95D3D6; over black, #165457.

Is #2ba7ad a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #339999, ΔE2000 4.9 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #2ba7ad 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 #2ba7ad?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #45CAD1, #2ba7ad 45%, #196366). For more colour, a short hue run to #253C95 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #2ba7ad in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #2ba7ad at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.