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cyan · cool

#2bbcaa

a balanced, vivid cyan · cool · closest name: Light Sea Green

Token name suggestion: Signal Lagoon

RGB
43, 188, 170
HSL
173°, 63%, 45%
CMYK
77, 0, 10, 26
Luminance
0.3938

#2bbcaa is a balanced vivid cyan, 173° on the wheel and 84/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (8.88:1). As text it scores 2.37:1 on white — use #1E8276 instead. Nearest name is Light Sea Green, nearest Tailwind family is teal.

hsl(173 63% 45%)rgb(43 188 170)Base step 600AAA inkCool

At a glance

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

Hex
#2bbcaa
Hue
173°
cyan
Saturation
63%
vivid
Lightness
45%
balanced
Brightness
74%
HSV value
Perceived
62%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.3938
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
84/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Vivid
Best ink
Black
8.88:1
Closest name
Light Sea Green
ΔE2000 4.3
Chroma
41.0
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.718
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
teal
500 · ΔE 1.3
Web-safe
#33CC99
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue173° of 360°
Saturation63%
Lightness45%
Saturation × lightness field

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

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool84% 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%
Green91%
Blue7%

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

Every format

HEX#2bbcaa
HEX (8-digit)#2bbcaaff
RGBrgb(43, 188, 170)
RGBArgba(43, 188, 170, 1)
HSLhsl(173, 63%, 45%)
HSV / HSBhsv(173, 77%, 74%)
HWBhwb(173 17% 26%)
CMYKcmyk(77%, 0%, 10%, 26%)
LABlab(69.0 -41.0 -1.5)
LCHlch(69.0 41.0 182.2)
OKLCHoklch(0.718 0.119 182.3)
XYZ (D65)xyz(26.23, 39.38, 44.24)
Decimal2866346
Display P3color(display-p3 0.169 0.737 0.667)
Web-safe#33CC99

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #2bbcaa;
background-color: #2bbcaa;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #2bbcaa;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#2bbcaa] bg-[#2bbcaa]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #2bbcaa;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.169, green: 0.737, blue: 0.667)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.169, green: 0.737, blue: 0.667, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#2BBCAA</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFF2BBCAA)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFF2BBCAA)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(170, 188, 43)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(43, 188, 170)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(43, 188, 170)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 43, 188, 170)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.1686f, 0.7373f, 0.6667f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{43,188,170}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #2bbcaa 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #2bbcaa 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#18685E, #D3EEEB);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #2bbcaa 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: #E8F7F5;
  --brand-200: #CCF0EC;
  --brand-300: #A4EAE1;
  --brand-400: #76E0D3;
  --brand-500: #48D5C4;
  --brand-600: #2bbcaa;
  --brand-700: #26A696;
  --brand-800: #1E8578;
  --brand-900: #1A6158;
  --brand-950: #103C37;
  --brand: #2bbcaa;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F4FAFA;
  --brand-border: #C0EDE7;
  --brand-hover: #249F90;
  --brand-pressed: #1E8276;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #142422;
    --brand-ink: #D3EEEB;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F4FBFA',
        100: '#E8F7F5',
        200: '#CCF0EC',
        300: '#A4EAE1',
        400: '#76E0D3',
        500: '#48D5C4',
        600: '#2bbcaa',
        700: '#26A696',
        800: '#1E8578',
        900: '#1A6158',
        950: '#103C37',
        DEFAULT: '#2bbcaa',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F4FBFA,
  '100': #E8F7F5,
  '200': #CCF0EC,
  '300': #A4EAE1,
  '400': #76E0D3,
  '500': #48D5C4,
  '600': #2bbcaa,
  '700': #26A696,
  '800': #1E8578,
  '900': #1A6158,
  '950': #103C37,
);
$brand-base: #2bbcaa;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F4FBFA", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#E8F7F5", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#CCF0EC", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#A4EAE1", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#76E0D3", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#48D5C4", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#2bbcaa", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#26A696", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#1E8578", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#1A6158", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#103C37", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #2bbcaa · 8.88:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 2.37:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 8.88:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #2bbcaa as text scores 2.37:1 on white and 8.88:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #18685E at 2.79:1.

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
#1E8276 · 4.66:1
AA on white−14% L
#1E8276
The quick fox
#166158 · 7.28:1
AAA on white−22% L
#166158
The quick fox
#2bbcaa · 8.88:1
AA on blackalready passes
#2bbcaa
The quick fox
#2bbcaa · 8.88:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#2bbcaa

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #25A394 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
#2bbcaa on white: 2.37:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#2bbcaa on black: 8.88:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

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

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White2.37:1AaAa
Slate 502.26:1AaAa
Slate 1002.16:1AaAa
Slate 2001.92:1AaAa
Slate 3001.59:1AaAa
Slate 4001.08:1AaAa
Slate 5002.01:1AaAa
Slate 6003.20:1AaAa
Slate 7004.38:1AaAa
Slate 8006.18:1AaAa
Slate 9007.55:1AaAa
Black8.88:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #B3B1A9
deuteranopia · #A0A3AC
tritanopia · #00C0B6

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. #2bbcaa 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.

#F4FBFA
#E8F7F5
#CCF0EC
#A4EAE1
#76E0D3
#48D5C4
#2bbcaa
#26A696
#1E8578
#1A6158
#103C37
Base = 600Lightest = 50 · #F4FBFADarkest = 950 · #103C37Text 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 0.030 182.3);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.048 182.3);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.072 182.3);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.093 182.3);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.110 182.3);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.119 182.3);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.119 182.3);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.112 182.3);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.100 182.3);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.084 182.3);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.066 182.3);
}

Colors that work with #2bbcaa

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#C0EDE7
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B9B91
Captions on the surface
Accent#C12660
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#18685E
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#EAFAF8
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#142422
Dark-mode background
Hover#249F90
One step down in lightness
Pressed#1E8276
Two steps down
Disabled#99BEB9
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#22D9C3
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 #2bbcaa

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 #18685E
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #25A394

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 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
  • FormalityMedium
  • EnergyMedium-high
  • Weight55/100
  • 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#BC2B3D
Analogous left#2BBC62
Analogous right#2B85BC
Split-complement 1#BC2B85
Split-complement 2#BC622B
Triadic 1#AA2BBC
Triadic 2#BCAA2B
Tetradic#622BBC
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°173°

#2bbcaa sits at 173°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red16.9%
Green73.7%
Blue66.7%
R · 0–255
43
0x2b
G · 0–255
188
0xbc
B · 0–255
170
0xaa

CMYK percentages

Cyan77.1%
Magenta0.0%
Yellow9.6%
Key (black)26.3%

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

Color previews

#2bbcaa text on a black background

contrast 8.88:1

Card sample

#2bbcaa text on a white background

contrast 2.37:1

Card sample

#2bbcaa on grey

2.16:1

#2bbcaa on its own surface

2.24:1

#2bbcaa on its dark surface

6.80:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

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

Glowing headline

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

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(43, 188, 170, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(43, 188, 170, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #2bbcaa;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #2bbcaa, #2B6DBC);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #2bbcaa, #2B49BC);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #2bbcaa;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #2bbcaa;
caret-color: #2bbcaa;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #2bbcaa;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #EAFAF8;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #2bbcaa;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#2bbcaa 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #2bbcaa 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, 188, 170, 0.5)
rgb(43 188 170 / 50%)
#2bbcaa80
hsl(173 63% 45% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #2bbcaa 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#2bbcaa1a#EAF8F7
20%#2bbcaa33#D5F2EE
40%#2bbcaa66#AAE4DD
60%#2bbcaa99#80D7CC
80%#2bbcaacc#55C9BB

Gradients from #2bbcaa

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, #4ED6C6, #2bbcaa 45%, #18685E);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #2bbcaa, #2554A3);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #2bbcaa, #BC2B3D);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #67DCCE 0%, #2bbcaa 45%, #18685E 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%, #45D56F 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #3589D1 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #18685E 0%, transparent 65%), #2bbcaa;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #2bbcaa

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.

#2bbcaa 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 8.88:1.

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.

#2bbcaa, answered

What color is #2bbcaa?

#2bbcaa is a balanced vivid cyan, closest to Light Sea Green (ΔE2000 4.3). It sits at 173° on the hue wheel with 63% saturation and 45% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #2bbcaa?

rgb(43, 188, 170) — 43 red, 188 green and 170 blue out of 255, or 16.9% / 73.7% / 66.7% by channel.

What is #2bbcaa in HSL and HSV?

hsl(173, 63%, 45%) and hsv(173, 77%, 74%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #2bbcaa a light or a dark color?

It is a mid-tone. Relative luminance is 0.3938 and perceived brightness is 62%, so black text on it reaches 8.88:1.

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

Black. It scores 8.88:1 against #2bbcaa, versus 2.37:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #2bbcaa accessible on a white background?

#2bbcaa on white scores 2.37:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #1E8276 to reach 4.5:1, or #166158 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #2bbcaa?

#BC2B3D sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #BC2B85 and #BC622B, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #2bbcaa?

For interface work: #F4FAFA as the surface, #C0EDE7 for borders, #4B9B91 for secondary text, #C12660 as an accent and #18685E for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #2BBC62 and #2B85BC stays calm, while #BC2B3D is the loudest partner.

What is #2bbcaa in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(77%, 0%, 10%, 26%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #2bbcaa warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 84 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #2BBC75; nudged cooler, #299ABE.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #2bbcaa?

The teal family — its 500 step is #14b8a6, ΔE2000 1.3 away. That is close enough to swap in without anyone noticing.

How do I use #2bbcaa in Tailwind CSS?

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

rgba(43, 188, 170, 0.5), or #2bbcaa80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #95DED5; over black, #165E55.

Is #2bbcaa a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #33CC99, ΔE2000 9.8 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #2bbcaa 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 #2bbcaa?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #4ED6C6, #2bbcaa 45%, #18685E). For more colour, a short hue run to #2554A3 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #2bbcaa in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

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