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cyan · cool

#2ae6eb

a balanced, electric cyan · cool · closest name: Cyan

Token name suggestion: Atlas Reef

RGB
42, 230, 235
HSL
182°, 83%, 54%
CMYK
82, 2, 0, 8
Luminance
0.6308

#2ae6eb is a balanced electric cyan, 182° on the wheel and 88/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (13.62:1). As text it scores 1.54:1 on white — use #0C8184 instead. Nearest name is Cyan, nearest Tailwind family is teal.

hsl(182 83% 54%)rgb(42 230 235)Base step 500AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #2ae6eb is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#2ae6eb
Hue
182°
cyan
Saturation
83%
electric
Lightness
54%
balanced
Brightness
92%
HSV value
Perceived
76%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.6308
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
88/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Electric
Best ink
Black
13.62:1
Closest name
Cyan
ΔE2000 5.6
Chroma
44.0
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.842
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
teal
500 · ΔE 14.3
Web-safe
#33FFFF
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue182° of 360°
Saturation83%
Lightness54%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #2ae6eb.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool88% 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%
Green90%
Blue10%

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

Every format

HEX#2ae6eb
HEX (8-digit)#2ae6ebff
RGBrgb(42, 230, 235)
RGBArgba(42, 230, 235, 1)
HSLhsl(182, 83%, 54%)
HSV / HSBhsv(182, 82%, 92%)
HWBhwb(182 16% 8%)
CMYKcmyk(82%, 2%, 0%, 8%)
LABlab(83.5 -41.3 -15.1)
LCHlch(83.5 44.0 200.0)
OKLCHoklch(0.842 0.137 197.8)
XYZ (D65)xyz(44.24, 63.08, 88.42)
Decimal2811627
Display P3color(display-p3 0.165 0.902 0.922)
Web-safe#33FFFF

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #2ae6eb;
background-color: #2ae6eb;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #2ae6eb;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#2ae6eb] bg-[#2ae6eb]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #2ae6eb;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.165, green: 0.902, blue: 0.922)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.165, green: 0.902, blue: 0.922, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#2AE6EB</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFF2AE6EB)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFF2AE6EB)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(235, 230, 42)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(42, 230, 235)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(42, 230, 235)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 42, 230, 235)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.1647f, 0.9020f, 0.9216f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{42,230,235}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #2ae6eb 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #2ae6eb 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#0B7275, #D3EDEE);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #2ae6eb 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: #F2FCFC;
  --brand-100: #E6F9FA;
  --brand-200: #C6F5F6;
  --brand-300: #98F3F5;
  --brand-400: #65EDF1;
  --brand-500: #2ae6eb;
  --brand-600: #15DAE0;
  --brand-700: #12B6BA;
  --brand-800: #0E9295;
  --brand-900: #0F696C;
  --brand-950: #094243;
  --brand: #2ae6eb;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F4FAFA;
  --brand-border: #C0EBED;
  --brand-hover: #15D7DC;
  --brand-pressed: #12B7BC;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #142424;
    --brand-ink: #D3EDEE;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F2FCFC',
        100: '#E6F9FA',
        200: '#C6F5F6',
        300: '#98F3F5',
        400: '#65EDF1',
        500: '#2ae6eb',
        600: '#15DAE0',
        700: '#12B6BA',
        800: '#0E9295',
        900: '#0F696C',
        950: '#094243',
        DEFAULT: '#2ae6eb',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F2FCFC,
  '100': #E6F9FA,
  '200': #C6F5F6,
  '300': #98F3F5,
  '400': #65EDF1,
  '500': #2ae6eb,
  '600': #15DAE0,
  '700': #12B6BA,
  '800': #0E9295,
  '900': #0F696C,
  '950': #094243,
);
$brand-base: #2ae6eb;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F2FCFC", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#E6F9FA", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#C6F5F6", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#98F3F5", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#65EDF1", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#2ae6eb", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#15DAE0", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#12B6BA", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#0E9295", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#0F696C", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#094243", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #2ae6eb · 13.62:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 1.54:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 13.62:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #2ae6eb as text scores 1.54:1 on white and 13.62:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #0B7275 at 3.70:1.

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
#0C8184 · 4.68:1
AA on white−26% L
#0C8184
The quick fox
#096163 · 7.24:1
AAA on white−33% L
#096163
The quick fox
#2ae6eb · 13.62:1
AA on blackalready passes
#2ae6eb
The quick fox
#2ae6eb · 13.62:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#2ae6eb

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #10A5A9 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
#2ae6eb on white: 1.54:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#2ae6eb on black: 13.62:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #2ae6eb as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #2ae6eb.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White1.54:1AaAa
Slate 501.47:1AaAa
Slate 1001.41:1AaAa
Slate 2001.25:1AaAa
Slate 3001.04:1AaAa
Slate 4001.66:1AaAa
Slate 5003.09:1AaAa
Slate 6004.91:1AaAa
Slate 7006.71:1AaAa
Slate 8009.49:1AaAa
Slate 90011.58:1AaAa
Black13.62:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #D5DBEC
deuteranopia · #BCC8EC
tritanopia · #00EEE7

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. #2ae6eb is pinned to step 500; the rest hold its hue and let saturation ease off at the extremes so the pale end never turns neon.

#F2FCFC
#E6F9FA
#C6F5F6
#98F3F5
#65EDF1
#2ae6eb
#15DAE0
#12B6BA
#0E9295
#0F696C
#094243
Base = 500Lightest = 50 · #F2FCFCDarkest = 950 · #094243Text 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 0.034 197.8);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.055 197.8);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.082 197.8);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.107 197.8);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.126 197.8);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.137 197.8);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.137 197.8);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.129 197.8);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.115 197.8);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.096 197.8);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.076 197.8);
}

Colors that work with #2ae6eb

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#4B999B
Captions on the surface
Accent#F02552
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#0B7275
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#E8FCFD
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#142424
Dark-mode background
Hover#15D7DC
One step down in lightness
Pressed#12B7BC
Two steps down
Disabled#B5CFD0
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#32F2F7
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 #2ae6eb

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 #0B7275
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #10A5A9

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
  • Weight46/100
  • 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#EB2F2A
Analogous left#2AEB90
Analogous right#2A85EB
Split-complement 1#EB2A85
Split-complement 2#EB902A
Triadic 1#EB2AE6
Triadic 2#E6EB2A
Tetradic#902AEB
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°182°

#2ae6eb sits at 182°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red16.5%
Green90.2%
Blue92.2%
R · 0–255
42
0x2a
G · 0–255
230
0xe6
B · 0–255
235
0xeb

CMYK percentages

Cyan82.1%
Magenta2.1%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)7.8%

Total ink coverage is 92%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#2ae6eb text on a black background

contrast 13.62:1

Card sample

#2ae6eb text on a white background

contrast 1.54:1

Card sample

#2ae6eb on grey

1.41:1

#2ae6eb on its own surface

1.46:1

#2ae6eb on its dark surface

10.41:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #2ae6eb;
Background color
Panel with #2ae6eb background
background-color: #2ae6eb;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #2ae6eb;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(42, 230, 235, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(42, 230, 235, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #2ae6eb;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #2ae6eb, #2A65EB);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #2ae6eb, #2A35EB);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #2ae6eb;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #2ae6eb;
caret-color: #2ae6eb;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #2ae6eb;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #E8FCFD;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #2ae6eb;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#2ae6eb 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #2ae6eb 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(42, 230, 235, 0.5)
rgb(42 230 235 / 50%)
#2ae6eb80
hsl(182 83% 54% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #2ae6eb 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#2ae6eb1a#EAFDFD
20%#2ae6eb33#D4FAFB
40%#2ae6eb66#AAF5F7
60%#2ae6eb99#7FF0F3
80%#2ae6ebcc#55EBEF

Gradients from #2ae6eb

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, #62ECF0, #2ae6eb 45%, #0B7275);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #2ae6eb, #1543E1);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #2ae6eb, #EB2F2A);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #7EF0F3 0%, #2ae6eb 45%, #0B7275 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%, #59EF9B 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #4687EE 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #0B7275 0%, transparent 65%), #2ae6eb;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #2ae6eb

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.

#2ae6eb 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 13.62:1.

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.

#2ae6eb, answered

What color is #2ae6eb?

#2ae6eb is a balanced electric cyan, closest to Cyan (ΔE2000 5.6). It sits at 182° on the hue wheel with 83% saturation and 54% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #2ae6eb?

rgb(42, 230, 235) — 42 red, 230 green and 235 blue out of 255, or 16.5% / 90.2% / 92.2% by channel.

What is #2ae6eb in HSL and HSV?

hsl(182, 83%, 54%) and hsv(182, 82%, 92%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #2ae6eb a light or a dark color?

It is a light color. Relative luminance is 0.6308 and perceived brightness is 76%, so black text on it reaches 13.62:1.

Should I use black or white text on #2ae6eb?

Black. It scores 13.62:1 against #2ae6eb, versus 1.54:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #2ae6eb accessible on a white background?

#2ae6eb on white scores 1.54:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #0C8184 to reach 4.5:1, or #096163 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #2ae6eb?

#EB2F2A sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #EB2A85 and #EB902A, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #2ae6eb?

For interface work: #F4FAFA as the surface, #C0EBED for borders, #4B999B for secondary text, #F02552 as an accent and #0B7275 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #2AEB90 and #2A85EB stays calm, while #EB2F2A is the loudest partner.

What is #2ae6eb in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(82%, 2%, 0%, 8%). 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 #2ae6eb warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 88 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #2AEBA9; nudged cooler, #28B7ED.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #2ae6eb?

The teal family — its 500 step is #14b8a6, ΔE2000 14.3 away. That is a visible difference, so define #2ae6eb as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #2ae6eb in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#2ae6eb] or text-[#2ae6eb], 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 #2ae6eb with 50% opacity?

rgba(42, 230, 235, 0.5), or #2ae6eb80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #95F3F5; over black, #157376.

Is #2ae6eb a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #33FFFF, ΔE2000 5.5 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #2ae6eb 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 #2ae6eb?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #62ECF0, #2ae6eb 45%, #0B7275). For more colour, a short hue run to #1543E1 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #2ae6eb in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #2ae6eb at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.