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cyan · cool

#2bafbe

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

Token name suggestion: Signal Teal

RGB
43, 175, 190
HSL
186°, 63%, 46%
CMYK
77, 8, 0, 26
Luminance
0.3489

#2bafbe is a balanced vivid cyan, 186° on the wheel and 90/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (7.98:1). As text it scores 2.63:1 on white — use #20818C instead. Nearest name is Cadet Blue, nearest Tailwind family is cyan.

hsl(186 63% 46%)rgb(43 175 190)Base step 600AAA inkCool

At a glance

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

Hex
#2bafbe
Hue
186°
cyan
Saturation
63%
vivid
Lightness
46%
balanced
Brightness
75%
HSV value
Perceived
59%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.3489
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
90/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Vivid
Best ink
Black
7.98:1
Closest name
Cadet Blue
ΔE2000 7.7
Chroma
33.9
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.693
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
cyan
500 · ΔE 5
Web-safe
#3399CC
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue186° of 360°
Saturation63%
Lightness46%
Saturation × lightness field

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

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#2bafbe
HEX (8-digit)#2bafbeff
RGBrgb(43, 175, 190)
RGBArgba(43, 175, 190, 1)
HSLhsl(186, 63%, 46%)
HSV / HSBhsv(186, 77%, 75%)
HWBhwb(186 17% 25%)
CMYKcmyk(77%, 8%, 0%, 26%)
LABlab(65.7 -29.0 -17.6)
LCHlch(65.7 33.9 211.2)
OKLCHoklch(0.693 0.109 206.6)
XYZ (D65)xyz(25.62, 34.89, 54.09)
Decimal2863038
Display P3color(display-p3 0.169 0.686 0.745)
Web-safe#3399CC

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #2bafbe;
background-color: #2bafbe;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #2bafbe;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#2bafbe] bg-[#2bafbe]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #2bafbe;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.169, green: 0.686, blue: 0.745)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.169, green: 0.686, blue: 0.745, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#2BAFBE</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFF2BAFBE)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFF2BAFBE)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(190, 175, 43)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(43, 175, 190)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(43, 175, 190)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 43, 175, 190)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.1686f, 0.6863f, 0.7451f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{43,175,190}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #2bafbe 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #2bafbe 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#186068, #D3EBEE);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #2bafbe 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: #F4FAFB;
  --brand-100: #E8F6F7;
  --brand-200: #CBEDF0;
  --brand-300: #A4E3EA;
  --brand-400: #76D5E0;
  --brand-500: #48C7D6;
  --brand-600: #2bafbe;
  --brand-700: #2699A6;
  --brand-800: #1E7B85;
  --brand-900: #1A5A61;
  --brand-950: #10383C;
  --brand: #2bafbe;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F4FAFA;
  --brand-border: #C0E8ED;
  --brand-hover: #2494A1;
  --brand-pressed: #1E7984;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #142324;
    --brand-ink: #D3EBEE;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F4FAFB',
        100: '#E8F6F7',
        200: '#CBEDF0',
        300: '#A4E3EA',
        400: '#76D5E0',
        500: '#48C7D6',
        600: '#2bafbe',
        700: '#2699A6',
        800: '#1E7B85',
        900: '#1A5A61',
        950: '#10383C',
        DEFAULT: '#2bafbe',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F4FAFB,
  '100': #E8F6F7,
  '200': #CBEDF0,
  '300': #A4E3EA,
  '400': #76D5E0,
  '500': #48C7D6,
  '600': #2bafbe,
  '700': #2699A6,
  '800': #1E7B85,
  '900': #1A5A61,
  '950': #10383C,
);
$brand-base: #2bafbe;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F4FAFB", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#E8F6F7", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#CBEDF0", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#A4E3EA", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#76D5E0", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#48C7D6", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#2bafbe", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#2699A6", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#1E7B85", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#1A5A61", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#10383C", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #2bafbe · 7.98:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 2.63:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 7.98:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #2bafbe as text scores 2.63:1 on white and 7.98:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #186068 at 2.74:1.

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
#20818C · 4.58:1
AA on white−12% L
#20818C
The quick fox
#18626B · 7.00:1
AAA on white−20% L
#18626B
The quick fox
#2bafbe · 7.98:1
AA on blackalready passes
#2bafbe
The quick fox
#2bafbe · 7.98:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#2bafbe

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #27A0AD 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
#2bafbe on white: 2.63:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#2bafbe on black: 7.98:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

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

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White2.63:1AaAa
Slate 502.52:1AaAa
Slate 1002.40:1AaAa
Slate 2002.14:1AaAa
Slate 3001.77:1AaAa
Slate 4001.03:1AaAa
Slate 5001.81:1AaAa
Slate 6002.88:1AaAa
Slate 7003.93:1AaAa
Slate 8005.56:1AaAa
Slate 9006.78:1AaAa
Black7.98:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #A0A8BF
deuteranopia · #8C99BE
tritanopia · #00B7B3

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. #2bafbe 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.

#F4FAFB
#E8F6F7
#CBEDF0
#A4E3EA
#76D5E0
#48C7D6
#2bafbe
#2699A6
#1E7B85
#1A5A61
#10383C
Base = 600Lightest = 50 · #F4FAFBDarkest = 950 · #10383CText 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 0.027 206.6);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.044 206.6);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.066 206.6);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.085 206.6);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.101 206.6);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.109 206.6);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.109 206.6);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.103 206.6);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.092 206.6);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.077 206.6);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.060 206.6);
}

Colors that work with #2bafbe

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#C3263E
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#186068
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#EAF9FA
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#142324
Dark-mode background
Hover#2494A1
One step down in lightness
Pressed#1E7984
Two steps down
Disabled#9BBBBF
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#22C9DB
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 #2bafbe

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 #186068
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #27A0AD

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
  • Weight54/100
  • 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#BE3A2B
Analogous left#2BBE83
Analogous right#2B66BE
Split-complement 1#BE2B66
Split-complement 2#BE832B
Triadic 1#BE2BAF
Triadic 2#AFBE2B
Tetradic#832BBE
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°186°

#2bafbe sits at 186°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red16.9%
Green68.6%
Blue74.5%
R · 0–255
43
0x2b
G · 0–255
175
0xaf
B · 0–255
190
0xbe

CMYK percentages

Cyan77.4%
Magenta7.9%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)25.5%

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

Color previews

#2bafbe text on a black background

contrast 7.98:1

Card sample

#2bafbe text on a white background

contrast 2.63:1

Card sample

#2bafbe on grey

2.40:1

#2bafbe on its own surface

2.49:1

#2bafbe on its dark surface

6.16:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

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

Glowing headline

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

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(43, 175, 190, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(43, 175, 190, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #2bafbe;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #2bafbe, #2B4DBE);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #2bafbe, #2E2BBE);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #2bafbe;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #2bafbe;
caret-color: #2bafbe;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #2bafbe;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #EAF9FA;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #2bafbe;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#2bafbe 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #2bafbe 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, 175, 190, 0.5)
rgb(43 175 190 / 50%)
#2bafbe80
hsl(186 63% 46% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #2bafbe 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#2bafbe1a#EAF7F9
20%#2bafbe33#D5EFF2
40%#2bafbe66#AADFE5
60%#2bafbe99#80CFD8
80%#2bafbecc#55BFCB

Gradients from #2bafbe

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, #4FC9D7, #2bafbe 45%, #186068);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #2bafbe, #2538A5);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #2bafbe, #BE3A2B);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #68D1DD 0%, #2bafbe 45%, #186068 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%, #47D591 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #3667D2 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #186068 0%, transparent 65%), #2bafbe;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #2bafbe

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.

#2bafbe 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 7.98:1.

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.

#2bafbe, answered

What color is #2bafbe?

#2bafbe is a balanced vivid cyan, closest to Cadet Blue (ΔE2000 7.7). It sits at 186° on the hue wheel with 63% saturation and 46% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #2bafbe?

rgb(43, 175, 190) — 43 red, 175 green and 190 blue out of 255, or 16.9% / 68.6% / 74.5% by channel.

What is #2bafbe in HSL and HSV?

hsl(186, 63%, 46%) and hsv(186, 77%, 75%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #2bafbe a light or a dark color?

It is a mid-tone. Relative luminance is 0.3489 and perceived brightness is 59%, so black text on it reaches 7.98:1.

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

Black. It scores 7.98:1 against #2bafbe, versus 2.63:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #2bafbe accessible on a white background?

#2bafbe on white scores 2.63:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #20818C to reach 4.5:1, or #18626B for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #2bafbe?

#BE3A2B sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #BE2B66 and #BE832B, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #2bafbe?

For interface work: #F4FAFA as the surface, #C0E8ED for borders, #4B939B for secondary text, #C3263E as an accent and #186068 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #2BBE83 and #2B66BE stays calm, while #BE3A2B is the loudest partner.

What is #2bafbe in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(77%, 8%, 0%, 26%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #2bafbe 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 #2BBE97; nudged cooler, #298CC0.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #2bafbe?

The cyan family — its 500 step is #06b6d4, ΔE2000 5 away. That is a visible difference, so define #2bafbe as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #2bafbe in Tailwind CSS?

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

rgba(43, 175, 190, 0.5), or #2bafbe80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #95D7DF; over black, #16585F.

Is #2bafbe a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #3399CC, ΔE2000 14.1 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #2bafbe 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 #2bafbe?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #4FC9D7, #2bafbe 45%, #186068). For more colour, a short hue run to #2538A5 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #2bafbe in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

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