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cyan · cool

#34697f

a dark, soft cyan · cool · closest name: Dark Slate Gray

Token name suggestion: Slate Glacier

RGB
52, 105, 127
HSL
198°, 42%, 35%
CMYK
59, 17, 0, 50
Luminance
0.1237

#34697f is a dark soft cyan, 198° on the wheel and 95/100 on the cool side. Put white text on it (6.05:1). As text it scores 6.05:1 on white — safe at any size. Nearest name is Dark Slate Gray, nearest Tailwind family is slate.

hsl(198 42% 35%)rgb(52 105 127)Base step 800AA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #34697f is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#34697f
Hue
198°
cyan
Saturation
42%
soft
Lightness
35%
dark
Brightness
50%
HSV value
Perceived
37%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.1237
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
95/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Soft
Best ink
White
6.05:1
Closest name
Dark Slate Gray
ΔE2000 13.1
Chroma
20.6
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.494
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
slate
500 · ΔE 11.9
Web-safe
#336666
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue198° of 360°
Saturation42%
Lightness35%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #34697f.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool95% 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
Red6%
Green82%
Blue12%

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

Every format

HEX#34697f
HEX (8-digit)#34697fff
RGBrgb(52, 105, 127)
RGBArgba(52, 105, 127, 1)
HSLhsl(198, 42%, 35%)
HSV / HSBhsv(198, 59%, 50%)
HWBhwb(198 20% 50%)
CMYKcmyk(59%, 17%, 0%, 50%)
LABlab(41.8 -10.7 -17.6)
LCHlch(41.8 20.6 238.6)
OKLCHoklch(0.494 0.066 227.5)
XYZ (D65)xyz(10.30, 12.36, 21.92)
Decimal3434879
Display P3color(display-p3 0.204 0.412 0.498)
Web-safe#336666

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #34697f;
background-color: #34697f;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #34697f;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#34697f] bg-[#34697f]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #34697f;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.204, green: 0.412, blue: 0.498)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.204, green: 0.412, blue: 0.498, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#34697F</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFF34697F)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFF34697F)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(127, 105, 52)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(52, 105, 127)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(52, 105, 127)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 52, 105, 127)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.2039f, 0.4118f, 0.4980f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{52,105,127}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #34697f 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #34697f 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#254B5A, #D4E6ED);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #34697f 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: #F5F8FA;
  --brand-100: #EBF2F5;
  --brand-200: #D2E3EA;
  --brand-300: #AFD1DE;
  --brand-400: #88B9CE;
  --brand-500: #60A2BE;
  --brand-600: #4790AE;
  --brand-700: #3B7891;
  --brand-800: #34697f;
  --brand-900: #264755;
  --brand-950: #182C35;
  --brand: #34697f;
  --brand-ink: #ffffff;
  --brand-surface: #F4F9FA;
  --brand-border: #C5DDE7;
  --brand-hover: #2A5466;
  --brand-pressed: #1F3F4C;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #142024;
    --brand-ink: #D4E6ED;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F5F8FA',
        100: '#EBF2F5',
        200: '#D2E3EA',
        300: '#AFD1DE',
        400: '#88B9CE',
        500: '#60A2BE',
        600: '#4790AE',
        700: '#3B7891',
        800: '#34697f',
        900: '#264755',
        950: '#182C35',
        DEFAULT: '#34697f',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F5F8FA,
  '100': #EBF2F5,
  '200': #D2E3EA,
  '300': #AFD1DE,
  '400': #88B9CE,
  '500': #60A2BE,
  '600': #4790AE,
  '700': #3B7891,
  '800': #34697f,
  '900': #264755,
  '950': #182C35,
);
$brand-base: #34697f;
$brand-ink: #ffffff;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F5F8FA", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#EBF2F5", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#D2E3EA", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#AFD1DE", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#88B9CE", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#60A2BE", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#4790AE", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#3B7891", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#34697f", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#264755", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#182C35", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$value": "#ffffff", "$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#ffffff on #34697f · 6.05:1
Use #ffffffAA at every size, AAA for large text only.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 6.05:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 3.47:1
AA fail · AA large pass · AAA fail
Reading the other direction: #34697f as text scores 6.05:1 on white and 3.47:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #EDF4F8 at 5.44:1.

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
#34697f · 6.05:1
AA on whitealready passes
#34697f
The quick fox
#2E5D71 · 7.19:1
AAA on white−4% L
#2E5D71
The quick fox
#3E7E98 · 4.64:1
AA on black+7% L
#3E7E98
The quick fox
#599EBB · 7.03:1
AAA on black+19% L
#599EBB

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #34697F 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
#34697f on white: 6.05:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#34697f on black: 3.47:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #34697f as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #34697f.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White6.05:1AaAa
Slate 505.78:1AaAa
Slate 1005.52:1AaAa
Slate 2004.90:1AaAa
Slate 3004.07:1AaAa
Slate 4002.36:1AaAa
Slate 5001.27:1AaAa
Slate 6001.25:1AaAa
Slate 7001.71:1AaAa
Slate 8002.42:1AaAa
Slate 9002.95:1AaAa
Black3.47:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #5D6780
deuteranopia · #535F7F
tritanopia · #006F70

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. #34697f is pinned to step 800; the rest hold its hue and let saturation ease off at the extremes so the pale end never turns neon.

#F5F8FA
#EBF2F5
#D2E3EA
#AFD1DE
#88B9CE
#60A2BE
#4790AE
#3B7891
#34697f
#264755
#182C35
Base = 800Lightest = 50 · #F5F8FADarkest = 950 · #182C35Text step on white = 700
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 0.017 227.5);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.027 227.5);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.040 227.5);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.052 227.5);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.061 227.5);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.066 227.5);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.066 227.5);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.062 227.5);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.056 227.5);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.046 227.5);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.037 227.5);
}

Colors that work with #34697f

Not a palette — a role sheet. Each swatch answers one question you will hit while building the component.

Text on it#ffffff
White wins here
Surface#F4F9FA
Tinted page background
Border#C5DDE7
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B839B
Captions on the surface
Accent#833430
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#254B5A
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#EDF4F8
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#142024
Dark-mode background
Hover#2A5466
One step down in lightness
Pressed#1F3F4C
Two steps down
Disabled#7A9CAA
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#307997
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 #34697f

Derived from its contrast, chroma and lightness — not from taste.

Works well for
  • Body text and links on white
  • Charts, tags and secondary surfaces
  • Headers, footers and dark-mode surfaces
  • Brand accents, badges and data highlights
Use with care
  • 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
Any size
Safe as a fill behind white type
Yes
Safe as a 1px border on white
Yes

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.

The muted chroma softens the association — it reads considered rather than loud, which suits long-form and data-heavy screens. 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
  • Weight65/100
  • 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#7F4A34
Analogous left#347F70
Analogous right#34447F
Split-complement 1#7F3444
Split-complement 2#7F7034
Triadic 1#7F3469
Triadic 2#697F34
Tetradic#70347F
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°198°

#34697f sits at 198°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red20.4%
Green41.2%
Blue49.8%
R · 0–255
52
0x34
G · 0–255
105
0x69
B · 0–255
127
0x7f

CMYK percentages

Cyan59.1%
Magenta17.3%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)50.2%

Total ink coverage is 127%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#34697f text on a black background

contrast 3.47:1

Card sample

#34697f text on a white background

contrast 6.05:1

Card sample

#34697f on grey

5.52:1

#34697f on its own surface

5.69:1

#34697f on its dark surface

2.75:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #34697f;
Background color
Panel with #34697f background
background-color: #34697f;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #34697f;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(52, 105, 127, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(52, 105, 127, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #34697f;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #34697f, #34377F);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #34697f, #44347F);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #34697f;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #34697f;
caret-color: #34697f;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #34697f;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #EDF4F8;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #34697f;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#34697f 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #34697f 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(52, 105, 127, 0.5)
rgb(52 105 127 / 50%)
#34697f80
hsl(198 42% 35% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #34697f 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#34697f1a#EBF0F2
20%#34697f33#D6E1E5
40%#34697f66#AEC3CC
60%#34697f99#85A5B2
80%#34697fcc#5D8799

Gradients from #34697f

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, #468DAA, #34697f 45%, #254B5A);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #34697f, #2E2B69);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #34697f, #7F4A34);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #559CBA 0%, #34697f 45%, #254B5A 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F4F9FA, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #43A387 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #3D4895 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #254B5A 0%, transparent 65%), #34697f;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #34697f

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.

#34697f 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

Too dim on dark surfaces at 3.47:1 — lift it to #3E7E98 for body text, or reserve it for fills.

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.

#34697f, answered

What color is #34697f?

#34697f is a dark soft cyan, closest to Dark Slate Gray (ΔE2000 13.1). It sits at 198° on the hue wheel with 42% saturation and 35% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #34697f?

rgb(52, 105, 127) — 52 red, 105 green and 127 blue out of 255, or 20.4% / 41.2% / 49.8% by channel.

What is #34697f in HSL and HSV?

hsl(198, 42%, 35%) and hsv(198, 59%, 50%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #34697f a light or a dark color?

It is a dark color. Relative luminance is 0.1237 and perceived brightness is 37%, so white text on it reaches 6.05:1.

Should I use black or white text on #34697f?

White. It scores 6.05:1 against #34697f, versus 3.47:1 for black — AA at any size.

Is #34697f accessible on a white background?

#34697f on white scores 6.05:1, which clears AA at every size but not AAA.

What is the complementary color of #34697f?

#7F4A34 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #7F3444 and #7F7034, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #34697f?

For interface work: #F4F9FA as the surface, #C5DDE7 for borders, #4B839B for secondary text, #833430 as an accent and #254B5A for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #347F70 and #34447F stays calm, while #7F4A34 is the loudest partner.

What is #34697f in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(59%, 17%, 0%, 50%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #34697f warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 95 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #347F7A; nudged cooler, #325C81.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #34697f?

The slate family — its 500 step is #64748b, ΔE2000 11.9 away. That is a visible difference, so define #34697f as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #34697f in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#34697f] or text-[#34697f], 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 #34697f with 50% opacity?

rgba(52, 105, 127, 0.5), or #34697f80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #9AB4BF; over black, #1A3540.

Is #34697f a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #336666, ΔE2000 10.5 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #34697f mean?

As a cyan, it reads clean, technical, fresh. Cyan reads as water, air and infrastructure: cool, hygienic, engineered. At this moderate chroma the association is present but not shouted.

What gradient works with #34697f?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #468DAA, #34697f 45%, #254B5A). For more colour, a short hue run to #2E2B69 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #34697f in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #34697f at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.