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cyan · cool

#35cdbc

a balanced, vivid cyan · cool · closest name: Medium Turquoise

Token name suggestion: True Glacier

RGB
53, 205, 188
HSL
173°, 60%, 51%
CMYK
74, 0, 8, 20
Luminance
0.4805

#35cdbc is a balanced vivid cyan, 173° on the wheel and 85/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (10.61:1). As text it scores 1.98:1 on white — use #208176 instead. Nearest name is Medium Turquoise, nearest Tailwind family is teal.

hsl(173 60% 51%)rgb(53 205 188)Base step 600AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #35cdbc is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#35cdbc
Hue
173°
cyan
Saturation
60%
vivid
Lightness
51%
balanced
Brightness
80%
HSV value
Perceived
67%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.4805
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
85/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Vivid
Best ink
Black
10.61:1
Closest name
Medium Turquoise
ΔE2000 4.5
Chroma
42.5
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.768
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
teal
500 · ΔE 5.7
Web-safe
#33CCCC
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue173° of 360°
Saturation60%
Lightness51%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #35cdbc.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool85% 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%
Green91%
Blue8%

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

Every format

HEX#35cdbc
HEX (8-digit)#35cdbcff
RGBrgb(53, 205, 188)
RGBArgba(53, 205, 188, 1)
HSLhsl(173, 60%, 51%)
HSV / HSBhsv(173, 74%, 80%)
HWBhwb(173 21% 20%)
CMYKcmyk(74%, 0%, 8%, 20%)
LABlab(74.8 -42.4 -2.8)
LCHlch(74.8 42.5 183.7)
OKLCHoklch(0.768 0.125 183.7)
XYZ (D65)xyz(32.37, 48.05, 55.13)
Decimal3526076
Display P3color(display-p3 0.208 0.804 0.737)
Web-safe#33CCCC

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #35cdbc;
background-color: #35cdbc;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #35cdbc;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#35cdbc] bg-[#35cdbc]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #35cdbc;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.208, green: 0.804, blue: 0.737)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.208, green: 0.804, blue: 0.737, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#35CDBC</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFF35CDBC)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFF35CDBC)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(188, 205, 53)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(53, 205, 188)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(53, 205, 188)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 53, 205, 188)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.2078f, 0.8039f, 0.7373f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{53,205,188}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #35cdbc 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #35cdbc 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#19665E, #D3EEEB);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #35cdbc 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: #E9F7F5;
  --brand-200: #CCEFEC;
  --brand-300: #A5E9E1;
  --brand-400: #78DED2;
  --brand-500: #4BD2C3;
  --brand-600: #35cdbc;
  --brand-700: #28A496;
  --brand-800: #208378;
  --brand-900: #1B5F58;
  --brand-950: #113B37;
  --brand: #35cdbc;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F4FAFA;
  --brand-border: #C0EDE8;
  --brand-hover: #2CB2A3;
  --brand-pressed: #259689;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #142423;
    --brand-ink: #D3EEEB;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F4FBFA',
        100: '#E9F7F5',
        200: '#CCEFEC',
        300: '#A5E9E1',
        400: '#78DED2',
        500: '#4BD2C3',
        600: '#35cdbc',
        700: '#28A496',
        800: '#208378',
        900: '#1B5F58',
        950: '#113B37',
        DEFAULT: '#35cdbc',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F4FBFA,
  '100': #E9F7F5,
  '200': #CCEFEC,
  '300': #A5E9E1,
  '400': #78DED2,
  '500': #4BD2C3,
  '600': #35cdbc,
  '700': #28A496,
  '800': #208378,
  '900': #1B5F58,
  '950': #113B37,
);
$brand-base: #35cdbc;
$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": "#E9F7F5", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#CCEFEC", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#A5E9E1", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#78DED2", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#4BD2C3", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#35cdbc", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#28A496", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#208378", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#1B5F58", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#113B37", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #35cdbc · 10.61:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 1.98:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 10.61:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #35cdbc as text scores 1.98:1 on white and 10.61:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #19665E at 3.42:1.

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
#208176 · 4.71:1
AA on white−19% L
#208176
The quick fox
#186058 · 7.36:1
AAA on white−27% L
#186058
The quick fox
#35cdbc · 10.61:1
AA on blackalready passes
#35cdbc
The quick fox
#35cdbc · 10.61:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#35cdbc

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #29A698 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
#35cdbc on white: 1.98:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#35cdbc on black: 10.61:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #35cdbc as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #35cdbc.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White1.98:1AaAa
Slate 501.89:1AaAa
Slate 1001.81:1AaAa
Slate 2001.61:1AaAa
Slate 3001.33:1AaAa
Slate 4001.30:1AaAa
Slate 5002.40:1AaAa
Slate 6003.83:1AaAa
Slate 7005.23:1AaAa
Slate 8007.39:1AaAa
Slate 9009.02:1AaAa
Black10.61:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #C3C1BB
deuteranopia · #AEB2BE
tritanopia · #00D1C8

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. #35cdbc 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
#E9F7F5
#CCEFEC
#A5E9E1
#78DED2
#4BD2C3
#35cdbc
#28A496
#208378
#1B5F58
#113B37
Base = 600Lightest = 50 · #F4FBFADarkest = 950 · #113B37Text 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 0.031 183.7);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.050 183.7);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.075 183.7);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.097 183.7);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.115 183.7);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.125 183.7);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.125 183.7);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.117 183.7);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.105 183.7);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.087 183.7);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.069 183.7);
}

Colors that work with #35cdbc

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#C0EDE8
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B9B92
Captions on the surface
Accent#D2306B
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#19665E
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#EBFAF8
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#142423
Dark-mode background
Hover#2CB2A3
One step down in lightness
Pressed#259689
Two steps down
Disabled#AAC9C5
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#3ADDCA
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 #35cdbc

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 #19665E
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #29A698

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
  • Weight49/100
  • 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#CD3546
Analogous left#35CD70
Analogous right#3592CD
Split-complement 1#CD3592
Split-complement 2#CD7035
Triadic 1#BC35CD
Triadic 2#CDBC35
Tetradic#7035CD
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°173°

#35cdbc sits at 173°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red20.8%
Green80.4%
Blue73.7%
R · 0–255
53
0x35
G · 0–255
205
0xcd
B · 0–255
188
0xbc

CMYK percentages

Cyan74.1%
Magenta0.0%
Yellow8.3%
Key (black)19.6%

Total ink coverage is 102%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#35cdbc text on a black background

contrast 10.61:1

Card sample

#35cdbc text on a white background

contrast 1.98:1

Card sample

#35cdbc on grey

1.81:1

#35cdbc on its own surface

1.88:1

#35cdbc on its dark surface

8.12:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #35cdbc;
Background color
Panel with #35cdbc background
background-color: #35cdbc;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #35cdbc;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(53, 205, 188, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(53, 205, 188, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #35cdbc;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #35cdbc, #3579CD);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #35cdbc, #3553CD);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #35cdbc;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #35cdbc;
caret-color: #35cdbc;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #35cdbc;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #EBFAF8;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #35cdbc;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#35cdbc 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #35cdbc 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(53, 205, 188, 0.5)
rgb(53 205 188 / 50%)
#35cdbc80
hsl(173 60% 51% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #35cdbc 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#35cdbc1a#EBFAF8
20%#35cdbc33#D7F5F2
40%#35cdbc66#AEEBE4
60%#35cdbc99#86E1D7
80%#35cdbccc#5DD7C9

Gradients from #35cdbc

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, #66D9CC, #35cdbc 45%, #19665E);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #35cdbc, #2D5FB6);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #35cdbc, #CD3546);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #7FDFD4 0%, #35cdbc 45%, #19665E 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%, #5ED783 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #4E94D3 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #19665E 0%, transparent 65%), #35cdbc;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #35cdbc

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.

#35cdbc 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 10.61:1.

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.

#35cdbc, answered

What color is #35cdbc?

#35cdbc is a balanced vivid cyan, closest to Medium Turquoise (ΔE2000 4.5). It sits at 173° on the hue wheel with 60% saturation and 51% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #35cdbc?

rgb(53, 205, 188) — 53 red, 205 green and 188 blue out of 255, or 20.8% / 80.4% / 73.7% by channel.

What is #35cdbc in HSL and HSV?

hsl(173, 60%, 51%) and hsv(173, 74%, 80%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #35cdbc a light or a dark color?

It is a mid-tone. Relative luminance is 0.4805 and perceived brightness is 67%, so black text on it reaches 10.61:1.

Should I use black or white text on #35cdbc?

Black. It scores 10.61:1 against #35cdbc, versus 1.98:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #35cdbc accessible on a white background?

#35cdbc on white scores 1.98:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #208176 to reach 4.5:1, or #186058 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #35cdbc?

#CD3546 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #CD3592 and #CD7035, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #35cdbc?

For interface work: #F4FAFA as the surface, #C0EDE8 for borders, #4B9B92 for secondary text, #D2306B as an accent and #19665E for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #35CD70 and #3592CD stays calm, while #CD3546 is the loudest partner.

What is #35cdbc in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(74%, 0%, 8%, 20%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #35cdbc warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 85 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #35CD84; nudged cooler, #33A7D0.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #35cdbc?

The teal family — its 500 step is #14b8a6, ΔE2000 5.7 away. That is a visible difference, so define #35cdbc as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #35cdbc in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#35cdbc] or text-[#35cdbc], 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 #35cdbc with 50% opacity?

rgba(53, 205, 188, 0.5), or #35cdbc80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #9AE6DE; over black, #1B675E.

Is #35cdbc a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #33CCCC, ΔE2000 5.9 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #35cdbc 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 #35cdbc?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #66D9CC, #35cdbc 45%, #19665E). For more colour, a short hue run to #2D5FB6 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #35cdbc in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #35cdbc at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.