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cyan · cool

#3acacb

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

Token name suggestion: Atlas Reef

RGB
58, 202, 203
HSL
180°, 58%, 51%
CMYK
71, 1, 0, 20
Luminance
0.4745

#3acacb is a balanced vivid cyan, 180° on the wheel and 88/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (10.49:1). As text it scores 2.00:1 on white — use #228182 instead. Nearest name is Dark Turquoise, nearest Tailwind family is teal.

hsl(180 58% 51%)rgb(58 202 203)Base step 600AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #3acacb is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#3acacb
Hue
180°
cyan
Saturation
58%
vivid
Lightness
51%
balanced
Brightness
80%
HSV value
Perceived
68%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.4745
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
88/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Vivid
Best ink
Black
10.49:1
Closest name
Dark Turquoise
ΔE2000 1.7
Chroma
38.1
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.766
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
teal
500 · ΔE 8.7
Web-safe
#33CCCC
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue180° of 360°
Saturation58%
Lightness51%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #3acacb.

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
Red2%
Green89%
Blue9%

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

Every format

HEX#3acacb
HEX (8-digit)#3acacbff
RGBrgb(58, 202, 203)
RGBArgba(58, 202, 203, 1)
HSLhsl(180, 58%, 51%)
HSV / HSBhsv(180, 71%, 80%)
HWBhwb(180 23% 20%)
CMYKcmyk(71%, 1%, 0%, 20%)
LABlab(74.5 -36.3 -11.4)
LCHlch(74.5 38.1 197.5)
OKLCHoklch(0.766 0.118 195.7)
XYZ (D65)xyz(33.64, 47.45, 63.87)
Decimal3853003
Display P3color(display-p3 0.227 0.792 0.796)
Web-safe#33CCCC

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #3acacb;
background-color: #3acacb;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #3acacb;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#3acacb] bg-[#3acacb]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #3acacb;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.227, green: 0.792, blue: 0.796)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.227, green: 0.792, blue: 0.796, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#3ACACB</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFF3ACACB)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFF3ACACB)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(203, 202, 58)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(58, 202, 203)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(58, 202, 203)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 58, 202, 203)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.2275f, 0.7922f, 0.7961f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{58,202,203}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #3acacb 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #3acacb 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#1B6465, #D3EEEE);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #3acacb 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: #F4FBFB;
  --brand-100: #E9F7F7;
  --brand-200: #CDEFEF;
  --brand-300: #A6E7E8;
  --brand-400: #7ADBDC;
  --brand-500: #4DCFD0;
  --brand-600: #3acacb;
  --brand-700: #2BA1A1;
  --brand-800: #228081;
  --brand-900: #1C5E5E;
  --brand-950: #123A3B;
  --brand: #3acacb;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F4FAFA;
  --brand-border: #C0ECED;
  --brand-hover: #2FB1B2;
  --brand-pressed: #289596;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #142424;
    --brand-ink: #D3EEEE;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F4FBFB',
        100: '#E9F7F7',
        200: '#CDEFEF',
        300: '#A6E7E8',
        400: '#7ADBDC',
        500: '#4DCFD0',
        600: '#3acacb',
        700: '#2BA1A1',
        800: '#228081',
        900: '#1C5E5E',
        950: '#123A3B',
        DEFAULT: '#3acacb',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F4FBFB,
  '100': #E9F7F7,
  '200': #CDEFEF,
  '300': #A6E7E8,
  '400': #7ADBDC,
  '500': #4DCFD0,
  '600': #3acacb,
  '700': #2BA1A1,
  '800': #228081,
  '900': #1C5E5E,
  '950': #123A3B,
);
$brand-base: #3acacb;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F4FBFB", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#E9F7F7", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#CDEFEF", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#A6E7E8", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#7ADBDC", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#4DCFD0", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#3acacb", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#2BA1A1", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#228081", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#1C5E5E", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#123A3B", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #3acacb · 10.49:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 2.00:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 10.49:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #3acacb as text scores 2.00:1 on white and 10.49:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #1B6465 at 3.43:1.

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
#228182 · 4.64:1
AA on white−19% L
#228182
The quick fox
#1A6162 · 7.17:1
AAA on white−27% L
#1A6162
The quick fox
#3acacb · 10.49:1
AA on blackalready passes
#3acacb
The quick fox
#3acacb · 10.49:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#3acacb

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #2BA1A2 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
#3acacb on white: 2.00:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#3acacb on black: 10.49:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #3acacb as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #3acacb.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White2.00:1AaAa
Slate 501.91:1AaAa
Slate 1001.83:1AaAa
Slate 2001.62:1AaAa
Slate 3001.35:1AaAa
Slate 4001.28:1AaAa
Slate 5002.38:1AaAa
Slate 6003.79:1AaAa
Slate 7005.17:1AaAa
Slate 8007.31:1AaAa
Slate 9008.92:1AaAa
Black10.49:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #BCC0CB
deuteranopia · #A7B1CC
tritanopia · #00D1CA

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. #3acacb 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.

#F4FBFB
#E9F7F7
#CDEFEF
#A6E7E8
#7ADBDC
#4DCFD0
#3acacb
#2BA1A1
#228081
#1C5E5E
#123A3B
Base = 600Lightest = 50 · #F4FBFBDarkest = 950 · #123A3BText 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 0.029 195.7);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.047 195.7);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.071 195.7);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.092 195.7);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.108 195.7);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.118 195.7);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.118 195.7);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.111 195.7);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.099 195.7);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.082 195.7);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.065 195.7);
}

Colors that work with #3acacb

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#C0ECED
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B9A9B
Captions on the surface
Accent#D0355B
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#1B6465
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#EBFAFA
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#142424
Dark-mode background
Hover#2FB1B2
One step down in lightness
Pressed#289596
Two steps down
Disabled#ACC9CA
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#3FDADB
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 #3acacb

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 #1B6465
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #2BA1A2

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#CB3B3A
Analogous left#3ACB84
Analogous right#3A82CB
Split-complement 1#CB3A82
Split-complement 2#CB843A
Triadic 1#CB3ACA
Triadic 2#CACB3A
Tetradic#843ACB
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°180°

#3acacb sits at 180°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red22.7%
Green79.2%
Blue79.6%
R · 0–255
58
0x3a
G · 0–255
202
0xca
B · 0–255
203
0xcb

CMYK percentages

Cyan71.4%
Magenta0.5%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)20.4%

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

Color previews

#3acacb text on a black background

contrast 10.49:1

Card sample

#3acacb text on a white background

contrast 2.00:1

Card sample

#3acacb on grey

1.83:1

#3acacb on its own surface

1.90:1

#3acacb on its dark surface

8.02:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #3acacb;
Background color
Panel with #3acacb background
background-color: #3acacb;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #3acacb;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(58, 202, 203, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(58, 202, 203, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #3acacb;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #3acacb, #3A69CB);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #3acacb, #3A45CB);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #3acacb;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #3acacb;
caret-color: #3acacb;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #3acacb;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #EBFAFA;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #3acacb;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#3acacb 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #3acacb 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(58, 202, 203, 0.5)
rgb(58 202 203 / 50%)
#3acacb80
hsl(180 58% 51% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #3acacb 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#3acacb1a#EBFAFA
20%#3acacb33#D8F4F5
40%#3acacb66#B0EAEA
60%#3acacb99#89DFE0
80%#3acacbcc#61D5D5

Gradients from #3acacb

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, #6BD7D8, #3acacb 45%, #1B6465);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #3acacb, #3051B6);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #3acacb, #CB3B3A);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #83DEDE 0%, #3acacb 45%, #1B6465 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%, #62D693 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #5286D1 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #1B6465 0%, transparent 65%), #3acacb;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #3acacb

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.

#3acacb 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 10.49:1.

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.

#3acacb, answered

What color is #3acacb?

#3acacb is a balanced vivid cyan, closest to Dark Turquoise (ΔE2000 1.7). It sits at 180° on the hue wheel with 58% saturation and 51% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #3acacb?

rgb(58, 202, 203) — 58 red, 202 green and 203 blue out of 255, or 22.7% / 79.2% / 79.6% by channel.

What is #3acacb in HSL and HSV?

hsl(180, 58%, 51%) and hsv(180, 71%, 80%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #3acacb a light or a dark color?

It is a mid-tone. Relative luminance is 0.4745 and perceived brightness is 68%, so black text on it reaches 10.49:1.

Should I use black or white text on #3acacb?

Black. It scores 10.49:1 against #3acacb, versus 2.00:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #3acacb accessible on a white background?

#3acacb on white scores 2.00:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #228182 to reach 4.5:1, or #1A6162 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #3acacb?

#CB3B3A sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #CB3A82 and #CB843A, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #3acacb?

For interface work: #F4FAFA as the surface, #C0ECED for borders, #4B9A9B for secondary text, #D0355B as an accent and #1B6465 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #3ACB84 and #3A82CB stays calm, while #CB3B3A is the loudest partner.

What is #3acacb in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(71%, 1%, 0%, 20%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #3acacb 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 #3ACB97; nudged cooler, #38A0CD.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #3acacb?

The teal family — its 500 step is #14b8a6, ΔE2000 8.7 away. That is a visible difference, so define #3acacb as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #3acacb in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#3acacb] or text-[#3acacb], 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 #3acacb with 50% opacity?

rgba(58, 202, 203, 0.5), or #3acacb80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #9DE5E5; over black, #1D6566.

Is #3acacb a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #33CCCC, ΔE2000 0.7 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #3acacb 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 #3acacb?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #6BD7D8, #3acacb 45%, #1B6465). For more colour, a short hue run to #3051B6 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #3acacb in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #3acacb at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.