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cyan · cool

#46babb

a balanced, vivid cyan · cool · closest name: Light Sea Green

Token name suggestion: Atlas Reef

RGB
70, 186, 187
HSL
181°, 46%, 50%
CMYK
63, 1, 0, 27
Luminance
0.4001

#46babb is a balanced vivid cyan, 181° on the wheel and 88/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (9.00:1). As text it scores 2.33:1 on white — use #2F8080 instead. Nearest name is Light Sea Green, nearest Tailwind family is teal.

hsl(181 46% 50%)rgb(70 186 187)Base step 600AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #46babb is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#46babb
Hue
181°
cyan
Saturation
46%
vivid
Lightness
50%
balanced
Brightness
73%
HSV value
Perceived
63%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.4001
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
88/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Vivid
Best ink
Black
9.00:1
Closest name
Light Sea Green
ΔE2000 4.8
Chroma
33.2
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.725
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
teal
500 · ΔE 7.5
Web-safe
#33CCCC
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue181° of 360°
Saturation46%
Lightness50%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #46babb.

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
Red3%
Green88%
Blue9%

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

Every format

HEX#46babb
HEX (8-digit)#46babbff
RGBrgb(70, 186, 187)
RGBArgba(70, 186, 187, 1)
HSLhsl(181, 46%, 50%)
HSV / HSBhsv(181, 63%, 73%)
HWBhwb(181 27% 27%)
CMYKcmyk(63%, 1%, 0%, 27%)
LABlab(69.5 -31.6 -10.2)
LCHlch(69.5 33.2 197.8)
OKLCHoklch(0.725 0.102 195.9)
XYZ (D65)xyz(29.05, 40.00, 53.19)
Decimal4635323
Display P3color(display-p3 0.275 0.729 0.733)
Web-safe#33CCCC

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #46babb;
background-color: #46babb;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #46babb;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#46babb] bg-[#46babb]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #46babb;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.275, green: 0.729, blue: 0.733)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.275, green: 0.729, blue: 0.733, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#46BABB</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFF46BABB)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFF46BABB)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(187, 186, 70)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(70, 186, 187)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(70, 186, 187)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 70, 186, 187)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.2745f, 0.7294f, 0.7333f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{70,186,187}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #46babb 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #46babb 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#225D5D, #D3EEEE);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #46babb 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: #F5FAFA;
  --brand-100: #EAF5F5;
  --brand-200: #D0EBEB;
  --brand-300: #ADE0E1;
  --brand-400: #84D1D2;
  --brand-500: #5BC2C3;
  --brand-600: #46babb;
  --brand-700: #379495;
  --brand-800: #2C7777;
  --brand-900: #235757;
  --brand-950: #163637;
  --brand: #46babb;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F4FAFA;
  --brand-border: #C3E9E9;
  --brand-hover: #3CA1A2;
  --brand-pressed: #328788;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #142424;
    --brand-ink: #D3EEEE;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F5FAFA',
        100: '#EAF5F5',
        200: '#D0EBEB',
        300: '#ADE0E1',
        400: '#84D1D2',
        500: '#5BC2C3',
        600: '#46babb',
        700: '#379495',
        800: '#2C7777',
        900: '#235757',
        950: '#163637',
        DEFAULT: '#46babb',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F5FAFA,
  '100': #EAF5F5,
  '200': #D0EBEB,
  '300': #ADE0E1,
  '400': #84D1D2,
  '500': #5BC2C3,
  '600': #46babb,
  '700': #379495,
  '800': #2C7777,
  '900': #235757,
  '950': #163637,
);
$brand-base: #46babb;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F5FAFA", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#EAF5F5", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#D0EBEB", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#ADE0E1", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#84D1D2", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#5BC2C3", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#46babb", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#379495", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#2C7777", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#235757", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#163637", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #46babb · 9.00:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 2.33:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 9.00:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #46babb as text scores 2.33:1 on white and 9.00:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #225D5D at 3.22:1.

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
#2F8080 · 4.65:1
AA on white−16% L
#2F8080
The quick fox
#246262 · 7.00:1
AAA on white−24% L
#246262
The quick fox
#46babb · 9.00:1
AA on blackalready passes
#46babb
The quick fox
#46babb · 9.00:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#46babb

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #3CA1A2 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
#46babb on white: 2.33:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#46babb on black: 9.00:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #46babb as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #46babb.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White2.33:1AaAa
Slate 502.23:1AaAa
Slate 1002.13:1AaAa
Slate 2001.89:1AaAa
Slate 3001.57:1AaAa
Slate 4001.10:1AaAa
Slate 5002.04:1AaAa
Slate 6003.25:1AaAa
Slate 7004.44:1AaAa
Slate 8006.27:1AaAa
Slate 9007.65:1AaAa
Black9.00:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #AEB1BB
deuteranopia · #9CA4BC
tritanopia · #00C0BA

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. #46babb 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.

#F5FAFA
#EAF5F5
#D0EBEB
#ADE0E1
#84D1D2
#5BC2C3
#46babb
#379495
#2C7777
#235757
#163637
Base = 600Lightest = 50 · #F5FAFADarkest = 950 · #163637Text 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 0.026 195.9);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.041 195.9);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.061 195.9);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.080 195.9);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.094 195.9);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.102 195.9);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.102 195.9);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.096 195.9);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.086 195.9);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.072 195.9);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.056 195.9);
}

Colors that work with #46babb

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#C3E9E9
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B9A9B
Captions on the surface
Accent#C04160
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#225D5D
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#ECF8F8
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#142424
Dark-mode background
Hover#3CA1A2
One step down in lightness
Pressed#328788
Two steps down
Disabled#A9C8C8
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#49CBCC
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 #46babb

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 #225D5D
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #3CA1A2

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
  • Weight50/100
  • 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#BB4746
Analogous left#46BB81
Analogous right#4680BB
Split-complement 1#BB4680
Split-complement 2#BB8146
Triadic 1#BB46BA
Triadic 2#BABB46
Tetradic#8146BB
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°181°

#46babb sits at 181°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red27.5%
Green72.9%
Blue73.3%
R · 0–255
70
0x46
G · 0–255
186
0xba
B · 0–255
187
0xbb

CMYK percentages

Cyan62.6%
Magenta0.5%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)26.7%

Total ink coverage is 90%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#46babb text on a black background

contrast 9.00:1

Card sample

#46babb text on a white background

contrast 2.33:1

Card sample

#46babb on grey

2.13:1

#46babb on its own surface

2.21:1

#46babb on its dark surface

6.88:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #46babb;
Background color
Panel with #46babb background
background-color: #46babb;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #46babb;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(70, 186, 187, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(70, 186, 187, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #46babb;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #46babb, #466CBB);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #46babb, #464FBB);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #46babb;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #46babb;
caret-color: #46babb;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #46babb;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #ECF8F8;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #46babb;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#46babb 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #46babb 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(70, 186, 187, 0.5)
rgb(70 186 187 / 50%)
#46babb80
hsl(181 46% 50% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #46babb 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#46babb1a#EDF8F8
20%#46babb33#DAF1F1
40%#46babb66#B5E3E4
60%#46babb99#90D6D6
80%#46babbcc#6BC8C9

Gradients from #46babb

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, #73CBCB, #46babb 45%, #225D5D);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #46babb, #3D56A6);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #46babb, #BB4746);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #89D3D4 0%, #46babb 45%, #225D5D 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%, #6BC993 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #5C86C3 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #225D5D 0%, transparent 65%), #46babb;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #46babb

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.

#46babb 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 9.00:1.

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.

#46babb, answered

What color is #46babb?

#46babb is a balanced vivid cyan, closest to Light Sea Green (ΔE2000 4.8). It sits at 181° on the hue wheel with 46% saturation and 50% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #46babb?

rgb(70, 186, 187) — 70 red, 186 green and 187 blue out of 255, or 27.5% / 72.9% / 73.3% by channel.

What is #46babb in HSL and HSV?

hsl(181, 46%, 50%) and hsv(181, 63%, 73%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #46babb a light or a dark color?

It is a mid-tone. Relative luminance is 0.4001 and perceived brightness is 63%, so black text on it reaches 9.00:1.

Should I use black or white text on #46babb?

Black. It scores 9.00:1 against #46babb, versus 2.33:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #46babb accessible on a white background?

#46babb on white scores 2.33:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #2F8080 to reach 4.5:1, or #246262 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #46babb?

#BB4746 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #BB4680 and #BB8146, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #46babb?

For interface work: #F4FAFA as the surface, #C3E9E9 for borders, #4B9A9B for secondary text, #C04160 as an accent and #225D5D for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #46BB81 and #4680BB stays calm, while #BB4746 is the loudest partner.

What is #46babb in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(63%, 1%, 0%, 27%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #46babb 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 #46BB91; nudged cooler, #4495BD.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #46babb?

The teal family — its 500 step is #14b8a6, ΔE2000 7.5 away. That is a visible difference, so define #46babb as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #46babb in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#46babb] or text-[#46babb], 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 #46babb with 50% opacity?

rgba(70, 186, 187, 0.5), or #46babb80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #A3DDDD; over black, #235D5E.

Is #46babb a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #33CCCC, ΔE2000 4.8 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #46babb 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 #46babb?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #73CBCB, #46babb 45%, #225D5D). For more colour, a short hue run to #3D56A6 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #46babb in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #46babb at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.