Skip to content
cyan · cool

#52666a

a dark, muted cyan · cool · closest name: Dim Gray

Token name suggestion: Forest Reef

RGB
82, 102, 106
HSL
190°, 13%, 37%
CMYK
23, 4, 0, 58
Luminance
0.1234

#52666a is a dark muted cyan, 190° on the wheel and 65/100 on the cool side. Put white text on it (6.06:1). As text it scores 6.06:1 on white — safe at any size. Nearest name is Dim Gray, nearest Tailwind family is gray.

hsl(190 13% 37%)rgb(82 102 106)Base step 700AA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #52666a is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#52666a
Hue
190°
cyan
Saturation
13%
muted
Lightness
37%
dark
Brightness
42%
HSV value
Perceived
38%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.1234
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
65/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Muted
Best ink
White
6.06:1
Closest name
Dim Gray
ΔE2000 9
Chroma
8.0
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.495
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
gray
500 · ΔE 10.7
Web-safe
#666666
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue190° of 360°
Saturation13%
Lightness37%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #52666a.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool65% 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
Red15%
Green77%
Blue8%

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

Every format

HEX#52666a
HEX (8-digit)#52666aff
RGBrgb(82, 102, 106)
RGBArgba(82, 102, 106, 1)
HSLhsl(190, 13%, 37%)
HSV / HSBhsv(190, 23%, 42%)
HWBhwb(190 32% 58%)
CMYKcmyk(23%, 4%, 0%, 58%)
LABlab(41.8 -6.5 -4.7)
LCHlch(41.8 8.0 216.1)
OKLCHoklch(0.495 0.025 211.1)
XYZ (D65)xyz(10.83, 12.34, 15.44)
Decimal5400170
Display P3color(display-p3 0.322 0.400 0.416)
Web-safe#666666

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #52666a;
background-color: #52666a;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #52666a;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#52666a] bg-[#52666a]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #52666a;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.322, green: 0.400, blue: 0.416)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.322, green: 0.400, blue: 0.416, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#52666A</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFF52666A)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFF52666A)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(106, 102, 82)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(82, 102, 106)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(82, 102, 106)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 82, 102, 106)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.3216f, 0.4000f, 0.4157f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{82,102,106}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #52666a 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #52666a 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#384548, #DCE3E4);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #52666a 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: #F7F8F8;
  --brand-100: #EEF1F1;
  --brand-200: #DAE0E2;
  --brand-300: #C0CCCE;
  --brand-400: #A0B2B6;
  --brand-500: #80989D;
  --brand-600: #6B858A;
  --brand-700: #52666a;
  --brand-800: #47595C;
  --brand-900: #364244;
  --brand-950: #22292B;
  --brand: #52666a;
  --brand-ink: #ffffff;
  --brand-surface: #F6F8F8;
  --brand-border: #D1DADB;
  --brand-hover: #425356;
  --brand-pressed: #333F42;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #181E20;
    --brand-ink: #DCE3E4;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F7F8F8',
        100: '#EEF1F1',
        200: '#DAE0E2',
        300: '#C0CCCE',
        400: '#A0B2B6',
        500: '#80989D',
        600: '#6B858A',
        700: '#52666a',
        800: '#47595C',
        900: '#364244',
        950: '#22292B',
        DEFAULT: '#52666a',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F7F8F8,
  '100': #EEF1F1,
  '200': #DAE0E2,
  '300': #C0CCCE,
  '400': #A0B2B6,
  '500': #80989D,
  '600': #6B858A,
  '700': #52666a,
  '800': #47595C,
  '900': #364244,
  '950': #22292B,
);
$brand-base: #52666a;
$brand-ink: #ffffff;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F7F8F8", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#EEF1F1", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#DAE0E2", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#C0CCCE", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#A0B2B6", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#80989D", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#6B858A", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#52666a", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#47595C", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#364244", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#22292B", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #52666a · 6.06:1
Use #ffffffAA at every size, AAA for large text only.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 6.06:1 · 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: #52666a as text scores 6.06:1 on white and 3.47:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #F1F3F4 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
#52666a · 6.06:1
AA on whitealready passes
#52666a
The quick fox
#495B5F · 7.13:1
AAA on white−4% L
#495B5F
The quick fox
#62797E · 4.56:1
AA on black+7% L
#62797E
The quick fox
#839A9F · 7.09:1
AAA on black+20% L
#839A9F

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #52666A 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
#52666a on white: 6.06:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#52666a on black: 3.47:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #52666a as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #52666a.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White6.06:1AaAa
Slate 505.79:1AaAa
Slate 1005.53:1AaAa
Slate 2004.91:1AaAa
Slate 3004.08:1AaAa
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 · #62646A
deuteranopia · #5E616A
tritanopia · #4B6867

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. #52666a is pinned to step 700; the rest hold its hue and let saturation ease off at the extremes so the pale end never turns neon.

#F7F8F8
#EEF1F1
#DAE0E2
#C0CCCE
#A0B2B6
#80989D
#6B858A
#52666a
#47595C
#364244
#22292B
Base = 700Lightest = 50 · #F7F8F8Darkest = 950 · #22292BText 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 0.006 211.1);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.010 211.1);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.015 211.1);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.019 211.1);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.023 211.1);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.025 211.1);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.025 211.1);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.023 211.1);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.021 211.1);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.017 211.1);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.014 211.1);
}

Colors that work with #52666a

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#F6F8F8
Tinted page background
Border#D1DADB
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#647D81
Captions on the surface
Accent#6E4E51
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#384548
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#F1F3F4
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#181E20
Dark-mode background
Hover#425356
One step down in lightness
Pressed#333F42
Two steps down
Disabled#899FA4
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#517880
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 #52666a

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

Works well for
  • Body text and links on white
  • Borders, dividers and quiet backgrounds
  • Long-form reading 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.

With almost no chroma left, the family association is barely present; treat it as a neutral that happens to lean this way. 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
  • EnergyLow
  • Weight63/100
  • 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#6A5652
Analogous left#526A62
Analogous right#525A6A
Split-complement 1#6A525A
Split-complement 2#6A6252
Triadic 1#6A5266
Triadic 2#666A52
Tetradic#62526A
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°190°

#52666a sits at 190°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red32.2%
Green40.0%
Blue41.6%
R · 0–255
82
0x52
G · 0–255
102
0x66
B · 0–255
106
0x6a

CMYK percentages

Cyan22.6%
Magenta3.8%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)58.4%

Total ink coverage is 85%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#52666a text on a black background

contrast 3.47:1

Card sample

#52666a text on a white background

contrast 6.06:1

Card sample

#52666a on grey

5.53:1

#52666a on its own surface

5.68:1

#52666a on its dark surface

2.78:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #52666a;
Background color
Panel with #52666a background
background-color: #52666a;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #52666a;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(82, 102, 106, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(82, 102, 106, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #52666a;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #52666a, #52566A);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #52666a, #54526A);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #52666a;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #52666a;
caret-color: #52666a;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #52666a;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #F1F3F4;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #52666a;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#52666a 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #52666a 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(82, 102, 106, 0.5)
rgb(82 102 106 / 50%)
#52666a80
hsl(190 13% 37% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #52666a 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#52666a1a#EEF0F0
20%#52666a33#DCE0E1
40%#52666a66#BAC2C3
60%#52666a99#97A3A6
80%#52666acc#758588

Gradients from #52666a

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, #6D878D, #52666a 45%, #384548);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #52666a, #454659);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #52666a, #6A5652);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #7D969B 0%, #52666a 45%, #384548 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F6F8F8, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #68877A 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #5F667B 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #384548 0%, transparent 65%), #52666a;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #52666a

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.

#52666a 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
BackgroundsBordersBody textDividers
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 #62797E 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.

#52666a, answered

What color is #52666a?

#52666a is a dark muted cyan, closest to Dim Gray (ΔE2000 9). It sits at 190° on the hue wheel with 13% saturation and 37% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #52666a?

rgb(82, 102, 106) — 82 red, 102 green and 106 blue out of 255, or 32.2% / 40% / 41.6% by channel.

What is #52666a in HSL and HSV?

hsl(190, 13%, 37%) and hsv(190, 23%, 42%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #52666a a light or a dark color?

It is a dark color. Relative luminance is 0.1234 and perceived brightness is 38%, so white text on it reaches 6.06:1.

Should I use black or white text on #52666a?

White. It scores 6.06:1 against #52666a, versus 3.47:1 for black — AA at any size.

Is #52666a accessible on a white background?

#52666a on white scores 6.06:1, which clears AA at every size but not AAA.

What is the complementary color of #52666a?

#6A5652 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #6A525A and #6A6252, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #52666a?

For interface work: #F6F8F8 as the surface, #D1DADB for borders, #647D81 for secondary text, #6E4E51 as an accent and #384548 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #526A62 and #525A6A stays calm, while #6A5652 is the loudest partner.

What is #52666a in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(23%, 4%, 0%, 58%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #52666a warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 65 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #526A65; nudged cooler, #505E6C.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #52666a?

The gray family — its 500 step is #6b7280, ΔE2000 10.7 away. That is a visible difference, so define #52666a as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #52666a in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#52666a] or text-[#52666a], 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 #52666a with 50% opacity?

rgba(82, 102, 106, 0.5), or #52666a80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #A9B3B5; over black, #293335.

Is #52666a a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #666666, ΔE2000 8.8 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #52666a mean?

As a cyan, it reads clean, technical, fresh. Cyan reads as water, air and infrastructure: cool, hygienic, engineered. At this low chroma the association is faint; it behaves more like a neutral.

What gradient works with #52666a?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #6D878D, #52666a 45%, #384548). For more colour, a short hue run to #454659 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #52666a in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #52666a at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.