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cyan · cool

#52ebfe

a light, electric cyan · cool · closest name: Cyan

Token name suggestion: Drift Teal

RGB
82, 235, 254
HSL
187°, 99%, 66%
CMYK
68, 8, 0, 0
Luminance
0.6837

#52ebfe is a light electric cyan, 187° on the wheel and 90/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (14.67:1). As text it scores 1.43:1 on white — use #018393 instead. Nearest name is Cyan, nearest Tailwind family is cyan.

hsl(187 99% 66%)rgb(82 235 254)Base step 400AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #52ebfe is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#52ebfe
Hue
187°
cyan
Saturation
99%
electric
Lightness
66%
light
Brightness
100%
HSV value
Perceived
80%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.6837
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
90/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Electric
Best ink
Black
14.67:1
Closest name
Cyan
ΔE2000 8.2
Chroma
39.9
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.868
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
cyan
500 · ΔE 13.6
Web-safe
#66FFFF
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue187° of 360°
Saturation99%
Lightness66%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #52ebfe.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool90% 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%
Green87%
Blue10%

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

Every format

HEX#52ebfe
HEX (8-digit)#52ebfeff
RGBrgb(82, 235, 254)
RGBArgba(82, 235, 254, 1)
HSLhsl(187, 99%, 66%)
HSV / HSBhsv(187, 68%, 100%)
HWBhwb(187 32% 0%)
CMYKcmyk(68%, 8%, 0%, 0%)
LABlab(86.2 -34.0 -20.9)
LCHlch(86.2 39.9 211.7)
OKLCHoklch(0.868 0.128 207.0)
XYZ (D65)xyz(51.07, 68.36, 104.25)
Decimal5434366
Display P3color(display-p3 0.322 0.922 0.996)
Web-safe#66FFFF

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #52ebfe;
background-color: #52ebfe;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #52ebfe;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#52ebfe] bg-[#52ebfe]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #52ebfe;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.322, green: 0.922, blue: 0.996)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.322, green: 0.922, blue: 0.996, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#52EBFE</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFF52EBFE)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFF52EBFE)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(254, 235, 82)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(82, 235, 254)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(82, 235, 254)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 82, 235, 254)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.3216f, 0.9216f, 0.9961f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{82,235,254}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #52ebfe 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #52ebfe 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#01717F, #D3EBEE);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #52ebfe 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: #F1FCFE;
  --brand-100: #E3F9FC;
  --brand-200: #C0F5FB;
  --brand-300: #8FF2FE;
  --brand-400: #52ebfe;
  --brand-500: #20E5FE;
  --brand-600: #01D9F3;
  --brand-700: #01B5CB;
  --brand-800: #0191A2;
  --brand-900: #066975;
  --brand-950: #034149;
  --brand: #52ebfe;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F4FAFA;
  --brand-border: #C0E8ED;
  --brand-hover: #2FE7FE;
  --brand-pressed: #0BE3FE;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #142324;
    --brand-ink: #D3EBEE;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F1FCFE',
        100: '#E3F9FC',
        200: '#C0F5FB',
        300: '#8FF2FE',
        400: '#52ebfe',
        500: '#20E5FE',
        600: '#01D9F3',
        700: '#01B5CB',
        800: '#0191A2',
        900: '#066975',
        950: '#034149',
        DEFAULT: '#52ebfe',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F1FCFE,
  '100': #E3F9FC,
  '200': #C0F5FB,
  '300': #8FF2FE,
  '400': #52ebfe,
  '500': #20E5FE,
  '600': #01D9F3,
  '700': #01B5CB,
  '800': #0191A2,
  '900': #066975,
  '950': #034149,
);
$brand-base: #52ebfe;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F1FCFE", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#E3F9FC", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#C0F5FB", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#8FF2FE", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#52ebfe", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#20E5FE", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#01D9F3", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#01B5CB", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#0191A2", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#066975", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#034149", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #52ebfe · 14.67:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 1.43:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 14.67:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #52ebfe as text scores 1.43:1 on white and 14.67:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #01717F at 4.00:1.

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
#018393 · 4.50:1
AA on white−37% L
#018393
The quick fox
#015E6A · 7.47:1
AAA on white−45% L
#015E6A
The quick fox
#52ebfe · 14.67:1
AA on blackalready passes
#52ebfe
The quick fox
#52ebfe · 14.67:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#52ebfe

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #01A2B6 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
#52ebfe on white: 1.43:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#52ebfe on black: 14.67:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #52ebfe as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #52ebfe.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White1.43:1AaAa
Slate 501.37:1AaAa
Slate 1001.31:1AaAa
Slate 2001.16:1AaAa
Slate 3001.04:1AaAa
Slate 4001.79:1AaAa
Slate 5003.33:1AaAa
Slate 6005.29:1AaAa
Slate 7007.24:1AaAa
Slate 80010.22:1AaAa
Slate 90012.47:1AaAa
Black14.67:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #D8E2FF
deuteranopia · #BFD0FE
tritanopia · #00F5F1

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. #52ebfe is pinned to step 400; the rest hold its hue and let saturation ease off at the extremes so the pale end never turns neon.

#F1FCFE
#E3F9FC
#C0F5FB
#8FF2FE
#52ebfe
#20E5FE
#01D9F3
#01B5CB
#0191A2
#066975
#034149
Base = 400Lightest = 50 · #F1FCFEDarkest = 950 · #034149Text step on white = 900
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 0.032 207.0);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.051 207.0);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.077 207.0);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.100 207.0);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.118 207.0);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.128 207.0);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.128 207.0);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.121 207.0);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.108 207.0);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.090 207.0);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.071 207.0);
}

Colors that work with #52ebfe

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#C0E8ED
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B929B
Captions on the surface
Accent#FF5169
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#01717F
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#E6FCFF
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#142324
Dark-mode background
Hover#2FE7FE
One step down in lightness
Pressed#0BE3FE
Two steps down
Disabled#D9E5E7
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#65EEFF
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 #52ebfe

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
  • Card and section backgrounds
  • Brand accents, badges and data highlights
Use with care
  • Text of any size on white — fails WCAG AA
  • Full-page backgrounds — tiring over long sessions
  • White 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
Not as text
Safe as a fill behind white type
No — use #01717F
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #01A2B6

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.

At this chroma the association is amplified — it will dominate anything placed beside it, so give it space and use it sparingly. The lightness keeps it airy and approachable.

Worth knowing

At high lightness it disappears into white surfaces and thin strokes vanish entirely.

Reads as
  • FormalityLow
  • EnergyHigh
  • Weight34/100
  • 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#FE6552
Analogous left#52FEBB
Analogous right#5295FE
Split-complement 1#FE5295
Split-complement 2#FEBB52
Triadic 1#FE52EB
Triadic 2#EBFE52
Tetradic#BB52FE
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°187°

#52ebfe sits at 187°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red32.2%
Green92.2%
Blue99.6%
R · 0–255
82
0x52
G · 0–255
235
0xeb
B · 0–255
254
0xfe

CMYK percentages

Cyan67.7%
Magenta7.5%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)0.4%

Total ink coverage is 76%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#52ebfe text on a black background

contrast 14.67:1

Card sample

#52ebfe text on a white background

contrast 1.43:1

Card sample

#52ebfe on grey

1.31:1

#52ebfe on its own surface

1.36:1

#52ebfe on its dark surface

11.33:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #52ebfe;
Background color
Panel with #52ebfe background
background-color: #52ebfe;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #52ebfe;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(82, 235, 254, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(82, 235, 254, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #52ebfe;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #52ebfe, #5278FE);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #52ebfe, #5752FE);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #52ebfe;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #52ebfe;
caret-color: #52ebfe;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #52ebfe;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #E6FCFF;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #52ebfe;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#52ebfe 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #52ebfe 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, 235, 254, 0.5)
rgb(82 235 254 / 50%)
#52ebfe80
hsl(187 99% 66% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #52ebfe 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#52ebfe1a#EEFDFF
20%#52ebfe33#DCFBFF
40%#52ebfe66#BAF7FF
60%#52ebfe99#97F3FE
80%#52ebfecc#75EFFE

Gradients from #52ebfe

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, #8FF2FE, #52ebfe 45%, #01717F);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #52ebfe, #3450FE);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #52ebfe, #FE6552);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #ADF6FF 0%, #52ebfe 45%, #01717F 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%, #85FEC5 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #709CFE 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #01717F 0%, transparent 65%), #52ebfe;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #52ebfe

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.

#52ebfe 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
SurfacesBadgesHighlightsEmpty states
Print note

Sits outside most CMYK gamuts — expect a duller press result, or specify a spot ink.

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 14.67:1.

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.

#52ebfe, answered

What color is #52ebfe?

#52ebfe is a light electric cyan, closest to Cyan (ΔE2000 8.2). It sits at 187° on the hue wheel with 99% saturation and 66% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #52ebfe?

rgb(82, 235, 254) — 82 red, 235 green and 254 blue out of 255, or 32.2% / 92.2% / 99.6% by channel.

What is #52ebfe in HSL and HSV?

hsl(187, 99%, 66%) and hsv(187, 68%, 100%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #52ebfe a light or a dark color?

It is a light color. Relative luminance is 0.6837 and perceived brightness is 80%, so black text on it reaches 14.67:1.

Should I use black or white text on #52ebfe?

Black. It scores 14.67:1 against #52ebfe, versus 1.43:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #52ebfe accessible on a white background?

#52ebfe on white scores 1.43:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #018393 to reach 4.5:1, or #015E6A for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #52ebfe?

#FE6552 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #FE5295 and #FEBB52, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #52ebfe?

For interface work: #F4FAFA as the surface, #C0E8ED for borders, #4B929B for secondary text, #FF5169 as an accent and #01717F for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #52FEBB and #5295FE stays calm, while #FE6552 is the loudest partner.

What is #52ebfe in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(68%, 8%, 0%, 0%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — a color this saturated sits outside most CMYK gamuts and will print duller than it looks here.

Is #52ebfe warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 90 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #52FED2; nudged cooler, #51C5FF.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #52ebfe?

The cyan family — its 500 step is #06b6d4, ΔE2000 13.6 away. That is a visible difference, so define #52ebfe as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #52ebfe in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#52ebfe] or text-[#52ebfe], 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 #52ebfe with 50% opacity?

rgba(82, 235, 254, 0.5), or #52ebfe80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #A9F5FF; over black, #29767F.

Is #52ebfe a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #66FFFF, ΔE2000 7.4 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #52ebfe 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 #52ebfe?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #8FF2FE, #52ebfe 45%, #01717F). For more colour, a short hue run to #3450FE keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #52ebfe in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #52ebfe at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.