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cyan · cool

#55ffff

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

Token name suggestion: Meadow Teal

RGB
85, 255, 255
HSL
180°, 100%, 67%
CMYK
67, 0, 0, 0
Luminance
0.8067

#55ffff is a light electric cyan, 180° on the wheel and 88/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (17.13:1). As text it scores 1.23:1 on white — use #008383 instead. Nearest name is Cyan, nearest Tailwind family is teal.

hsl(180 100% 67%)rgb(85 255 255)Base step 400AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #55ffff is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#55ffff
Hue
180°
cyan
Saturation
100%
electric
Lightness
67%
light
Brightness
100%
HSV value
Perceived
86%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.8067
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
88/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Electric
Best ink
Black
17.13:1
Closest name
Cyan
ΔE2000 1.9
Chroma
44.3
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.915
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
teal
500 · ΔE 18.3
Web-safe
#66FFFF
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue180° of 360°
Saturation100%
Lightness67%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #55ffff.

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#55ffff
HEX (8-digit)#55ffffff
RGBrgb(85, 255, 255)
RGBArgba(85, 255, 255, 1)
HSLhsl(180, 100%, 67%)
HSV / HSBhsv(180, 67%, 100%)
HWBhwb(180 33% 0%)
CMYKcmyk(67%, 0%, 0%, 0%)
LABlab(92.0 -42.5 -12.7)
LCHlch(92.0 44.3 196.7)
OKLCHoklch(0.915 0.137 195.0)
XYZ (D65)xyz(57.55, 80.66, 107.13)
Decimal5636095
Display P3color(display-p3 0.333 1.000 1.000)
Web-safe#66FFFF

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #55ffff;
background-color: #55ffff;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #55ffff;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#55ffff] bg-[#55ffff]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #55ffff;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.333, green: 1.000, blue: 1.000)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.333, green: 1.000, blue: 1.000, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#55FFFF</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFF55FFFF)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFF55FFFF)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(255, 255, 85)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(85, 255, 255)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(85, 255, 255)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 85, 255, 255)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.3333f, 1.0000f, 1.0000f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{85,255,255}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #55ffff 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #55ffff 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#008080, #D3EEEE);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #55ffff 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: #F1FEFE;
  --brand-100: #E3FCFC;
  --brand-200: #C0FCFC;
  --brand-300: #8FFFFF;
  --brand-400: #55ffff;
  --brand-500: #1FFFFF;
  --brand-600: #00F5F5;
  --brand-700: #00CCCC;
  --brand-800: #00A3A3;
  --brand-900: #057676;
  --brand-950: #034949;
  --brand: #55ffff;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F4FAFA;
  --brand-border: #C0EDED;
  --brand-hover: #31FFFF;
  --brand-pressed: #0EFFFF;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #142424;
    --brand-ink: #D3EEEE;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F1FEFE',
        100: '#E3FCFC',
        200: '#C0FCFC',
        300: '#8FFFFF',
        400: '#55ffff',
        500: '#1FFFFF',
        600: '#00F5F5',
        700: '#00CCCC',
        800: '#00A3A3',
        900: '#057676',
        950: '#034949',
        DEFAULT: '#55ffff',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F1FEFE,
  '100': #E3FCFC,
  '200': #C0FCFC,
  '300': #8FFFFF,
  '400': #55ffff,
  '500': #1FFFFF,
  '600': #00F5F5,
  '700': #00CCCC,
  '800': #00A3A3,
  '900': #057676,
  '950': #034949,
);
$brand-base: #55ffff;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F1FEFE", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#E3FCFC", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#C0FCFC", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#8FFFFF", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#55ffff", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#1FFFFF", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#00F5F5", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#00CCCC", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#00A3A3", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#057676", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#034949", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #55ffff · 17.13:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 1.23:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 17.13:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #55ffff as text scores 1.23:1 on white and 17.13:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #008080 at 3.89:1.

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
#008383 · 4.59:1
AA on white−41% L
#008383
The quick fox
#005F5F · 7.49:1
AAA on white−48% L
#005F5F
The quick fox
#55ffff · 17.13:1
AA on blackalready passes
#55ffff
The quick fox
#55ffff · 17.13:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#55ffff

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #00A2A2 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
#55ffff on white: 1.23:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#55ffff on black: 17.13:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #55ffff as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #55ffff.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White1.23:1AaAa
Slate 501.17:1AaAa
Slate 1001.12:1AaAa
Slate 2001.01:1AaAa
Slate 3001.21:1AaAa
Slate 4002.09:1AaAa
Slate 5003.88:1AaAa
Slate 6006.18:1AaAa
Slate 7008.45:1AaAa
Slate 80011.94:1AaAa
Slate 90014.57:1AaAa
Black17.13:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #EFF3FF
deuteranopia · #D5E0FF
tritanopia · #00FFFF

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. #55ffff 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.

#F1FEFE
#E3FCFC
#C0FCFC
#8FFFFF
#55ffff
#1FFFFF
#00F5F5
#00CCCC
#00A3A3
#057676
#034949
Base = 400Lightest = 50 · #F1FEFEDarkest = 950 · #034949Text 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 0.034 195.0);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.055 195.0);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.082 195.0);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.106 195.0);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.126 195.0);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.137 195.0);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.137 195.0);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.128 195.0);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.115 195.0);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.096 195.0);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.075 195.0);
}

Colors that work with #55ffff

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#C0EDED
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B9B9B
Captions on the surface
Accent#CC0034
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#008080
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#E5FFFF
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#142424
Dark-mode background
Hover#31FFFF
One step down in lightness
Pressed#0EFFFF
Two steps down
Disabled#DCE9E9
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#6AFFFF
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 #55ffff

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 #008080
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #00A2A2

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
  • Weight33/100
  • 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#FF5555
Analogous left#55FFAA
Analogous right#55AAFF
Split-complement 1#FF55AA
Split-complement 2#FFAA55
Triadic 1#FF55FF
Triadic 2#FFFF55
Tetradic#AA55FF
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°180°

#55ffff sits at 180°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red33.3%
Green100.0%
Blue100.0%
R · 0–255
85
0x55
G · 0–255
255
0xff
B · 0–255
255
0xff

CMYK percentages

Cyan66.7%
Magenta0.0%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)0.0%

Total ink coverage is 67%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#55ffff text on a black background

contrast 17.13:1

Card sample

#55ffff text on a white background

contrast 1.23:1

Card sample

#55ffff on grey

1.12:1

#55ffff on its own surface

1.16:1

#55ffff on its dark surface

13.10:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #55ffff;
Background color
Panel with #55ffff background
background-color: #55ffff;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #55ffff;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(85, 255, 255, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(85, 255, 255, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #55ffff;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #55ffff, #558EFF);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #55ffff, #5563FF);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #55ffff;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #55ffff;
caret-color: #55ffff;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #55ffff;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #E5FFFF;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #55ffff;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#55ffff 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #55ffff 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(85, 255, 255, 0.5)
rgb(85 255 255 / 50%)
#55ffff80
hsl(180 100% 67% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #55ffff 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#55ffff1a#EEFFFF
20%#55ffff33#DDFFFF
40%#55ffff66#BBFFFF
60%#55ffff99#99FFFF
80%#55ffffcc#77FFFF

Gradients from #55ffff

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, #92FFFF, #55ffff 45%, #008080);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #55ffff, #3769FF);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #55ffff, #FF5555);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #B1FFFF 0%, #55ffff 45%, #008080 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%, #88FFBA 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #74AEFF 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #008080 0%, transparent 65%), #55ffff;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #55ffff

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.

#55ffff 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 17.13:1.

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.

#55ffff, answered

What color is #55ffff?

#55ffff is a light electric cyan, closest to Cyan (ΔE2000 1.9). It sits at 180° on the hue wheel with 100% saturation and 67% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #55ffff?

rgb(85, 255, 255) — 85 red, 255 green and 255 blue out of 255, or 33.3% / 100% / 100% by channel.

What is #55ffff in HSL and HSV?

hsl(180, 100%, 67%) and hsv(180, 67%, 100%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #55ffff a light or a dark color?

It is a light color. Relative luminance is 0.8067 and perceived brightness is 86%, so black text on it reaches 17.13:1.

Should I use black or white text on #55ffff?

Black. It scores 17.13:1 against #55ffff, versus 1.23:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #55ffff accessible on a white background?

#55ffff on white scores 1.23:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #008383 to reach 4.5:1, or #005F5F for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #55ffff?

#FF5555 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #FF55AA and #FFAA55, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #55ffff?

For interface work: #F4FAFA as the surface, #C0EDED for borders, #4B9B9B for secondary text, #CC0034 as an accent and #008080 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #55FFAA and #55AAFF stays calm, while #FF5555 is the loudest partner.

What is #55ffff in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(67%, 0%, 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 #55ffff 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 #55FFC1; nudged cooler, #55CFFF.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #55ffff?

The teal family — its 500 step is #14b8a6, ΔE2000 18.3 away. That is a visible difference, so define #55ffff as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #55ffff in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#55ffff] or text-[#55ffff], 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 #55ffff with 50% opacity?

rgba(85, 255, 255, 0.5), or #55ffff80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #AAFFFF; over black, #2B8080.

Is #55ffff a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #66FFFF, ΔE2000 0.9 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #55ffff 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 #55ffff?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #92FFFF, #55ffff 45%, #008080). For more colour, a short hue run to #3769FF keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #55ffff in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #55ffff at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.