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cyan · cool

#5fbcac

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

Token name suggestion: True Lagoon

RGB
95, 188, 172
HSL
170°, 41%, 56%
CMYK
50, 0, 9, 26
Luminance
0.4138

#5fbcac is a balanced soft cyan, 170° on the wheel and 83/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (9.28:1). As text it scores 2.26:1 on white — use #378376 instead. Nearest name is Light Sea Green, nearest Tailwind family is teal.

hsl(170 41% 56%)rgb(95 188 172)Base step 500AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #5fbcac is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#5fbcac
Hue
170°
cyan
Saturation
41%
soft
Lightness
56%
balanced
Brightness
74%
HSV value
Perceived
64%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.4138
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
83/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Soft
Best ink
Black
9.28:1
Closest name
Light Sea Green
ΔE2000 5.7
Chroma
31.6
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.734
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
teal
500 · ΔE 4.7
Web-safe
#66CC99
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue170° of 360°
Saturation41%
Lightness56%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #5fbcac.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool83% 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
Red6%
Green87%
Blue7%

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

Every format

HEX#5fbcac
HEX (8-digit)#5fbcacff
RGBrgb(95, 188, 172)
RGBArgba(95, 188, 172, 1)
HSLhsl(170, 41%, 56%)
HSV / HSBhsv(170, 49%, 74%)
HWBhwb(170 37% 26%)
CMYKcmyk(50%, 0%, 9%, 26%)
LABlab(70.4 -31.6 -0.4)
LCHlch(70.4 31.6 180.7)
OKLCHoklch(0.734 0.092 181.0)
XYZ (D65)xyz(30.15, 41.38, 45.42)
Decimal6274220
Display P3color(display-p3 0.373 0.737 0.675)
Web-safe#66CC99

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #5fbcac;
background-color: #5fbcac;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #5fbcac;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#5fbcac] bg-[#5fbcac]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #5fbcac;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.373, green: 0.737, blue: 0.675)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.373, green: 0.737, blue: 0.675, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#5FBCAC</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFF5FBCAC)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFF5FBCAC)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(172, 188, 95)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(95, 188, 172)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(95, 188, 172)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 95, 188, 172)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.3725f, 0.7373f, 0.6745f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{95,188,172}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #5fbcac 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #5fbcac 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#265A51, #D4EDE9);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #5fbcac 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: #F5FAF9;
  --brand-100: #EBF5F3;
  --brand-200: #D2EAE6;
  --brand-300: #B0DED6;
  --brand-400: #88CDC2;
  --brand-500: #5fbcac;
  --brand-600: #48AD9B;
  --brand-700: #3C9081;
  --brand-800: #307368;
  --brand-900: #26544C;
  --brand-950: #183530;
  --brand: #5fbcac;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F4FAF9;
  --brand-border: #C5E7E1;
  --brand-hover: #49AE9D;
  --brand-pressed: #3E9586;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #142422;
    --brand-ink: #D4EDE9;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F5FAF9',
        100: '#EBF5F3',
        200: '#D2EAE6',
        300: '#B0DED6',
        400: '#88CDC2',
        500: '#5fbcac',
        600: '#48AD9B',
        700: '#3C9081',
        800: '#307368',
        900: '#26544C',
        950: '#183530',
        DEFAULT: '#5fbcac',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F5FAF9,
  '100': #EBF5F3,
  '200': #D2EAE6,
  '300': #B0DED6,
  '400': #88CDC2,
  '500': #5fbcac,
  '600': #48AD9B,
  '700': #3C9081,
  '800': #307368,
  '900': #26544C,
  '950': #183530,
);
$brand-base: #5fbcac;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F5FAF9", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#EBF5F3", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#D2EAE6", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#B0DED6", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#88CDC2", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#5fbcac", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#48AD9B", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#3C9081", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#307368", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#26544C", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#183530", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #5fbcac · 9.28:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 2.26:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 9.28:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #5fbcac as text scores 2.26:1 on white and 9.28:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #265A51 at 3.48:1.

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
#378376 · 4.50:1
AA on white−19% L
#378376
The quick fox
#285F56 · 7.34:1
AAA on white−29% L
#285F56
The quick fox
#5fbcac · 9.28:1
AA on blackalready passes
#5fbcac
The quick fox
#5fbcac · 9.28:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#5fbcac

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #44A493 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
#5fbcac on white: 2.26:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#5fbcac on black: 9.28:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #5fbcac as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #5fbcac.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White2.26:1AaAa
Slate 502.16:1AaAa
Slate 1002.07:1AaAa
Slate 2001.84:1AaAa
Slate 3001.52:1AaAa
Slate 4001.13:1AaAa
Slate 5002.10:1AaAa
Slate 6003.35:1AaAa
Slate 7004.57:1AaAa
Slate 8006.46:1AaAa
Slate 9007.89:1AaAa
Black9.28:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #B5B3AB
deuteranopia · #A6A8AD
tritanopia · #32BFB7

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. #5fbcac is pinned to step 500; the rest hold its hue and let saturation ease off at the extremes so the pale end never turns neon.

#F5FAF9
#EBF5F3
#D2EAE6
#B0DED6
#88CDC2
#5fbcac
#48AD9B
#3C9081
#307368
#26544C
#183530
Base = 500Lightest = 50 · #F5FAF9Darkest = 950 · #183530Text 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 0.023 181.0);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.037 181.0);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.055 181.0);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.072 181.0);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.085 181.0);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.092 181.0);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.092 181.0);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.087 181.0);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.078 181.0);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.065 181.0);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.051 181.0);
}

Colors that work with #5fbcac

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#F4FAF9
Tinted page background
Border#C5E7E1
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B9B8D
Captions on the surface
Accent#C15A86
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#265A51
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#EDF7F6
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#142422
Dark-mode background
Hover#49AE9D
One step down in lightness
Pressed#3E9586
Two steps down
Disabled#B9D2CE
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#63CCBA
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 #5fbcac

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

Works well for
  • Text and icons on dark surfaces
  • Charts, tags and secondary surfaces
  • Brand accents, badges and data highlights
  • Chart series and data categories
Use with care
  • Text of any size on white — fails WCAG AA
  • 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 #265A51
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #44A493

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.

The muted chroma softens the association — it reads considered rather than loud, which suits long-form and data-heavy screens. 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
  • Weight45/100
  • 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#BC5F6F
Analogous left#5FBC7E
Analogous right#5F9DBC
Split-complement 1#BC5F9D
Split-complement 2#BC7E5F
Triadic 1#AC5FBC
Triadic 2#BCAC5F
Tetradic#7E5FBC
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°170°

#5fbcac sits at 170°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red37.3%
Green73.7%
Blue67.5%
R · 0–255
95
0x5f
G · 0–255
188
0xbc
B · 0–255
172
0xac

CMYK percentages

Cyan49.5%
Magenta0.0%
Yellow8.5%
Key (black)26.3%

Total ink coverage is 84%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#5fbcac text on a black background

contrast 9.28:1

Card sample

#5fbcac text on a white background

contrast 2.26:1

Card sample

#5fbcac on grey

2.07:1

#5fbcac on its own surface

2.14:1

#5fbcac on its dark surface

7.11:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #5fbcac;
Background color
Panel with #5fbcac background
background-color: #5fbcac;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #5fbcac;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(95, 188, 172, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(95, 188, 172, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #5fbcac;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #5fbcac, #5F8EBC);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #5fbcac, #5F77BC);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #5fbcac;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #5fbcac;
caret-color: #5fbcac;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #5fbcac;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #EDF7F6;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #5fbcac;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#5fbcac 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #5fbcac 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(95, 188, 172, 0.5)
rgb(95 188 172 / 50%)
#5fbcac80
hsl(170 41% 56% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #5fbcac 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#5fbcac1a#EFF8F7
20%#5fbcac33#DFF2EE
40%#5fbcac66#BFE4DE
60%#5fbcac99#9FD7CD
80%#5fbcaccc#7FC9BD

Gradients from #5fbcac

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, #8ACEC2, #5fbcac 45%, #265A51);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #5fbcac, #4A76B2);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #5fbcac, #BC5F6F);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #A0D7CE 0%, #5fbcac 45%, #265A51 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F4FAF9, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #83CB95 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #75A4C5 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #265A51 0%, transparent 65%), #5fbcac;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #5fbcac

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.

#5fbcac 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 9.28:1.

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.

#5fbcac, answered

What color is #5fbcac?

#5fbcac is a balanced soft cyan, closest to Light Sea Green (ΔE2000 5.7). It sits at 170° on the hue wheel with 41% saturation and 56% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #5fbcac?

rgb(95, 188, 172) — 95 red, 188 green and 172 blue out of 255, or 37.3% / 73.7% / 67.5% by channel.

What is #5fbcac in HSL and HSV?

hsl(170, 41%, 56%) and hsv(170, 49%, 74%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #5fbcac a light or a dark color?

It is a mid-tone. Relative luminance is 0.4138 and perceived brightness is 64%, so black text on it reaches 9.28:1.

Should I use black or white text on #5fbcac?

Black. It scores 9.28:1 against #5fbcac, versus 2.26:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #5fbcac accessible on a white background?

#5fbcac on white scores 2.26:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #378376 to reach 4.5:1, or #285F56 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #5fbcac?

#BC5F6F sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #BC5F9D and #BC7E5F, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #5fbcac?

For interface work: #F4FAF9 as the surface, #C5E7E1 for borders, #4B9B8D for secondary text, #C15A86 as an accent and #265A51 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #5FBC7E and #5F9DBC stays calm, while #BC5F6F is the loudest partner.

What is #5fbcac in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(50%, 0%, 9%, 26%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #5fbcac warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 83 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #5FBC8A; nudged cooler, #5DABBE.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #5fbcac?

The teal family — its 500 step is #14b8a6, ΔE2000 4.7 away. That is a visible difference, so define #5fbcac as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #5fbcac in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#5fbcac] or text-[#5fbcac], 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 #5fbcac with 50% opacity?

rgba(95, 188, 172, 0.5), or #5fbcac80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #AFDED6; over black, #305E56.

Is #5fbcac a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #66CC99, ΔE2000 10.7 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #5fbcac mean?

As a cyan, it reads clean, technical, fresh. Cyan reads as water, air and infrastructure: cool, hygienic, engineered. At this moderate chroma the association is present but not shouted.

What gradient works with #5fbcac?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #8ACEC2, #5fbcac 45%, #265A51). For more colour, a short hue run to #4A76B2 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #5fbcac in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #5fbcac at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.