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cyan · cool

#5fe4ba

a balanced, vivid cyan · cool · closest name: Medium Aqua Marine

Token name suggestion: Signal Lagoon

RGB
95, 228, 186
HSL
161°, 71%, 63%
CMYK
58, 0, 18, 11
Luminance
0.6146

#5fe4ba is a balanced vivid cyan, 161° on the wheel and 80/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (13.29:1). As text it scores 1.58:1 on white — use #168462 instead. Nearest name is Medium Aqua Marine, nearest Tailwind family is emerald.

hsl(161 71% 63%)rgb(95 228 186)Base step 400AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #5fe4ba is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#5fe4ba
Hue
161°
cyan
Saturation
71%
vivid
Lightness
63%
balanced
Brightness
89%
HSV value
Perceived
76%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.6146
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
80/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Vivid
Best ink
Black
13.29:1
Closest name
Medium Aqua Marine
ΔE2000 5.6
Chroma
47.3
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.834
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
emerald
500 · ΔE 12.2
Web-safe
#66CCCC
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue161° of 360°
Saturation71%
Lightness63%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #5fe4ba.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool80% 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
Red4%
Green90%
Blue6%

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

Every format

HEX#5fe4ba
HEX (8-digit)#5fe4baff
RGBrgb(95, 228, 186)
RGBArgba(95, 228, 186, 1)
HSLhsl(161, 71%, 63%)
HSV / HSBhsv(161, 58%, 89%)
HWBhwb(161 37% 11%)
CMYKcmyk(58%, 0%, 18%, 11%)
LABlab(82.6 -46.3 9.7)
LCHlch(82.6 47.3 168.2)
OKLCHoklch(0.834 0.132 169.2)
XYZ (D65)xyz(41.32, 61.46, 56.13)
Decimal6284474
Display P3color(display-p3 0.373 0.894 0.729)
Web-safe#66CCCC

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #5fe4ba;
background-color: #5fe4ba;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #5fe4ba;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#5fe4ba] bg-[#5fe4ba]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #5fe4ba;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.373, green: 0.894, blue: 0.729)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.373, green: 0.894, blue: 0.729, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#5FE4BA</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFF5FE4BA)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFF5FE4BA)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(186, 228, 95)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(95, 228, 186)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(95, 228, 186)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 95, 228, 186)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.3725f, 0.8941f, 0.7294f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{95,228,186}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #5fe4ba 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #5fe4ba 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#126D51, #D3EEE5);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #5fe4ba 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: #F3FCF9;
  --brand-100: #E7F8F3;
  --brand-200: #C9F3E6;
  --brand-300: #9FEFD6;
  --brand-400: #5fe4ba;
  --brand-500: #3FDFAC;
  --brand-600: #23D19B;
  --brand-700: #1DAF81;
  --brand-800: #188C67;
  --brand-900: #15654C;
  --brand-950: #0D3F30;
  --brand: #5fe4ba;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F4FAF8;
  --brand-border: #C0EDDF;
  --brand-hover: #40DFAD;
  --brand-pressed: #24D79F;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #14241F;
    --brand-ink: #D3EEE5;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F3FCF9',
        100: '#E7F8F3',
        200: '#C9F3E6',
        300: '#9FEFD6',
        400: '#5fe4ba',
        500: '#3FDFAC',
        600: '#23D19B',
        700: '#1DAF81',
        800: '#188C67',
        900: '#15654C',
        950: '#0D3F30',
        DEFAULT: '#5fe4ba',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F3FCF9,
  '100': #E7F8F3,
  '200': #C9F3E6,
  '300': #9FEFD6,
  '400': #5fe4ba,
  '500': #3FDFAC,
  '600': #23D19B,
  '700': #1DAF81,
  '800': #188C67,
  '900': #15654C,
  '950': #0D3F30,
);
$brand-base: #5fe4ba;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F3FCF9", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#E7F8F3", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#C9F3E6", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#9FEFD6", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#5fe4ba", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#3FDFAC", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#23D19B", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#1DAF81", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#188C67", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#15654C", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#0D3F30", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #5fe4ba · 13.29:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 1.58:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 13.29:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #5fe4ba as text scores 1.58:1 on white and 13.29:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #126D51 at 3.99:1.

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
#168462 · 4.66:1
AA on white−33% L
#168462
The quick fox
#106148 · 7.43:1
AAA on white−41% L
#106148
The quick fox
#5fe4ba · 13.29:1
AA on blackalready passes
#5fe4ba
The quick fox
#5fe4ba · 13.29:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#5fe4ba

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #1CA77B 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
#5fe4ba on white: 1.58:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#5fe4ba on black: 13.29:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #5fe4ba as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #5fe4ba.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White1.58:1AaAa
Slate 501.51:1AaAa
Slate 1001.44:1AaAa
Slate 2001.28:1AaAa
Slate 3001.06:1AaAa
Slate 4001.62:1AaAa
Slate 5003.01:1AaAa
Slate 6004.80:1AaAa
Slate 7006.55:1AaAa
Slate 8009.26:1AaAa
Slate 90011.30:1AaAa
Black13.29:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #DED6B8
deuteranopia · #CBC8BD
tritanopia · #00E5D8

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. #5fe4ba 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.

#F3FCF9
#E7F8F3
#C9F3E6
#9FEFD6
#5fe4ba
#3FDFAC
#23D19B
#1DAF81
#188C67
#15654C
#0D3F30
Base = 400Lightest = 50 · #F3FCF9Darkest = 950 · #0D3F30Text 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 0.033 169.2);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.053 169.2);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.079 169.2);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.103 169.2);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.122 169.2);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.132 169.2);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.132 169.2);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.124 169.2);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.111 169.2);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.092 169.2);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.073 169.2);
}

Colors that work with #5fe4ba

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#F4FAF8
Tinted page background
Border#C0EDDF
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B9B82
Captions on the surface
Accent#E85BAB
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#126D51
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#E9FBF6
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#14241F
Dark-mode background
Hover#40DFAD
One step down in lightness
Pressed#24D79F
Two steps down
Disabled#D1E2DD
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#68EFC5
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 #5fe4ba

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 #126D51
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #1CA77B

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
  • Weight37/100
  • 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#E45F89
Analogous left#5FE477
Analogous right#5FCBE4
Split-complement 1#E45FCB
Split-complement 2#E4775F
Triadic 1#BA5FE4
Triadic 2#E4BA5F
Tetradic#775FE4
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°161°

#5fe4ba sits at 161°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red37.3%
Green89.4%
Blue72.9%
R · 0–255
95
0x5f
G · 0–255
228
0xe4
B · 0–255
186
0xba

CMYK percentages

Cyan58.3%
Magenta0.0%
Yellow18.4%
Key (black)10.6%

Total ink coverage is 87%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#5fe4ba text on a black background

contrast 13.29:1

Card sample

#5fe4ba text on a white background

contrast 1.58:1

Card sample

#5fe4ba on grey

1.44:1

#5fe4ba on its own surface

1.50:1

#5fe4ba on its dark surface

10.21:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #5fe4ba;
Background color
Panel with #5fe4ba background
background-color: #5fe4ba;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #5fe4ba;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(95, 228, 186, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(95, 228, 186, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #5fe4ba;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #5fe4ba, #5FB5E4);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #5fe4ba, #5F94E4);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #5fe4ba;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #5fe4ba;
caret-color: #5fe4ba;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #5fe4ba;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #E9FBF6;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #5fe4ba;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#5fe4ba 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #5fe4ba 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, 228, 186, 0.5)
rgb(95 228 186 / 50%)
#5fe4ba80
hsl(161 71% 63% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #5fe4ba 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#5fe4ba1a#EFFCF8
20%#5fe4ba33#DFFAF1
40%#5fe4ba66#BFF4E3
60%#5fe4ba99#9FEFD6
80%#5fe4bacc#7FE9C8

Gradients from #5fe4ba

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, #93EDD1, #5fe4ba 45%, #126D51);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #5fe4ba, #459CE0);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #5fe4ba, #E45F89);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #ADF1DC 0%, #5fe4ba 45%, #126D51 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F4FAF8, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #8BEB94 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #79CBE8 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #126D51 0%, transparent 65%), #5fe4ba;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #5fe4ba

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.

#5fe4ba 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 13.29:1.

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.

#5fe4ba, answered

What color is #5fe4ba?

#5fe4ba is a balanced vivid cyan, closest to Medium Aqua Marine (ΔE2000 5.6). It sits at 161° on the hue wheel with 71% saturation and 63% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #5fe4ba?

rgb(95, 228, 186) — 95 red, 228 green and 186 blue out of 255, or 37.3% / 89.4% / 72.9% by channel.

What is #5fe4ba in HSL and HSV?

hsl(161, 71%, 63%) and hsv(161, 58%, 89%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #5fe4ba a light or a dark color?

It is a light color. Relative luminance is 0.6146 and perceived brightness is 76%, so black text on it reaches 13.29:1.

Should I use black or white text on #5fe4ba?

Black. It scores 13.29:1 against #5fe4ba, versus 1.58:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #5fe4ba accessible on a white background?

#5fe4ba on white scores 1.58:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #168462 to reach 4.5:1, or #106148 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #5fe4ba?

#E45F89 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #E45FCB and #E4775F, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #5fe4ba?

For interface work: #F4FAF8 as the surface, #C0EDDF for borders, #4B9B82 for secondary text, #E85BAB as an accent and #126D51 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #5FE477 and #5FCBE4 stays calm, while #E45F89 is the loudest partner.

What is #5fe4ba in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(58%, 0%, 18%, 11%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #5fe4ba warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 80 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #5FE489; nudged cooler, #5DDFE6.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #5fe4ba?

The emerald family — its 500 step is #10b981, ΔE2000 12.2 away. That is a visible difference, so define #5fe4ba as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #5fe4ba in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#5fe4ba] or text-[#5fe4ba], 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 #5fe4ba with 50% opacity?

rgba(95, 228, 186, 0.5), or #5fe4ba80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #AFF2DD; over black, #30725D.

Is #5fe4ba a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #66CCCC, ΔE2000 14.3 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #5fe4ba 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 #5fe4ba?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #93EDD1, #5fe4ba 45%, #126D51). For more colour, a short hue run to #459CE0 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #5fe4ba in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #5fe4ba at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.