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cyan · cool

#6ac6eb

a light, electric cyan · cool · closest name: Sky Blue

Token name suggestion: Meadow Reef

RGB
106, 198, 235
HSL
197°, 76%, 67%
CMYK
55, 16, 0, 8
Luminance
0.4945

#6ac6eb is a light electric cyan, 197° on the wheel and 95/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (10.89:1). As text it scores 1.93:1 on white — use #167DA6 instead. Nearest name is Sky Blue, nearest Tailwind family is cyan.

hsl(197 76% 67%)rgb(106 198 235)Base step 400AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #6ac6eb is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#6ac6eb
Hue
197°
cyan
Saturation
76%
electric
Lightness
67%
light
Brightness
92%
HSV value
Perceived
71%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.4945
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
95/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Electric
Best ink
Black
10.89:1
Closest name
Sky Blue
ΔE2000 3.6
Chroma
31.8
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.784
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
cyan
500 · ΔE 7.8
Web-safe
#66CCFF
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue197° of 360°
Saturation76%
Lightness67%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #6ac6eb.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool95% 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%
Green82%
Blue12%

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

Every format

HEX#6ac6eb
HEX (8-digit)#6ac6ebff
RGBrgb(106, 198, 235)
RGBArgba(106, 198, 235, 1)
HSLhsl(197, 76%, 67%)
HSV / HSBhsv(197, 55%, 92%)
HWBhwb(197 42% 8%)
CMYKcmyk(55%, 16%, 0%, 8%)
LABlab(75.7 -17.2 -26.7)
LCHlch(75.7 31.8 237.2)
OKLCHoklch(0.784 0.102 226.6)
XYZ (D65)xyz(41.13, 49.45, 85.96)
Decimal6997739
Display P3color(display-p3 0.416 0.776 0.922)
Web-safe#66CCFF

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #6ac6eb;
background-color: #6ac6eb;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #6ac6eb;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#6ac6eb] bg-[#6ac6eb]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #6ac6eb;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.416, green: 0.776, blue: 0.922)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.416, green: 0.776, blue: 0.922, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#6AC6EB</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFF6AC6EB)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFF6AC6EB)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(235, 198, 106)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(106, 198, 235)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(106, 198, 235)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 106, 198, 235)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.4157f, 0.7765f, 0.9216f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{106,198,235}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #6ac6eb 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #6ac6eb 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#0F5570, #D3E6EE);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #6ac6eb 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: #F3F9FC;
  --brand-100: #E7F4F9;
  --brand-200: #C8E7F4;
  --brand-300: #9CD9F2;
  --brand-400: #6ac6eb;
  --brand-500: #39B3E4;
  --brand-600: #1DA2D8;
  --brand-700: #1887B4;
  --brand-800: #136C90;
  --brand-900: #125068;
  --brand-950: #0B3241;
  --brand: #6ac6eb;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F4F9FA;
  --brand-border: #C0E0ED;
  --brand-hover: #4BBAE7;
  --brand-pressed: #2BAEE3;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #142024;
    --brand-ink: #D3E6EE;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F3F9FC',
        100: '#E7F4F9',
        200: '#C8E7F4',
        300: '#9CD9F2',
        400: '#6ac6eb',
        500: '#39B3E4',
        600: '#1DA2D8',
        700: '#1887B4',
        800: '#136C90',
        900: '#125068',
        950: '#0B3241',
        DEFAULT: '#6ac6eb',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F3F9FC,
  '100': #E7F4F9,
  '200': #C8E7F4,
  '300': #9CD9F2,
  '400': #6ac6eb,
  '500': #39B3E4,
  '600': #1DA2D8,
  '700': #1887B4,
  '800': #136C90,
  '900': #125068,
  '950': #0B3241,
);
$brand-base: #6ac6eb;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F3F9FC", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#E7F4F9", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#C8E7F4", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#9CD9F2", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#6ac6eb", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#39B3E4", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#1DA2D8", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#1887B4", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#136C90", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#125068", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#0B3241", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #6ac6eb · 10.89:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 1.93:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 10.89:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #6ac6eb as text scores 1.93:1 on white and 10.89:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #0F5570 at 4.26:1.

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
#167DA6 · 4.65:1
AA on white−30% L
#167DA6
The quick fox
#115E7D · 7.19:1
AAA on white−39% L
#115E7D
The quick fox
#6ac6eb · 10.89:1
AA on blackalready passes
#6ac6eb
The quick fox
#6ac6eb · 10.89:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#6ac6eb

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #1C9FD3 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
#6ac6eb on white: 1.93:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#6ac6eb on black: 10.89:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #6ac6eb as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #6ac6eb.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White1.93:1AaAa
Slate 501.84:1AaAa
Slate 1001.76:1AaAa
Slate 2001.56:1AaAa
Slate 3001.30:1AaAa
Slate 4001.33:1AaAa
Slate 5002.47:1AaAa
Slate 6003.93:1AaAa
Slate 7005.37:1AaAa
Slate 8007.59:1AaAa
Slate 9009.26:1AaAa
Black10.89:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #B2C3ED
deuteranopia · #A0B5EB
tritanopia · #00D1D2

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. #6ac6eb 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.

#F3F9FC
#E7F4F9
#C8E7F4
#9CD9F2
#6ac6eb
#39B3E4
#1DA2D8
#1887B4
#136C90
#125068
#0B3241
Base = 400Lightest = 50 · #F3F9FCDarkest = 950 · #0B3241Text 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 0.026 226.6);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.041 226.6);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.061 226.6);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.080 226.6);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.094 226.6);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.102 226.6);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.102 226.6);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.096 226.6);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.086 226.6);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.072 226.6);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.056 226.6);
}

Colors that work with #6ac6eb

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#F4F9FA
Tinted page background
Border#C0E0ED
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B849B
Captions on the surface
Accent#B71A15
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#0F5570
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#E9F6FC
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#142024
Dark-mode background
Hover#4BBAE7
One step down in lightness
Pressed#2BAEE3
Two steps down
Disabled#DCE5E9
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#75D0F5
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 #6ac6eb

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 #0F5570
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #1C9FD3

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#EB8F6A
Analogous left#6AEBD0
Analogous right#6A86EB
Split-complement 1#EB6A86
Split-complement 2#EBD06A
Triadic 1#EB6AC6
Triadic 2#C6EB6A
Tetradic#D06AEB
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°197°

#6ac6eb sits at 197°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red41.6%
Green77.6%
Blue92.2%
R · 0–255
106
0x6a
G · 0–255
198
0xc6
B · 0–255
235
0xeb

CMYK percentages

Cyan54.9%
Magenta15.7%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)7.8%

Total ink coverage is 78%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#6ac6eb text on a black background

contrast 10.89:1

Card sample

#6ac6eb text on a white background

contrast 1.93:1

Card sample

#6ac6eb on grey

1.76:1

#6ac6eb on its own surface

1.82:1

#6ac6eb on its dark surface

8.63:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #6ac6eb;
Background color
Panel with #6ac6eb background
background-color: #6ac6eb;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #6ac6eb;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(106, 198, 235, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(106, 198, 235, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #6ac6eb;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #6ac6eb, #6A70EB);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #6ac6eb, #846AEB);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #6ac6eb;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #6ac6eb;
caret-color: #6ac6eb;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #6ac6eb;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #E9F6FC;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #6ac6eb;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#6ac6eb 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #6ac6eb 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(106, 198, 235, 0.5)
rgb(106 198 235 / 50%)
#6ac6eb80
hsl(197 76% 67% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #6ac6eb 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#6ac6eb1a#F0F9FD
20%#6ac6eb33#E1F4FB
40%#6ac6eb66#C3E8F7
60%#6ac6eb99#A6DDF3
80%#6ac6ebcc#88D1EF

Gradients from #6ac6eb

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, #A0DBF2, #6ac6eb 45%, #0F5570);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #6ac6eb, #554FE7);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #6ac6eb, #EB8F6A);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #BBE5F6 0%, #6ac6eb 45%, #0F5570 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F4F9FA, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #97F1D6 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #8593EF 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #0F5570 0%, transparent 65%), #6ac6eb;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #6ac6eb

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.

#6ac6eb 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 10.89:1.

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.

#6ac6eb, answered

What color is #6ac6eb?

#6ac6eb is a light electric cyan, closest to Sky Blue (ΔE2000 3.6). It sits at 197° on the hue wheel with 76% saturation and 67% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #6ac6eb?

rgb(106, 198, 235) — 106 red, 198 green and 235 blue out of 255, or 41.6% / 77.6% / 92.2% by channel.

What is #6ac6eb in HSL and HSV?

hsl(197, 76%, 67%) and hsv(197, 55%, 92%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #6ac6eb a light or a dark color?

It is a mid-tone. Relative luminance is 0.4945 and perceived brightness is 71%, so black text on it reaches 10.89:1.

Should I use black or white text on #6ac6eb?

Black. It scores 10.89:1 against #6ac6eb, versus 1.93:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #6ac6eb accessible on a white background?

#6ac6eb on white scores 1.93:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #167DA6 to reach 4.5:1, or #115E7D for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #6ac6eb?

#EB8F6A sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #EB6A86 and #EBD06A, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #6ac6eb?

For interface work: #F4F9FA as the surface, #C0E0ED for borders, #4B849B for secondary text, #B71A15 as an accent and #0F5570 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #6AEBD0 and #6A86EB stays calm, while #EB8F6A is the loudest partner.

What is #6ac6eb in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(55%, 16%, 0%, 8%). 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 #6ac6eb warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 95 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #6AEBE1; nudged cooler, #69B4ED.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #6ac6eb?

The cyan family — its 500 step is #06b6d4, ΔE2000 7.8 away. That is a visible difference, so define #6ac6eb as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #6ac6eb in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#6ac6eb] or text-[#6ac6eb], 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 #6ac6eb with 50% opacity?

rgba(106, 198, 235, 0.5), or #6ac6eb80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #B5E3F5; over black, #356376.

Is #6ac6eb a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #66CCFF, ΔE2000 3.7 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #6ac6eb 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 #6ac6eb?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #A0DBF2, #6ac6eb 45%, #0F5570). For more colour, a short hue run to #554FE7 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #6ac6eb in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #6ac6eb at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.