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cyan · cool

#6cceee

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

Token name suggestion: Drift Reef

RGB
108, 206, 238
HSL
195°, 79%, 68%
CMYK
55, 13, 0, 7
Luminance
0.5350

#6cceee is a light electric cyan, 195° on the wheel and 94/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (11.70:1). As text it scores 1.79:1 on white — use #1380A4 instead. Nearest name is Sky Blue, nearest Tailwind family is cyan.

hsl(195 79% 68%)rgb(108 206 238)Base step 400AAA inkCool

At a glance

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

Hex
#6cceee
Hue
195°
cyan
Saturation
79%
electric
Lightness
68%
light
Brightness
93%
HSV value
Perceived
73%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.5350
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
94/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Electric
Best ink
Black
11.70:1
Closest name
Sky Blue
ΔE2000 3.1
Chroma
31.7
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.804
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
cyan
500 · ΔE 8.2
Web-safe
#66CCFF
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue195° of 360°
Saturation79%
Lightness68%
Saturation × lightness field

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

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool94% 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%
Green83%
Blue12%

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

Every format

HEX#6cceee
HEX (8-digit)#6cceeeff
RGBrgb(108, 206, 238)
RGBArgba(108, 206, 238, 1)
HSLhsl(195, 79%, 68%)
HSV / HSBhsv(195, 55%, 93%)
HWBhwb(195 42% 7%)
CMYKcmyk(55%, 13%, 0%, 7%)
LABlab(78.2 -20.1 -24.6)
LCHlch(78.2 31.7 230.8)
OKLCHoklch(0.804 0.102 221.7)
XYZ (D65)xyz(43.68, 53.50, 88.90)
Decimal7130862
Display P3color(display-p3 0.424 0.808 0.933)
Web-safe#66CCFF

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #6cceee;
background-color: #6cceee;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #6cceee;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#6cceee] bg-[#6cceee]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #6cceee;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.424, green: 0.808, blue: 0.933)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.424, green: 0.808, blue: 0.933, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#6CCEEE</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFF6CCEEE)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFF6CCEEE)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(238, 206, 108)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(108, 206, 238)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(108, 206, 238)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 108, 206, 238)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.4235f, 0.8078f, 0.9333f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{108,206,238}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #6cceee 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #6cceee 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#0D5972, #D3E7EE);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #6cceee 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: #F3FAFC;
  --brand-100: #E6F4F9;
  --brand-200: #C7EAF5;
  --brand-300: #9ADDF3;
  --brand-400: #6cceee;
  --brand-500: #36BCE8;
  --brand-600: #19ACDB;
  --brand-700: #158FB7;
  --brand-800: #117292;
  --brand-900: #11546A;
  --brand-950: #0A3442;
  --brand: #6cceee;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F4F9FA;
  --brand-border: #C0E2ED;
  --brand-hover: #4CC3EA;
  --brand-pressed: #2CB9E7;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #142024;
    --brand-ink: #D3E7EE;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F3FAFC',
        100: '#E6F4F9',
        200: '#C7EAF5',
        300: '#9ADDF3',
        400: '#6cceee',
        500: '#36BCE8',
        600: '#19ACDB',
        700: '#158FB7',
        800: '#117292',
        900: '#11546A',
        950: '#0A3442',
        DEFAULT: '#6cceee',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F3FAFC,
  '100': #E6F4F9,
  '200': #C7EAF5,
  '300': #9ADDF3,
  '400': #6cceee,
  '500': #36BCE8,
  '600': #19ACDB,
  '700': #158FB7,
  '800': #117292,
  '900': #11546A,
  '950': #0A3442,
);
$brand-base: #6cceee;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F3FAFC", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#E6F4F9", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#C7EAF5", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#9ADDF3", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#6cceee", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#36BCE8", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#19ACDB", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#158FB7", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#117292", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#11546A", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#0A3442", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #6cceee · 11.70:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 1.79:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 11.70:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #6cceee as text scores 1.79:1 on white and 11.70:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #0D5972 at 4.35:1.

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
#1380A4 · 4.51:1
AA on white−32% L
#1380A4
The quick fox
#0E607B · 7.05:1
AAA on white−41% L
#0E607B
The quick fox
#6cceee · 11.70:1
AA on blackalready passes
#6cceee
The quick fox
#6cceee · 11.70:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#6cceee

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #18A0CD 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
#6cceee on white: 1.79:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#6cceee on black: 11.70:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

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

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White1.79:1AaAa
Slate 501.72:1AaAa
Slate 1001.64:1AaAa
Slate 2001.46:1AaAa
Slate 3001.21:1AaAa
Slate 4001.43:1AaAa
Slate 5002.65:1AaAa
Slate 6004.22:1AaAa
Slate 7005.77:1AaAa
Slate 8008.15:1AaAa
Slate 9009.95:1AaAa
Black11.70:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #BBC9F0
deuteranopia · #A8BBEE
tritanopia · #00D8D8

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. #6cceee 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.

#F3FAFC
#E6F4F9
#C7EAF5
#9ADDF3
#6cceee
#36BCE8
#19ACDB
#158FB7
#117292
#11546A
#0A3442
Base = 400Lightest = 50 · #F3FAFCDarkest = 950 · #0A3442Text 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 0.026 221.7);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.041 221.7);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.061 221.7);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.080 221.7);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.094 221.7);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.102 221.7);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.102 221.7);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.096 221.7);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.086 221.7);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.072 221.7);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.056 221.7);
}

Colors that work with #6cceee

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#C0E2ED
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B879B
Captions on the surface
Accent#BB1112
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#0D5972
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#E8F7FC
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#142024
Dark-mode background
Hover#4CC3EA
One step down in lightness
Pressed#2CB9E7
Two steps down
Disabled#DFE8EB
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#77D8F7
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 #6cceee

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 #0D5972
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #18A0CD

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
  • Weight32/100
  • 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#EE8C6C
Analogous left#6CEECD
Analogous right#6C8DEE
Split-complement 1#EE6C8D
Split-complement 2#EECD6C
Triadic 1#EE6CCE
Triadic 2#CEEE6C
Tetradic#CD6CEE
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°195°

#6cceee sits at 195°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red42.4%
Green80.8%
Blue93.3%
R · 0–255
108
0x6c
G · 0–255
206
0xce
B · 0–255
238
0xee

CMYK percentages

Cyan54.6%
Magenta13.4%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)6.7%

Total ink coverage is 75%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#6cceee text on a black background

contrast 11.70:1

Card sample

#6cceee text on a white background

contrast 1.79:1

Card sample

#6cceee on grey

1.64:1

#6cceee on its own surface

1.69:1

#6cceee on its dark surface

9.27:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

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

Glowing headline

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

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(108, 206, 238, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(108, 206, 238, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #6cceee;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #6cceee, #6C77EE);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #6cceee, #816CEE);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #6cceee;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #6cceee;
caret-color: #6cceee;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #6cceee;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #E8F7FC;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #6cceee;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#6cceee 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #6cceee 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(108, 206, 238, 0.5)
rgb(108 206 238 / 50%)
#6cceee80
hsl(195 79% 68% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #6cceee 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#6cceee1a#F0FAFD
20%#6cceee33#E2F5FC
40%#6cceee66#C4EBF8
60%#6cceee99#A7E2F5
80%#6cceeecc#89D8F1

Gradients from #6cceee

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, #A3E0F4, #6cceee 45%, #0D5972);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #6cceee, #5051EB);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #6cceee, #EE8C6C);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #BEE9F8 0%, #6cceee 45%, #0D5972 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%, #99F3D5 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #8799F1 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #0D5972 0%, transparent 65%), #6cceee;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #6cceee

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.

#6cceee 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 11.70:1.

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.

#6cceee, answered

What color is #6cceee?

#6cceee is a light electric cyan, closest to Sky Blue (ΔE2000 3.1). It sits at 195° on the hue wheel with 79% saturation and 68% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #6cceee?

rgb(108, 206, 238) — 108 red, 206 green and 238 blue out of 255, or 42.4% / 80.8% / 93.3% by channel.

What is #6cceee in HSL and HSV?

hsl(195, 79%, 68%) and hsv(195, 55%, 93%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #6cceee a light or a dark color?

It is a light color. Relative luminance is 0.5350 and perceived brightness is 73%, so black text on it reaches 11.70:1.

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

Black. It scores 11.70:1 against #6cceee, versus 1.79:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #6cceee accessible on a white background?

#6cceee on white scores 1.79:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #1380A4 to reach 4.5:1, or #0E607B for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #6cceee?

#EE8C6C sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #EE6C8D and #EECD6C, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #6cceee?

For interface work: #F4F9FA as the surface, #C0E2ED for borders, #4B879B for secondary text, #BB1112 as an accent and #0D5972 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #6CEECD and #6C8DEE stays calm, while #EE8C6C is the loudest partner.

What is #6cceee in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(55%, 13%, 0%, 7%). 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 #6cceee warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 94 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #6CEEDE; nudged cooler, #6AB8F0.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #6cceee?

The cyan family — its 500 step is #06b6d4, ΔE2000 8.2 away. That is a visible difference, so define #6cceee as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #6cceee in Tailwind CSS?

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

rgba(108, 206, 238, 0.5), or #6cceee80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #B6E7F7; over black, #366777.

Is #6cceee a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #66CCFF, ΔE2000 5.3 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #6cceee 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 #6cceee?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #A3E0F4, #6cceee 45%, #0D5972). For more colour, a short hue run to #5051EB keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #6cceee in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

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