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cyan · cool

#72cade

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

Token name suggestion: Drift Reef

RGB
114, 202, 222
HSL
191°, 62%, 66%
CMYK
49, 9, 0, 13
Luminance
0.5109

#72cade is a light vivid cyan, 191° on the wheel and 92/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (11.22:1). As text it scores 1.87:1 on white — use #237F94 instead. Nearest name is Sky Blue, nearest Tailwind family is cyan.

hsl(191 62% 66%)rgb(114 202 222)Base step 400AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #72cade is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#72cade
Hue
191°
cyan
Saturation
62%
vivid
Lightness
66%
light
Brightness
87%
HSV value
Perceived
72%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.5109
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
92/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Vivid
Best ink
Black
11.22:1
Closest name
Sky Blue
ΔE2000 4.9
Chroma
27.9
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.791
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
cyan
500 · ΔE 7.6
Web-safe
#66CCCC
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue191° of 360°
Saturation62%
Lightness66%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #72cade.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool92% 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
Red7%
Green83%
Blue10%

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

Every format

HEX#72cade
HEX (8-digit)#72cadeff
RGBrgb(114, 202, 222)
RGBArgba(114, 202, 222, 1)
HSLhsl(191, 62%, 66%)
HSV / HSBhsv(191, 49%, 87%)
HWBhwb(191 45% 13%)
CMYKcmyk(49%, 9%, 0%, 13%)
LABlab(76.7 -21.2 -18.1)
LCHlch(76.7 27.9 220.6)
OKLCHoklch(0.791 0.089 214.1)
XYZ (D65)xyz(41.24, 51.09, 76.78)
Decimal7523038
Display P3color(display-p3 0.447 0.792 0.871)
Web-safe#66CCCC

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #72cade;
background-color: #72cade;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #72cade;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#72cade] bg-[#72cade]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #72cade;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.447, green: 0.792, blue: 0.871)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.447, green: 0.792, blue: 0.871, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#72CADE</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFF72CADE)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFF72CADE)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(222, 202, 114)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(114, 202, 222)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(114, 202, 222)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 114, 202, 222)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.4471f, 0.7922f, 0.8706f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{114,202,222}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #72cade 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #72cade 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#185967, #D3E9EE);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #72cade 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: #F4FAFB;
  --brand-100: #E8F4F7;
  --brand-200: #CCE9F0;
  --brand-300: #A4DDEA;
  --brand-400: #72cade;
  --brand-500: #49BBD4;
  --brand-600: #2EAAC6;
  --brand-700: #278EA5;
  --brand-800: #1F7284;
  --brand-900: #1A5360;
  --brand-950: #10343C;
  --brand: #72cade;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F4F9FA;
  --brand-border: #C0E4ED;
  --brand-hover: #55BFD7;
  --brand-pressed: #38B4D1;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #142124;
    --brand-ink: #D3E9EE;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F4FAFB',
        100: '#E8F4F7',
        200: '#CCE9F0',
        300: '#A4DDEA',
        400: '#72cade',
        500: '#49BBD4',
        600: '#2EAAC6',
        700: '#278EA5',
        800: '#1F7284',
        900: '#1A5360',
        950: '#10343C',
        DEFAULT: '#72cade',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F4FAFB,
  '100': #E8F4F7,
  '200': #CCE9F0,
  '300': #A4DDEA,
  '400': #72cade,
  '500': #49BBD4,
  '600': #2EAAC6,
  '700': #278EA5,
  '800': #1F7284,
  '900': #1A5360,
  '950': #10343C,
);
$brand-base: #72cade;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F4FAFB", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#E8F4F7", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#CCE9F0", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#A4DDEA", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#72cade", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#49BBD4", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#2EAAC6", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#278EA5", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#1F7284", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#1A5360", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#10343C", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #72cade · 11.22:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 1.87:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 11.22:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #72cade as text scores 1.87:1 on white and 11.22:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #185967 at 4.21:1.

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
#237F94 · 4.63:1
AA on white−30% L
#237F94
The quick fox
#1A5F6F · 7.22:1
AAA on white−39% L
#1A5F6F
The quick fox
#72cade · 11.22:1
AA on blackalready passes
#72cade
The quick fox
#72cade · 11.22:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#72cade

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #2B9FBA 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
#72cade on white: 1.87:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#72cade on black: 11.22:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #72cade as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #72cade.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White1.87:1AaAa
Slate 501.79:1AaAa
Slate 1001.71:1AaAa
Slate 2001.52:1AaAa
Slate 3001.26:1AaAa
Slate 4001.37:1AaAa
Slate 5002.54:1AaAa
Slate 6004.05:1AaAa
Slate 7005.53:1AaAa
Slate 8007.81:1AaAa
Slate 9009.54:1AaAa
Black11.22:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #BBC5DF
deuteranopia · #AAB8DE
tritanopia · #35D2D0

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. #72cade 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.

#F4FAFB
#E8F4F7
#CCE9F0
#A4DDEA
#72cade
#49BBD4
#2EAAC6
#278EA5
#1F7284
#1A5360
#10343C
Base = 400Lightest = 50 · #F4FAFBDarkest = 950 · #10343CText 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 0.022 214.1);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.036 214.1);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.054 214.1);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.070 214.1);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.082 214.1);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.089 214.1);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.089 214.1);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.084 214.1);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.075 214.1);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.062 214.1);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.049 214.1);
}

Colors that work with #72cade

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#C0E4ED
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B8C9B
Captions on the surface
Accent#AA222B
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#185967
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#EAF7FA
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#142124
Dark-mode background
Hover#55BFD7
One step down in lightness
Pressed#38B4D1
Two steps down
Disabled#D9E4E7
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#7BD5EA
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 #72cade

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 #185967
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #2B9FBA

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 lightness keeps it airy and approachable.

Worth knowing

At high lightness it disappears into white surfaces and thin strokes vanish entirely.

Reads as
  • FormalityMedium
  • EnergyMedium-high
  • Weight34/100
  • 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#DE8672
Analogous left#72DEBC
Analogous right#7294DE
Split-complement 1#DE7294
Split-complement 2#DEBC72
Triadic 1#DE72CA
Triadic 2#CADE72
Tetradic#BC72DE
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°191°

#72cade sits at 191°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red44.7%
Green79.2%
Blue87.1%
R · 0–255
114
0x72
G · 0–255
202
0xca
B · 0–255
222
0xde

CMYK percentages

Cyan48.6%
Magenta9.0%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)12.9%

Total ink coverage is 71%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#72cade text on a black background

contrast 11.22:1

Card sample

#72cade text on a white background

contrast 1.87:1

Card sample

#72cade on grey

1.71:1

#72cade on its own surface

1.76:1

#72cade on its dark surface

8.81:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #72cade;
Background color
Panel with #72cade background
background-color: #72cade;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #72cade;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(114, 202, 222, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(114, 202, 222, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #72cade;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #72cade, #7282DE);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #72cade, #7D72DE);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #72cade;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #72cade;
caret-color: #72cade;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #72cade;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #EAF7FA;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #72cade;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#72cade 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #72cade 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(114, 202, 222, 0.5)
rgb(114 202 222 / 50%)
#72cade80
hsl(191 62% 66% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #72cade 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#72cade1a#F1FAFC
20%#72cade33#E3F4F8
40%#72cade66#C7EAF2
60%#72cade99#AADFEB
80%#72cadecc#8ED5E5

Gradients from #72cade

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, #A4DDEA, #72cade 45%, #185967);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #72cade, #5961D8);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #72cade, #DE8672);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #BCE6EF 0%, #72cade 45%, #185967 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%, #9BE8C9 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #8B9FE4 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #185967 0%, transparent 65%), #72cade;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #72cade

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.

#72cade 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

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 11.22:1.

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.

#72cade, answered

What color is #72cade?

#72cade is a light vivid cyan, closest to Sky Blue (ΔE2000 4.9). It sits at 191° on the hue wheel with 62% saturation and 66% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #72cade?

rgb(114, 202, 222) — 114 red, 202 green and 222 blue out of 255, or 44.7% / 79.2% / 87.1% by channel.

What is #72cade in HSL and HSV?

hsl(191, 62%, 66%) and hsv(191, 49%, 87%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #72cade a light or a dark color?

It is a light color. Relative luminance is 0.5109 and perceived brightness is 72%, so black text on it reaches 11.22:1.

Should I use black or white text on #72cade?

Black. It scores 11.22:1 against #72cade, versus 1.87:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #72cade accessible on a white background?

#72cade on white scores 1.87:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #237F94 to reach 4.5:1, or #1A5F6F for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #72cade?

#DE8672 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #DE7294 and #DEBC72, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #72cade?

For interface work: #F4F9FA as the surface, #C0E4ED for borders, #4B8C9B for secondary text, #AA222B as an accent and #185967 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #72DEBC and #7294DE stays calm, while #DE8672 is the loudest partner.

What is #72cade in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(49%, 9%, 0%, 13%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #72cade warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 92 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #72DECA; nudged cooler, #70B3E0.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #72cade?

The cyan family — its 500 step is #06b6d4, ΔE2000 7.6 away. That is a visible difference, so define #72cade as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #72cade in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#72cade] or text-[#72cade], 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 #72cade with 50% opacity?

rgba(114, 202, 222, 0.5), or #72cade80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #B9E5EF; over black, #39656F.

Is #72cade a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #66CCCC, ΔE2000 8 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #72cade 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 #72cade?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #A4DDEA, #72cade 45%, #185967). For more colour, a short hue run to #5961D8 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #72cade in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #72cade at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.