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cyan · cool

#74f4cb

a light, electric cyan · cool · closest name: Aqua Marine

Token name suggestion: Meadow Lagoon

RGB
116, 244, 203
HSL
161°, 85%, 71%
CMYK
53, 0, 17, 4
Luminance
0.7273

#74f4cb is a light electric cyan, 161° on the wheel and 79/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (15.55:1). As text it scores 1.35:1 on white — use #0B875F instead. Nearest name is Aqua Marine, nearest Tailwind family is emerald.

hsl(161 85% 71%)rgb(116 244 203)Base step 400AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #74f4cb is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#74f4cb
Hue
161°
cyan
Saturation
85%
electric
Lightness
71%
light
Brightness
96%
HSV value
Perceived
82%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.7273
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
79/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Electric
Best ink
Black
15.55:1
Closest name
Aqua Marine
ΔE2000 2.4
Chroma
46.0
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.883
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
emerald
500 · ΔE 15.9
Web-safe
#66FFCC
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue161° of 360°
Saturation85%
Lightness71%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #74f4cb.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool79% 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
Red5%
Green89%
Blue6%

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

Every format

HEX#74f4cb
HEX (8-digit)#74f4cbff
RGBrgb(116, 244, 203)
RGBArgba(116, 244, 203, 1)
HSLhsl(161, 85%, 71%)
HSV / HSBhsv(161, 52%, 96%)
HWBhwb(161 45% 4%)
CMYKcmyk(53%, 0%, 17%, 4%)
LABlab(88.3 -45.1 9.0)
LCHlch(88.3 46.0 168.7)
OKLCHoklch(0.883 0.129 169.7)
XYZ (D65)xyz(50.33, 72.72, 67.87)
Decimal7664843
Display P3color(display-p3 0.455 0.957 0.796)
Web-safe#66FFCC

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #74f4cb;
background-color: #74f4cb;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #74f4cb;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#74f4cb] bg-[#74f4cb]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #74f4cb;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.455, green: 0.957, blue: 0.796)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.455, green: 0.957, blue: 0.796, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#74F4CB</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFF74F4CB)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFF74F4CB)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(203, 244, 116)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(116, 244, 203)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(116, 244, 203)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 116, 244, 203)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.4549f, 0.9569f, 0.7961f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{116,244,203}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #74f4cb 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #74f4cb 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#097653, #D3EEE5);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #74f4cb 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: #F2FCF9;
  --brand-100: #E5FAF3;
  --brand-200: #C5F7E7;
  --brand-300: #97F7D8;
  --brand-400: #74f4cb;
  --brand-500: #2FEFB1;
  --brand-600: #12E3A0;
  --brand-700: #0FBD85;
  --brand-800: #0C976B;
  --brand-900: #0D6D4E;
  --brand-950: #084431;
  --brand: #74f4cb;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F4FAF8;
  --brand-border: #C0EDDE;
  --brand-hover: #53F1BF;
  --brand-pressed: #32EFB2;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #14241F;
    --brand-ink: #D3EEE5;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F2FCF9',
        100: '#E5FAF3',
        200: '#C5F7E7',
        300: '#97F7D8',
        400: '#74f4cb',
        500: '#2FEFB1',
        600: '#12E3A0',
        700: '#0FBD85',
        800: '#0C976B',
        900: '#0D6D4E',
        950: '#084431',
        DEFAULT: '#74f4cb',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F2FCF9,
  '100': #E5FAF3,
  '200': #C5F7E7,
  '300': #97F7D8,
  '400': #74f4cb,
  '500': #2FEFB1,
  '600': #12E3A0,
  '700': #0FBD85,
  '800': #0C976B,
  '900': #0D6D4E,
  '950': #084431,
);
$brand-base: #74f4cb;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F2FCF9", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#E5FAF3", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#C5F7E7", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#97F7D8", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#74f4cb", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#2FEFB1", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#12E3A0", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#0FBD85", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#0C976B", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#0D6D4E", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#084431", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #74f4cb · 15.55:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 1.35:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 15.55:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #74f4cb as text scores 1.35:1 on white and 15.55:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #097653 at 4.17:1.

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
#0B875F · 4.52:1
AA on white−42% L
#0B875F
The quick fox
#086145 · 7.48:1
AAA on white−50% L
#086145
The quick fox
#74f4cb · 15.55:1
AA on blackalready passes
#74f4cb
The quick fox
#74f4cb · 15.55:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#74f4cb

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #0DA877 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
#74f4cb on white: 1.35:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#74f4cb on black: 15.55:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #74f4cb as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #74f4cb.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White1.35:1AaAa
Slate 501.29:1AaAa
Slate 1001.23:1AaAa
Slate 2001.10:1AaAa
Slate 3001.10:1AaAa
Slate 4001.90:1AaAa
Slate 5003.52:1AaAa
Slate 6005.61:1AaAa
Slate 7007.67:1AaAa
Slate 80010.83:1AaAa
Slate 90013.22:1AaAa
Black15.55:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #EEE6C9
deuteranopia · #DBD8CE
tritanopia · #3BF5E8

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. #74f4cb 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.

#F2FCF9
#E5FAF3
#C5F7E7
#97F7D8
#74f4cb
#2FEFB1
#12E3A0
#0FBD85
#0C976B
#0D6D4E
#084431
Base = 400Lightest = 50 · #F2FCF9Darkest = 950 · #084431Text 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 0.032 169.7);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.052 169.7);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.077 169.7);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.101 169.7);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.119 169.7);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.129 169.7);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.129 169.7);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.121 169.7);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.108 169.7);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.090 169.7);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.071 169.7);
}

Colors that work with #74f4cb

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#C0EDDE
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B9B81
Captions on the surface
Accent#C10B72
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#097653
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#E7FDF6
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#14241F
Dark-mode background
Hover#53F1BF
One step down in lightness
Pressed#32EFB2
Two steps down
Disabled#E8F0EE
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#81FCD4
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 #74f4cb

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 #097653
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #0DA877

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
  • Weight29/100
  • 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#F4749D
Analogous left#74F48B
Analogous right#74DDF4
Split-complement 1#F474DD
Split-complement 2#F48B74
Triadic 1#CB74F4
Triadic 2#F4CB74
Tetradic#8B74F4
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°161°

#74f4cb sits at 161°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red45.5%
Green95.7%
Blue79.6%
R · 0–255
116
0x74
G · 0–255
244
0xf4
B · 0–255
203
0xcb

CMYK percentages

Cyan52.5%
Magenta0.0%
Yellow16.8%
Key (black)4.3%

Total ink coverage is 74%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#74f4cb text on a black background

contrast 15.55:1

Card sample

#74f4cb text on a white background

contrast 1.35:1

Card sample

#74f4cb on grey

1.23:1

#74f4cb on its own surface

1.28:1

#74f4cb on its dark surface

11.94:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #74f4cb;
Background color
Panel with #74f4cb background
background-color: #74f4cb;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #74f4cb;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(116, 244, 203, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(116, 244, 203, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #74f4cb;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #74f4cb, #74C8F4);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #74f4cb, #74A8F4);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #74f4cb;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #74f4cb;
caret-color: #74f4cb;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #74f4cb;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #E7FDF6;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #74f4cb;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#74f4cb 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #74f4cb 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(116, 244, 203, 0.5)
rgb(116 244 203 / 50%)
#74f4cb80
hsl(161 85% 71% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #74f4cb 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#74f4cb1a#F1FEFA
20%#74f4cb33#E3FDF5
40%#74f4cb66#C7FBEA
60%#74f4cb99#ACF8E0
80%#74f4cbcc#90F6D5

Gradients from #74f4cb

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, #ADF8E0, #74f4cb 45%, #097653);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #74f4cb, #58B0F2);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #74f4cb, #F4749D);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #C9FBEB 0%, #74f4cb 45%, #097653 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%, #A3F8AB 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #90DBF6 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #097653 0%, transparent 65%), #74f4cb;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #74f4cb

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.

#74f4cb 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 15.55:1.

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.

#74f4cb, answered

What color is #74f4cb?

#74f4cb is a light electric cyan, closest to Aqua Marine (ΔE2000 2.4). It sits at 161° on the hue wheel with 85% saturation and 71% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #74f4cb?

rgb(116, 244, 203) — 116 red, 244 green and 203 blue out of 255, or 45.5% / 95.7% / 79.6% by channel.

What is #74f4cb in HSL and HSV?

hsl(161, 85%, 71%) and hsv(161, 52%, 96%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #74f4cb a light or a dark color?

It is a light color. Relative luminance is 0.7273 and perceived brightness is 82%, so black text on it reaches 15.55:1.

Should I use black or white text on #74f4cb?

Black. It scores 15.55:1 against #74f4cb, versus 1.35:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #74f4cb accessible on a white background?

#74f4cb on white scores 1.35:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #0B875F to reach 4.5:1, or #086145 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #74f4cb?

#F4749D sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #F474DD and #F48B74, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #74f4cb?

For interface work: #F4FAF8 as the surface, #C0EDDE for borders, #4B9B81 for secondary text, #C10B72 as an accent and #097653 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #74F48B and #74DDF4 stays calm, while #F4749D is the loudest partner.

What is #74f4cb in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(53%, 0%, 17%, 4%). 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 #74f4cb warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 79 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #74F49C; nudged cooler, #73EFF5.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #74f4cb?

The emerald family — its 500 step is #10b981, ΔE2000 15.9 away. That is a visible difference, so define #74f4cb as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #74f4cb in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#74f4cb] or text-[#74f4cb], 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 #74f4cb with 50% opacity?

rgba(116, 244, 203, 0.5), or #74f4cb80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #BAFAE5; over black, #3A7A66.

Is #74f4cb a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #66FFCC, ΔE2000 3.1 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #74f4cb 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 #74f4cb?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #ADF8E0, #74f4cb 45%, #097653). For more colour, a short hue run to #58B0F2 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #74f4cb in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #74f4cb at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.