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cyan · cool

#809596

a balanced, muted cyan · cool · closest name: Light Slate Gray

Token name suggestion: Signal Glacier

RGB
128, 149, 150
HSL
183°, 10%, 55%
CMYK
15, 1, 0, 41
Luminance
0.2829

#809596 is a balanced muted cyan, 183° on the wheel and 60/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (6.66:1). As text it scores 3.15:1 on white — large text only. Nearest name is Light Slate Gray, nearest Tailwind family is neutral.

hsl(183 10% 55%)rgb(128 149 150)Base step 500AA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #809596 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#809596
Hue
183°
cyan
Saturation
10%
muted
Lightness
55%
balanced
Brightness
59%
HSV value
Perceived
56%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.2829
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
60/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Muted
Best ink
Black
6.66:1
Closest name
Light Slate Gray
ΔE2000 9.5
Chroma
7.8
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.654
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
neutral
500 · ΔE 14.3
Web-safe
#999999
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue183° of 360°
Saturation10%
Lightness55%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #809596.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool60% 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
Red16%
Green76%
Blue8%

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

Every format

HEX#809596
HEX (8-digit)#809596ff
RGBrgb(128, 149, 150)
RGBArgba(128, 149, 150, 1)
HSLhsl(183, 10%, 55%)
HSV / HSBhsv(183, 15%, 59%)
HWBhwb(183 50% 41%)
CMYKcmyk(15%, 1%, 0%, 41%)
LABlab(60.1 -7.2 -3.0)
LCHlch(60.1 7.8 202.8)
OKLCHoklch(0.654 0.024 200.1)
XYZ (D65)xyz(25.15, 28.29, 32.98)
Decimal8426902
Display P3color(display-p3 0.502 0.584 0.588)
Web-safe#999999

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #809596;
background-color: #809596;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #809596;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#809596] bg-[#809596]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #809596;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.502, green: 0.584, blue: 0.588)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.502, green: 0.584, blue: 0.588, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#809596</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFF809596)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFF809596)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(150, 149, 128)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(128, 149, 150)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(128, 149, 150)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 128, 149, 150)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.5020f, 0.5843f, 0.5882f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{128,149,150}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #809596 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #809596 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#3A4546, #DDE3E3);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #809596 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: #F7F8F8;
  --brand-100: #EFF1F1;
  --brand-200: #DBE0E1;
  --brand-300: #C2CCCC;
  --brand-400: #A3B2B3;
  --brand-500: #809596;
  --brand-600: #6F8586;
  --brand-700: #5C6F70;
  --brand-800: #4A5959;
  --brand-900: #384243;
  --brand-950: #23292A;
  --brand: #809596;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F7F8F8;
  --brand-border: #D2DADA;
  --brand-hover: #6E8485;
  --brand-pressed: #5D7071;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #191E1F;
    --brand-ink: #DDE3E3;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F7F8F8',
        100: '#EFF1F1',
        200: '#DBE0E1',
        300: '#C2CCCC',
        400: '#A3B2B3',
        500: '#809596',
        600: '#6F8586',
        700: '#5C6F70',
        800: '#4A5959',
        900: '#384243',
        950: '#23292A',
        DEFAULT: '#809596',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F7F8F8,
  '100': #EFF1F1,
  '200': #DBE0E1,
  '300': #C2CCCC,
  '400': #A3B2B3,
  '500': #809596,
  '600': #6F8586,
  '700': #5C6F70,
  '800': #4A5959,
  '900': #384243,
  '950': #23292A,
);
$brand-base: #809596;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F7F8F8", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#EFF1F1", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#DBE0E1", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#C2CCCC", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#A3B2B3", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#809596", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#6F8586", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#5C6F70", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#4A5959", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#384243", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#23292A", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #809596 · 6.66:1
Use #000000AA at every size, AAA for large text only.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 3.15:1
AA fail · AA large pass · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 6.66:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA fail
Reading the other direction: #809596 as text scores 3.15:1 on white and 6.66:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #3A4546 at 3.14:1.

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
#647979 · 4.61:1
AA on white−11% L
#647979
The quick fox
#4B5A5B · 7.21:1
AAA on white−22% L
#4B5A5B
The quick fox
#809596 · 6.66:1
AA on blackalready passes
#809596
The quick fox
#869A9B · 7.11:1
AAA on black+2% L
#869A9B

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #809596 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
#809596 on white: 3.15:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#809596 on black: 6.66:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #809596 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #809596.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White3.15:1AaAa
Slate 503.01:1AaAa
Slate 1002.88:1AaAa
Slate 2002.56:1AaAa
Slate 3002.12:1AaAa
Slate 4001.23:1AaAa
Slate 5001.51:1AaAa
Slate 6002.40:1AaAa
Slate 7003.28:1AaAa
Slate 8004.64:1AaAa
Slate 9005.66:1AaAa
Black6.66:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #929396
deuteranopia · #8E9096
tritanopia · #7A9795

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. #809596 is pinned to step 500; the rest hold its hue and let saturation ease off at the extremes so the pale end never turns neon.

#F7F8F8
#EFF1F1
#DBE0E1
#C2CCCC
#A3B2B3
#809596
#6F8586
#5C6F70
#4A5959
#384243
#23292A
Base = 500Lightest = 50 · #F7F8F8Darkest = 950 · #23292AText step on white = 700
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 0.006 200.1);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.010 200.1);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.014 200.1);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.019 200.1);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.022 200.1);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.024 200.1);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.024 200.1);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.022 200.1);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.020 200.1);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.017 200.1);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.013 200.1);
}

Colors that work with #809596

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#F7F8F8
Tinted page background
Border#D2DADA
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#687D7E
Captions on the surface
Accent#9B7B82
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#3A4546
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#F1F3F3
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#191E1F
Dark-mode background
Hover#6E8485
One step down in lightness
Pressed#5D7071
Two steps down
Disabled#BDC8C9
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#81A8AA
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 #809596

Derived from its contrast, chroma and lightness — not from taste.

Works well for
  • Headings from 24px up on white
  • Text and icons on dark surfaces
  • Borders, dividers and quiet backgrounds
  • Long-form reading surfaces
  • Brand accents, badges and data highlights
Use with care
  • Small text on white — under 4.5:1
  • Thin strokes and 1px borders — they disappear on light UI
  • Pairing with a same-lightness hue — edges vibrate
Minimum size as text on white
24px / 18.66px bold
Safe as a fill behind white type
No — use #3A4546
Safe as a 1px border on white
Yes

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.

With almost no chroma left, the family association is barely present; treat it as a neutral that happens to lean this way. 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
  • EnergyLow
  • Weight46/100
  • TemperatureCool
  • ApproachabilityBalanced

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#968180
Analogous left#80968C
Analogous right#808A96
Split-complement 1#96808A
Split-complement 2#968C80
Triadic 1#968095
Triadic 2#959680
Tetradic#8C8096
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°183°

#809596 sits at 183°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red50.2%
Green58.4%
Blue58.8%
R · 0–255
128
0x80
G · 0–255
149
0x95
B · 0–255
150
0x96

CMYK percentages

Cyan14.7%
Magenta0.7%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)41.2%

Total ink coverage is 57%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#809596 text on a black background

contrast 6.66:1

Card sample

#809596 text on a white background

contrast 3.15:1

Card sample

#809596 on grey

2.88:1

#809596 on its own surface

2.96:1

#809596 on its dark surface

5.34:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #809596;
Background color
Panel with #809596 background
background-color: #809596;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #809596;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(128, 149, 150, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(128, 149, 150, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #809596;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #809596, #808696);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #809596, #808196);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #809596;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #809596;
caret-color: #809596;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #809596;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #F1F3F3;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #809596;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#809596 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #809596 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(128, 149, 150, 0.5)
rgb(128 149 150 / 50%)
#80959680
hsl(183 10% 55% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #809596 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#8095961a#F2F4F5
20%#80959633#E6EAEA
40%#80959666#CCD5D5
60%#80959699#B3BFC0
80%#809596cc#99AAAB

Gradients from #809596

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, #A1B1B2, #809596 45%, #3A4546);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #809596, #707587);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #809596, #968180);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #B2BFC0 0%, #809596 45%, #3A4546 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F7F8F8, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #9CADA4 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #9198A4 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #3A4546 0%, transparent 65%), #809596;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #809596

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.

#809596 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
BackgroundsBordersBody textDividers
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 6.66:1.

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.

#809596, answered

What color is #809596?

#809596 is a balanced muted cyan, closest to Light Slate Gray (ΔE2000 9.5). It sits at 183° on the hue wheel with 10% saturation and 55% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #809596?

rgb(128, 149, 150) — 128 red, 149 green and 150 blue out of 255, or 50.2% / 58.4% / 58.8% by channel.

What is #809596 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(183, 10%, 55%) and hsv(183, 15%, 59%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #809596 a light or a dark color?

It is a mid-tone. Relative luminance is 0.2829 and perceived brightness is 56%, so black text on it reaches 6.66:1.

Should I use black or white text on #809596?

Black. It scores 6.66:1 against #809596, versus 3.15:1 for white — AA at any size.

Is #809596 accessible on a white background?

#809596 on white scores 3.15:1, which only clears AA for large text — 18.66px bold or 24px regular and up. Darken it to #647979 to reach 4.5:1, or #4B5A5B for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #809596?

#968180 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #96808A and #968C80, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #809596?

For interface work: #F7F8F8 as the surface, #D2DADA for borders, #687D7E for secondary text, #9B7B82 as an accent and #3A4546 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #80968C and #808A96 stays calm, while #968180 is the loudest partner.

What is #809596 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(15%, 1%, 0%, 41%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #809596 warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 60 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #A08E81; nudged cooler, #758597.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #809596?

The neutral family — its 500 step is #737373, ΔE2000 14.3 away. That is a visible difference, so define #809596 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #809596 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#809596] or text-[#809596], 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 #809596 with 50% opacity?

rgba(128, 149, 150, 0.5), or #80959680 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #C0CACB; over black, #404B4B.

Is #809596 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #999999, ΔE2000 9.3 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #809596 mean?

As a cyan, it reads clean, technical, fresh. Cyan reads as water, air and infrastructure: cool, hygienic, engineered. At this low chroma the association is faint; it behaves more like a neutral.

What gradient works with #809596?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #A1B1B2, #809596 45%, #3A4546). For more colour, a short hue run to #707587 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #809596 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #809596 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.