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cyan · cool

#84cbba

a light, soft cyan · cool · closest name: Medium Aqua Marine

Token name suggestion: Drift Teal

RGB
132, 203, 186
HSL
166°, 41%, 66%
CMYK
35, 0, 8, 20
Luminance
0.5116

#84cbba is a light soft cyan, 166° on the wheel and 82/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (11.23:1). As text it scores 1.87:1 on white — use #36806E instead. Nearest name is Medium Aqua Marine, nearest Tailwind family is teal.

hsl(166 41% 66%)rgb(132 203 186)Base step 400AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #84cbba is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#84cbba
Hue
166°
cyan
Saturation
41%
soft
Lightness
66%
light
Brightness
80%
HSV value
Perceived
72%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.5116
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
82/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Soft
Best ink
Black
11.23:1
Closest name
Medium Aqua Marine
ΔE2000 6.4
Chroma
26.1
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.790
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
teal
500 · ΔE 9.8
Web-safe
#99CCCC
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue166° of 360°
Saturation41%
Lightness66%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #84cbba.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool82% 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
Red10%
Green83%
Blue7%

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

Every format

HEX#84cbba
HEX (8-digit)#84cbbaff
RGBrgb(132, 203, 186)
RGBArgba(132, 203, 186, 1)
HSLhsl(166, 41%, 66%)
HSV / HSBhsv(166, 35%, 80%)
HWBhwb(166 52% 20%)
CMYKcmyk(35%, 0%, 8%, 20%)
LABlab(76.8 -26.0 1.4)
LCHlch(76.8 26.1 176.9)
OKLCHoklch(0.790 0.076 177.4)
XYZ (D65)xyz(39.73, 51.16, 54.23)
Decimal8702906
Display P3color(display-p3 0.518 0.796 0.729)
Web-safe#99CCCC

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #84cbba;
background-color: #84cbba;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #84cbba;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#84cbba] bg-[#84cbba]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #84cbba;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.518, green: 0.796, blue: 0.729)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.518, green: 0.796, blue: 0.729, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#84CBBA</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFF84CBBA)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFF84CBBA)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(186, 203, 132)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(132, 203, 186)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(132, 203, 186)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 132, 203, 186)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.5176f, 0.7961f, 0.7294f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{132,203,186}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #84cbba 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #84cbba 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#265A4D, #D4EDE7);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #84cbba 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: #F5FAF9;
  --brand-100: #EBF5F2;
  --brand-200: #D2EAE4;
  --brand-300: #B0DED3;
  --brand-400: #84cbba;
  --brand-500: #61BCA6;
  --brand-600: #49AC94;
  --brand-700: #3D8F7C;
  --brand-800: #307363;
  --brand-900: #265449;
  --brand-950: #18352E;
  --brand: #84cbba;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F4FAF9;
  --brand-border: #C6E7DF;
  --brand-hover: #6BC0AC;
  --brand-pressed: #52B69E;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #142420;
    --brand-ink: #D4EDE7;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F5FAF9',
        100: '#EBF5F2',
        200: '#D2EAE4',
        300: '#B0DED3',
        400: '#84cbba',
        500: '#61BCA6',
        600: '#49AC94',
        700: '#3D8F7C',
        800: '#307363',
        900: '#265449',
        950: '#18352E',
        DEFAULT: '#84cbba',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F5FAF9,
  '100': #EBF5F2,
  '200': #D2EAE4,
  '300': #B0DED3,
  '400': #84cbba,
  '500': #61BCA6,
  '600': #49AC94,
  '700': #3D8F7C,
  '800': #307363,
  '900': #265449,
  '950': #18352E,
);
$brand-base: #84cbba;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F5FAF9", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#EBF5F2", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#D2EAE4", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#B0DED3", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#84cbba", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#61BCA6", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#49AC94", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#3D8F7C", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#307363", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#265449", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#18352E", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #84cbba · 11.23:1
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 · 11.23:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #84cbba as text scores 1.87:1 on white and 11.23:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #265A4D at 4.24:1.

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
#36806E · 4.70:1
AA on white−30% L
#36806E
The quick fox
#286052 · 7.28:1
AAA on white−39% L
#286052
The quick fox
#84cbba · 11.23:1
AA on blackalready passes
#84cbba
The quick fox
#84cbba · 11.23:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#84cbba

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #45A48D 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
#84cbba on white: 1.87:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#84cbba on black: 11.23:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #84cbba as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #84cbba.

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 5002.55:1AaAa
Slate 6004.05:1AaAa
Slate 7005.54:1AaAa
Slate 8007.82:1AaAa
Slate 9009.55:1AaAa
Black11.23:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #C6C3B9
deuteranopia · #B9BABB
tritanopia · #6ECDC6

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. #84cbba 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.

#F5FAF9
#EBF5F2
#D2EAE4
#B0DED3
#84cbba
#61BCA6
#49AC94
#3D8F7C
#307363
#265449
#18352E
Base = 400Lightest = 50 · #F5FAF9Darkest = 950 · #18352EText 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 0.019 177.4);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.030 177.4);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.045 177.4);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.059 177.4);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.070 177.4);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.076 177.4);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.076 177.4);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.071 177.4);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.064 177.4);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.053 177.4);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.042 177.4);
}

Colors that work with #84cbba

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#F4FAF9
Tinted page background
Border#C6E7DF
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B9B88
Captions on the surface
Accent#943865
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#265A4D
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#EDF7F5
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#142420
Dark-mode background
Hover#6BC0AC
One step down in lightness
Pressed#52B69E
Two steps down
Disabled#D9E7E3
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#8BD9C6
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 #84cbba

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

Works well for
  • Text and icons on dark surfaces
  • Charts, tags and secondary surfaces
  • Card and section backgrounds
  • Brand accents, badges and data highlights
Use with care
  • Text of any size on white — fails WCAG AA
  • 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 #265A4D
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #45A48D

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.

The muted chroma softens the association — it reads considered rather than loud, which suits long-form and data-heavy screens. 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
  • 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#CB8495
Analogous left#84CB96
Analogous right#84B9CB
Split-complement 1#CB84B9
Split-complement 2#CB9684
Triadic 1#BA84CB
Triadic 2#CBBA84
Tetradic#9684CB
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°166°

#84cbba sits at 166°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red51.8%
Green79.6%
Blue72.9%
R · 0–255
132
0x84
G · 0–255
203
0xcb
B · 0–255
186
0xba

CMYK percentages

Cyan35.0%
Magenta0.0%
Yellow8.4%
Key (black)20.4%

Total ink coverage is 64%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#84cbba text on a black background

contrast 11.23:1

Card sample

#84cbba text on a white background

contrast 1.87:1

Card sample

#84cbba on grey

1.71:1

#84cbba on its own surface

1.77:1

#84cbba on its dark surface

8.62:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #84cbba;
Background color
Panel with #84cbba background
background-color: #84cbba;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #84cbba;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(132, 203, 186, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(132, 203, 186, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #84cbba;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #84cbba, #84ADCB);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #84cbba, #849BCB);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #84cbba;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #84cbba;
caret-color: #84cbba;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #84cbba;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #EDF7F5;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #84cbba;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#84cbba 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #84cbba 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(132, 203, 186, 0.5)
rgb(132 203 186 / 50%)
#84cbba80
hsl(166 41% 66% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #84cbba 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#84cbba1a#F3FAF8
20%#84cbba33#E6F5F1
40%#84cbba66#CEEAE3
60%#84cbba99#B5E0D6
80%#84cbbacc#9DD5C8

Gradients from #84cbba

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, #AFDDD2, #84cbba 45%, #265A4D);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #84cbba, #6F97C2);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #84cbba, #CB8495);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #C5E6DE 0%, #84cbba 45%, #265A4D 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F4FAF9, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #A8DAB1 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #9AC0D4 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #265A4D 0%, transparent 65%), #84cbba;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #84cbba

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.

#84cbba 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 11.23:1.

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.

#84cbba, answered

What color is #84cbba?

#84cbba is a light soft cyan, closest to Medium Aqua Marine (ΔE2000 6.4). It sits at 166° on the hue wheel with 41% saturation and 66% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #84cbba?

rgb(132, 203, 186) — 132 red, 203 green and 186 blue out of 255, or 51.8% / 79.6% / 72.9% by channel.

What is #84cbba in HSL and HSV?

hsl(166, 41%, 66%) and hsv(166, 35%, 80%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #84cbba a light or a dark color?

It is a light color. Relative luminance is 0.5116 and perceived brightness is 72%, so black text on it reaches 11.23:1.

Should I use black or white text on #84cbba?

Black. It scores 11.23:1 against #84cbba, versus 1.87:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #84cbba accessible on a white background?

#84cbba on white scores 1.87:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #36806E to reach 4.5:1, or #286052 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #84cbba?

#CB8495 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #CB84B9 and #CB9684, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #84cbba?

For interface work: #F4FAF9 as the surface, #C6E7DF for borders, #4B9B88 for secondary text, #943865 as an accent and #265A4D for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #84CB96 and #84B9CB stays calm, while #CB8495 is the loudest partner.

What is #84cbba in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(35%, 0%, 8%, 20%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #84cbba warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 82 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #84CBA0; nudged cooler, #82C3CD.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #84cbba?

The teal family — its 500 step is #14b8a6, ΔE2000 9.8 away. That is a visible difference, so define #84cbba as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #84cbba in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#84cbba] or text-[#84cbba], 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 #84cbba with 50% opacity?

rgba(132, 203, 186, 0.5), or #84cbba80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #C2E5DD; over black, #42665D.

Is #84cbba a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #99CCCC, ΔE2000 7.8 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #84cbba mean?

As a cyan, it reads clean, technical, fresh. Cyan reads as water, air and infrastructure: cool, hygienic, engineered. At this moderate chroma the association is present but not shouted.

What gradient works with #84cbba?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #AFDDD2, #84cbba 45%, #265A4D). For more colour, a short hue run to #6F97C2 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #84cbba in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #84cbba at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.