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cyan · cool

#8acad1

a light, soft cyan · cool · closest name: Powder Blue

Token name suggestion: Linen Reef

RGB
138, 202, 209
HSL
186°, 44%, 68%
CMYK
34, 3, 0, 18
Luminance
0.5225

#8acad1 is a light soft cyan, 186° on the wheel and 90/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (11.45:1). As text it scores 1.83:1 on white — use #357F87 instead. Nearest name is Powder Blue, nearest Tailwind family is cyan.

hsl(186 44% 68%)rgb(138 202 209)Base step 400AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #8acad1 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#8acad1
Hue
186°
cyan
Saturation
44%
soft
Lightness
68%
light
Brightness
82%
HSV value
Perceived
73%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.5225
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
90/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Soft
Best ink
Black
11.45:1
Closest name
Powder Blue
ΔE2000 6.7
Chroma
21.1
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.798
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
cyan
500 · ΔE 11
Web-safe
#99CCCC
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue186° of 360°
Saturation44%
Lightness68%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #8acad1.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool90% 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%
Green81%
Blue9%

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

Every format

HEX#8acad1
HEX (8-digit)#8acad1ff
RGBrgb(138, 202, 209)
RGBArgba(138, 202, 209, 1)
HSLhsl(186, 44%, 68%)
HSV / HSBhsv(186, 34%, 82%)
HWBhwb(186 54% 18%)
CMYKcmyk(34%, 3%, 0%, 18%)
LABlab(77.4 -18.6 -10.0)
LCHlch(77.4 21.1 208.3)
OKLCHoklch(0.798 0.066 204.6)
XYZ (D65)xyz(43.11, 52.25, 68.12)
Decimal9095889
Display P3color(display-p3 0.541 0.792 0.820)
Web-safe#99CCCC

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #8acad1;
background-color: #8acad1;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #8acad1;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#8acad1] bg-[#8acad1]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #8acad1;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.541, green: 0.792, blue: 0.820)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.541, green: 0.792, blue: 0.820, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#8ACAD1</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFF8ACAD1)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFF8ACAD1)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(209, 202, 138)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(138, 202, 209)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(138, 202, 209)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 138, 202, 209)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.5412f, 0.7922f, 0.8196f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{138,202,209}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #8acad1 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #8acad1 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#24565C, #D3EBEE);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #8acad1 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: #F5F9FA;
  --brand-100: #EAF4F5;
  --brand-200: #D1E8EB;
  --brand-300: #AEDBDF;
  --brand-400: #8acad1;
  --brand-500: #5EB6C0;
  --brand-600: #45A5B0;
  --brand-700: #3A8A92;
  --brand-800: #2E6E75;
  --brand-900: #255156;
  --brand-950: #173336;
  --brand: #8acad1;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F4FAFA;
  --brand-border: #C4E4E8;
  --brand-hover: #70BEC7;
  --brand-pressed: #57B3BD;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #142324;
    --brand-ink: #D3EBEE;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F5F9FA',
        100: '#EAF4F5',
        200: '#D1E8EB',
        300: '#AEDBDF',
        400: '#8acad1',
        500: '#5EB6C0',
        600: '#45A5B0',
        700: '#3A8A92',
        800: '#2E6E75',
        900: '#255156',
        950: '#173336',
        DEFAULT: '#8acad1',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F5F9FA,
  '100': #EAF4F5,
  '200': #D1E8EB,
  '300': #AEDBDF,
  '400': #8acad1,
  '500': #5EB6C0,
  '600': #45A5B0,
  '700': #3A8A92,
  '800': #2E6E75,
  '900': #255156,
  '950': #173336,
);
$brand-base: #8acad1;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F5F9FA", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#EAF4F5", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#D1E8EB", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#AEDBDF", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#8acad1", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#5EB6C0", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#45A5B0", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#3A8A92", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#2E6E75", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#255156", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#173336", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #8acad1 · 11.45:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 1.83:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 11.45:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #8acad1 as text scores 1.83:1 on white and 11.45:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #24565C at 4.47:1.

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
#357F87 · 4.63:1
AA on white−31% L
#357F87
The quick fox
#286067 · 7.10:1
AAA on white−40% L
#286067
The quick fox
#8acad1 · 11.45:1
AA on blackalready passes
#8acad1
The quick fox
#8acad1 · 11.45:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#8acad1

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #44A2AC 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
#8acad1 on white: 1.83:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#8acad1 on black: 11.45:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #8acad1 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #8acad1.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White1.83:1AaAa
Slate 501.75:1AaAa
Slate 1001.67:1AaAa
Slate 2001.49:1AaAa
Slate 3001.24:1AaAa
Slate 4001.40:1AaAa
Slate 5002.59:1AaAa
Slate 6004.13:1AaAa
Slate 7005.65:1AaAa
Slate 8007.98:1AaAa
Slate 9009.73:1AaAa
Black11.45:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #C0C5D2
deuteranopia · #B4BBD1
tritanopia · #6FCFCC

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. #8acad1 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.

#F5F9FA
#EAF4F5
#D1E8EB
#AEDBDF
#8acad1
#5EB6C0
#45A5B0
#3A8A92
#2E6E75
#255156
#173336
Base = 400Lightest = 50 · #F5F9FADarkest = 950 · #173336Text 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 0.016 204.6);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.026 204.6);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.039 204.6);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.051 204.6);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.060 204.6);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.066 204.6);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.066 204.6);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.062 204.6);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.055 204.6);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.046 204.6);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.036 204.6);
}

Colors that work with #8acad1

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#F4FAFA
Tinted page background
Border#C4E4E8
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B939B
Captions on the surface
Accent#963644
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#24565C
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#EDF7F8
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#142324
Dark-mode background
Hover#70BEC7
One step down in lightness
Pressed#57B3BD
Two steps down
Disabled#E0EAEB
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#91D6DE
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 #8acad1

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 #24565C
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #44A2AC

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
  • 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#D1918A
Analogous left#8AD1B4
Analogous right#8AA6D1
Split-complement 1#D18AA6
Split-complement 2#D1B48A
Triadic 1#D18ACA
Triadic 2#CAD18A
Tetradic#B48AD1
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°186°

#8acad1 sits at 186°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red54.1%
Green79.2%
Blue82.0%
R · 0–255
138
0x8a
G · 0–255
202
0xca
B · 0–255
209
0xd1

CMYK percentages

Cyan34.0%
Magenta3.3%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)18.0%

Total ink coverage is 55%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#8acad1 text on a black background

contrast 11.45:1

Card sample

#8acad1 text on a white background

contrast 1.83:1

Card sample

#8acad1 on grey

1.67:1

#8acad1 on its own surface

1.74:1

#8acad1 on its dark surface

8.84:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #8acad1;
Background color
Panel with #8acad1 background
background-color: #8acad1;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #8acad1;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(138, 202, 209, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(138, 202, 209, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #8acad1;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #8acad1, #8A9BD1);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #8acad1, #8B8AD1);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #8acad1;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #8acad1;
caret-color: #8acad1;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #8acad1;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #EDF7F8;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #8acad1;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#8acad1 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #8acad1 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(138, 202, 209, 0.5)
rgb(138 202 209 / 50%)
#8acad180
hsl(186 44% 68% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #8acad1 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#8acad11a#F3FAFA
20%#8acad133#E8F4F6
40%#8acad166#D0EAED
60%#8acad199#B9DFE3
80%#8acad1cc#A1D5DA

Gradients from #8acad1

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, #B6DEE2, #8acad1 45%, #24565C);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #8acad1, #7481C8);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #8acad1, #D1918A);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #CCE8EB 0%, #8acad1 45%, #24565C 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F4FAFA, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #AEDFC8 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #A0B2DA 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #24565C 0%, transparent 65%), #8acad1;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #8acad1

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.

#8acad1 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 11.45:1.

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.

#8acad1, answered

What color is #8acad1?

#8acad1 is a light soft cyan, closest to Powder Blue (ΔE2000 6.7). It sits at 186° on the hue wheel with 44% saturation and 68% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #8acad1?

rgb(138, 202, 209) — 138 red, 202 green and 209 blue out of 255, or 54.1% / 79.2% / 82% by channel.

What is #8acad1 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(186, 44%, 68%) and hsv(186, 34%, 82%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #8acad1 a light or a dark color?

It is a light color. Relative luminance is 0.5225 and perceived brightness is 73%, so black text on it reaches 11.45:1.

Should I use black or white text on #8acad1?

Black. It scores 11.45:1 against #8acad1, versus 1.83:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #8acad1 accessible on a white background?

#8acad1 on white scores 1.83:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #357F87 to reach 4.5:1, or #286067 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #8acad1?

#D1918A sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #D18AA6 and #D1B48A, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #8acad1?

For interface work: #F4FAFA as the surface, #C4E4E8 for borders, #4B939B for secondary text, #963644 as an accent and #24565C for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #8AD1B4 and #8AA6D1 stays calm, while #D1918A is the loudest partner.

What is #8acad1 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(34%, 3%, 0%, 18%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #8acad1 warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 90 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #8AD1BE; nudged cooler, #88B4D3.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #8acad1?

The cyan family — its 500 step is #06b6d4, ΔE2000 11 away. That is a visible difference, so define #8acad1 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #8acad1 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#8acad1] or text-[#8acad1], 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 #8acad1 with 50% opacity?

rgba(138, 202, 209, 0.5), or #8acad180 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #C5E5E8; over black, #456569.

Is #8acad1 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #99CCCC, ΔE2000 3.3 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #8acad1 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 #8acad1?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #B6DEE2, #8acad1 45%, #24565C). For more colour, a short hue run to #7481C8 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #8acad1 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #8acad1 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.