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cyan · cool

#90ebee

a light, vivid cyan · cool · closest name: Pale Turquoise

Token name suggestion: Drift Teal

RGB
144, 235, 238
HSL
182°, 73%, 75%
CMYK
40, 1, 0, 7
Luminance
0.7152

#90ebee is a light vivid cyan, 182° on the wheel and 88/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (15.30:1). As text it scores 1.37:1 on white — use #148184 instead. Nearest name is Pale Turquoise, nearest Tailwind family is cyan.

hsl(182 73% 75%)rgb(144 235 238)Base step 300AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #90ebee is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#90ebee
Hue
182°
cyan
Saturation
73%
vivid
Lightness
75%
light
Brightness
93%
HSV value
Perceived
83%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.7152
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
88/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Vivid
Best ink
Black
15.30:1
Closest name
Pale Turquoise
ΔE2000 4.1
Chroma
28.2
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.884
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
cyan
500 · ΔE 16.3
Web-safe
#99FFFF
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue182° of 360°
Saturation73%
Lightness75%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #90ebee.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool88% 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
Red8%
Green83%
Blue9%

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

Every format

HEX#90ebee
HEX (8-digit)#90ebeeff
RGBrgb(144, 235, 238)
RGBArgba(144, 235, 238, 1)
HSLhsl(182, 73%, 75%)
HSV / HSBhsv(182, 39%, 93%)
HWBhwb(182 56% 7%)
CMYKcmyk(40%, 1%, 0%, 7%)
LABlab(87.7 -26.4 -10.0)
LCHlch(87.7 28.2 200.8)
OKLCHoklch(0.884 0.087 198.4)
XYZ (D65)xyz(56.64, 71.51, 91.69)
Decimal9497582
Display P3color(display-p3 0.565 0.922 0.933)
Web-safe#99FFFF

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #90ebee;
background-color: #90ebee;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #90ebee;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#90ebee] bg-[#90ebee]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #90ebee;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.565, green: 0.922, blue: 0.933)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.565, green: 0.922, blue: 0.933, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#90EBEE</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFF90EBEE)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFF90EBEE)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(238, 235, 144)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(144, 235, 238)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(144, 235, 238)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 144, 235, 238)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.5647f, 0.9216f, 0.9333f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{144,235,238}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #90ebee 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #90ebee 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#116C6F, #D3EDEE);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #90ebee 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: #F3FBFC;
  --brand-100: #E7F8F8;
  --brand-200: #C8F2F3;
  --brand-300: #90ebee;
  --brand-400: #6DE5E9;
  --brand-500: #3CDCE1;
  --brand-600: #21CFD4;
  --brand-700: #1BACB1;
  --brand-800: #168A8D;
  --brand-900: #146467;
  --brand-950: #0C3E40;
  --brand: #90ebee;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F4FAFA;
  --brand-border: #C0EBED;
  --brand-hover: #71E5E9;
  --brand-pressed: #52E0E4;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #142424;
    --brand-ink: #D3EDEE;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F3FBFC',
        100: '#E7F8F8',
        200: '#C8F2F3',
        300: '#90ebee',
        400: '#6DE5E9',
        500: '#3CDCE1',
        600: '#21CFD4',
        700: '#1BACB1',
        800: '#168A8D',
        900: '#146467',
        950: '#0C3E40',
        DEFAULT: '#90ebee',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F3FBFC,
  '100': #E7F8F8,
  '200': #C8F2F3,
  '300': #90ebee,
  '400': #6DE5E9,
  '500': #3CDCE1,
  '600': #21CFD4,
  '700': #1BACB1,
  '800': #168A8D,
  '900': #146467,
  '950': #0C3E40,
);
$brand-base: #90ebee;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F3FBFC", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#E7F8F8", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#C8F2F3", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#90ebee", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#6DE5E9", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#3CDCE1", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#21CFD4", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#1BACB1", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#168A8D", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#146467", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#0C3E40", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #90ebee · 15.30:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 1.37:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 15.30:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #90ebee as text scores 1.37:1 on white and 15.30:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #116C6F at 4.50:1.

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
#148184 · 4.66:1
AA on white−45% L
#148184
The quick fox
#106365 · 7.01:1
AAA on white−52% L
#106365
The quick fox
#90ebee · 15.30:1
AA on blackalready passes
#90ebee
The quick fox
#90ebee · 15.30:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#90ebee

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #1AA3A8 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
#90ebee on white: 1.37:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#90ebee on black: 15.30:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #90ebee as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #90ebee.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White1.37:1AaAa
Slate 501.31:1AaAa
Slate 1001.25:1AaAa
Slate 2001.11:1AaAa
Slate 3001.08:1AaAa
Slate 4001.87:1AaAa
Slate 5003.47:1AaAa
Slate 6005.52:1AaAa
Slate 7007.55:1AaAa
Slate 80010.66:1AaAa
Slate 90013.01:1AaAa
Black15.30:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #E0E3EE
deuteranopia · #CFD7EF
tritanopia · #66F1EC

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. #90ebee is pinned to step 300; the rest hold its hue and let saturation ease off at the extremes so the pale end never turns neon.

#F3FBFC
#E7F8F8
#C8F2F3
#90ebee
#6DE5E9
#3CDCE1
#21CFD4
#1BACB1
#168A8D
#146467
#0C3E40
Base = 300Lightest = 50 · #F3FBFCDarkest = 950 · #0C3E40Text 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 0.022 198.4);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.035 198.4);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.052 198.4);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.068 198.4);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.080 198.4);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.087 198.4);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.087 198.4);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.082 198.4);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.073 198.4);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.061 198.4);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.048 198.4);
}

Colors that work with #90ebee

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#C0EBED
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B989B
Captions on the surface
Accent#B61639
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#116C6F
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#E9FBFC
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#142424
Dark-mode background
Hover#71E5E9
One step down in lightness
Pressed#52E0E4
Two steps down
Disabled#F3F7F7
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#9CF3F6
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 #90ebee

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 #116C6F
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #1AA3A8

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
  • Weight25/100
  • 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#EE9390
Analogous left#90EEC2
Analogous right#90BCEE
Split-complement 1#EE90BC
Split-complement 2#EEC290
Triadic 1#EE90EB
Triadic 2#EBEE90
Tetradic#C290EE
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°182°

#90ebee sits at 182°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red56.5%
Green92.2%
Blue93.3%
R · 0–255
144
0x90
G · 0–255
235
0xeb
B · 0–255
238
0xee

CMYK percentages

Cyan39.5%
Magenta1.3%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)6.7%

Total ink coverage is 48%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#90ebee text on a black background

contrast 15.30:1

Card sample

#90ebee text on a white background

contrast 1.37:1

Card sample

#90ebee on grey

1.25:1

#90ebee on its own surface

1.30:1

#90ebee on its dark surface

11.70:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #90ebee;
Background color
Panel with #90ebee background
background-color: #90ebee;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #90ebee;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(144, 235, 238, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(144, 235, 238, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #90ebee;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #90ebee, #90ACEE);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #90ebee, #9095EE);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #90ebee;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #90ebee;
caret-color: #90ebee;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #90ebee;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #E9FBFC;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #90ebee;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#90ebee 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #90ebee 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(144, 235, 238, 0.5)
rgb(144 235 238 / 50%)
#90ebee80
hsl(182 73% 75% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #90ebee 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#90ebee1a#F4FDFD
20%#90ebee33#E9FBFC
40%#90ebee66#D3F7F8
60%#90ebee99#BCF3F5
80%#90ebeecc#A6EFF1

Gradients from #90ebee

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, #C5F5F6, #90ebee 45%, #116C6F);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #90ebee, #758FEA);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #90ebee, #EE9390);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #E0F9FA 0%, #90ebee 45%, #116C6F 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%, #BCF5D6 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #ABC6F2 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #116C6F 0%, transparent 65%), #90ebee;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #90ebee

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.

#90ebee 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 15.30:1.

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.

#90ebee, answered

What color is #90ebee?

#90ebee is a light vivid cyan, closest to Pale Turquoise (ΔE2000 4.1). It sits at 182° on the hue wheel with 73% saturation and 75% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #90ebee?

rgb(144, 235, 238) — 144 red, 235 green and 238 blue out of 255, or 56.5% / 92.2% / 93.3% by channel.

What is #90ebee in HSL and HSV?

hsl(182, 73%, 75%) and hsv(182, 39%, 93%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #90ebee a light or a dark color?

It is a light color. Relative luminance is 0.7152 and perceived brightness is 83%, so black text on it reaches 15.30:1.

Should I use black or white text on #90ebee?

Black. It scores 15.30:1 against #90ebee, versus 1.37:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #90ebee accessible on a white background?

#90ebee on white scores 1.37:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #148184 to reach 4.5:1, or #106365 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #90ebee?

#EE9390 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #EE90BC and #EEC290, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #90ebee?

For interface work: #F4FAFA as the surface, #C0EBED for borders, #4B989B for secondary text, #B61639 as an accent and #116C6F for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #90EEC2 and #90BCEE stays calm, while #EE9390 is the loudest partner.

What is #90ebee in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(40%, 1%, 0%, 7%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #90ebee warm or cool?

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

Which Tailwind color is closest to #90ebee?

The cyan family — its 500 step is #06b6d4, ΔE2000 16.3 away. That is a visible difference, so define #90ebee as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #90ebee in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#90ebee] or text-[#90ebee], 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 #90ebee with 50% opacity?

rgba(144, 235, 238, 0.5), or #90ebee80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #C8F5F7; over black, #487677.

Is #90ebee a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #99FFFF, ΔE2000 4.3 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #90ebee 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 #90ebee?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #C5F5F6, #90ebee 45%, #116C6F). For more colour, a short hue run to #758FEA keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #90ebee in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #90ebee at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.