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cyan · cool

#99ebec

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

Token name suggestion: Morning Teal

RGB
153, 235, 236
HSL
181°, 69%, 76%
CMYK
35, 0, 0, 8
Luminance
0.7225

#99ebec is a light vivid cyan, 181° on the wheel and 88/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (15.45:1). As text it scores 1.36:1 on white — use #188182 instead. Nearest name is Pale Turquoise, nearest Tailwind family is cyan.

hsl(181 69% 76%)rgb(153 235 236)Base step 300AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #99ebec is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#99ebec
Hue
181°
cyan
Saturation
69%
vivid
Lightness
76%
light
Brightness
93%
HSV value
Perceived
84%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.7225
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
88/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Vivid
Best ink
Black
15.45:1
Closest name
Pale Turquoise
ΔE2000 3.1
Chroma
26.0
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.888
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
cyan
500 · ΔE 17
Web-safe
#99FFFF
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue181° of 360°
Saturation69%
Lightness76%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #99ebec.

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
Red9%
Green82%
Blue8%

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

Every format

HEX#99ebec
HEX (8-digit)#99ebecff
RGBrgb(153, 235, 236)
RGBArgba(153, 235, 236, 1)
HSLhsl(181, 69%, 76%)
HSV / HSBhsv(181, 35%, 93%)
HWBhwb(181 60% 7%)
CMYKcmyk(35%, 0%, 0%, 8%)
LABlab(88.1 -24.6 -8.4)
LCHlch(88.1 26.0 198.9)
OKLCHoklch(0.888 0.080 196.8)
XYZ (D65)xyz(57.98, 72.24, 90.23)
Decimal10087404
Display P3color(display-p3 0.600 0.922 0.925)
Web-safe#99FFFF

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #99ebec;
background-color: #99ebec;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #99ebec;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#99ebec] bg-[#99ebec]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #99ebec;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.600, green: 0.922, blue: 0.925)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.600, green: 0.922, blue: 0.925, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#99EBEC</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFF99EBEC)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFF99EBEC)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(236, 235, 153)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(153, 235, 236)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(153, 235, 236)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 153, 235, 236)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.6000f, 0.9216f, 0.9255f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{153,235,236}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #99ebec 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #99ebec 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#146A6B, #D3EEEE);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #99ebec 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: #F3FBFB;
  --brand-100: #E8F8F8;
  --brand-200: #CAF1F2;
  --brand-300: #99ebec;
  --brand-400: #71E3E5;
  --brand-500: #42DADC;
  --brand-600: #26CCCE;
  --brand-700: #20AAAC;
  --brand-800: #1A888A;
  --brand-900: #176364;
  --brand-950: #0E3E3E;
  --brand: #99ebec;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F4FAFA;
  --brand-border: #C0ECED;
  --brand-hover: #7BE5E6;
  --brand-pressed: #5DDFE1;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #142424;
    --brand-ink: #D3EEEE;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F3FBFB',
        100: '#E8F8F8',
        200: '#CAF1F2',
        300: '#99ebec',
        400: '#71E3E5',
        500: '#42DADC',
        600: '#26CCCE',
        700: '#20AAAC',
        800: '#1A888A',
        900: '#176364',
        950: '#0E3E3E',
        DEFAULT: '#99ebec',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F3FBFB,
  '100': #E8F8F8,
  '200': #CAF1F2,
  '300': #99ebec,
  '400': #71E3E5,
  '500': #42DADC,
  '600': #26CCCE,
  '700': #20AAAC,
  '800': #1A888A,
  '900': #176364,
  '950': #0E3E3E,
);
$brand-base: #99ebec;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F3FBFB", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#E8F8F8", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#CAF1F2", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#99ebec", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#71E3E5", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#42DADC", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#26CCCE", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#20AAAC", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#1A888A", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#176364", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#0E3E3E", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #99ebec · 15.45:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 1.36:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 15.45:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #99ebec as text scores 1.36:1 on white and 15.45:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #146A6B at 4.68:1.

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
#188182 · 4.67:1
AA on white−46% L
#188182
The quick fox
#136364 · 7.01:1
AAA on white−53% L
#136364
The quick fox
#99ebec · 15.45:1
AA on blackalready passes
#99ebec
The quick fox
#99ebec · 15.45:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#99ebec

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #1FA3A5 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
#99ebec on white: 1.36:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#99ebec on black: 15.45:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #99ebec as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #99ebec.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White1.36:1AaAa
Slate 501.30:1AaAa
Slate 1001.24:1AaAa
Slate 2001.10:1AaAa
Slate 3001.09:1AaAa
Slate 4001.89:1AaAa
Slate 5003.50:1AaAa
Slate 6005.57:1AaAa
Slate 7007.62:1AaAa
Slate 80010.76:1AaAa
Slate 90013.13:1AaAa
Black15.45:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #E1E4EC
deuteranopia · #D1D8ED
tritanopia · #78F0EB

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. #99ebec 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.

#F3FBFB
#E8F8F8
#CAF1F2
#99ebec
#71E3E5
#42DADC
#26CCCE
#20AAAC
#1A888A
#176364
#0E3E3E
Base = 300Lightest = 50 · #F3FBFBDarkest = 950 · #0E3E3EText 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 0.020 196.8);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.032 196.8);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.048 196.8);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.062 196.8);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.074 196.8);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.080 196.8);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.080 196.8);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.075 196.8);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.067 196.8);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.056 196.8);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.044 196.8);
}

Colors that work with #99ebec

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#C0ECED
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B9A9B
Captions on the surface
Accent#AF1D40
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#146A6B
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#EAFBFB
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#142424
Dark-mode background
Hover#7BE5E6
One step down in lightness
Pressed#5DDFE1
Two steps down
Disabled#F3F7F7
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#A5F3F4
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 #99ebec

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 #146A6B
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #1FA3A5

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
  • Weight24/100
  • 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#EC9A99
Analogous left#99ECC4
Analogous right#99C2EC
Split-complement 1#EC99C2
Split-complement 2#ECC499
Triadic 1#EC99EB
Triadic 2#EBEC99
Tetradic#C499EC
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°181°

#99ebec sits at 181°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red60.0%
Green92.2%
Blue92.5%
R · 0–255
153
0x99
G · 0–255
235
0xeb
B · 0–255
236
0xec

CMYK percentages

Cyan35.2%
Magenta0.4%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)7.5%

Total ink coverage is 43%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#99ebec text on a black background

contrast 15.45:1

Card sample

#99ebec text on a white background

contrast 1.36:1

Card sample

#99ebec on grey

1.24:1

#99ebec on its own surface

1.29:1

#99ebec on its dark surface

11.82:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #99ebec;
Background color
Panel with #99ebec background
background-color: #99ebec;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #99ebec;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(153, 235, 236, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(153, 235, 236, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #99ebec;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #99ebec, #99B4EC);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #99ebec, #999FEC);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #99ebec;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #99ebec;
caret-color: #99ebec;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #99ebec;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #EAFBFB;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #99ebec;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#99ebec 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #99ebec 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(153, 235, 236, 0.5)
rgb(153 235 236 / 50%)
#99ebec80
hsl(181 69% 76% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #99ebec 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#99ebec1a#F5FDFD
20%#99ebec33#EBFBFB
40%#99ebec66#D6F7F7
60%#99ebec99#C2F3F4
80%#99ebeccc#ADEFF0

Gradients from #99ebec

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, #CDF5F6, #99ebec 45%, #146A6B);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #99ebec, #7F98E7);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #99ebec, #EC9A99);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #E6FAFA 0%, #99ebec 45%, #146A6B 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%, #C4F4D9 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #B3CCF1 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #146A6B 0%, transparent 65%), #99ebec;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #99ebec

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.

#99ebec 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 15.45:1.

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.

#99ebec, answered

What color is #99ebec?

#99ebec is a light vivid cyan, closest to Pale Turquoise (ΔE2000 3.1). It sits at 181° on the hue wheel with 69% saturation and 76% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #99ebec?

rgb(153, 235, 236) — 153 red, 235 green and 236 blue out of 255, or 60% / 92.2% / 92.5% by channel.

What is #99ebec in HSL and HSV?

hsl(181, 69%, 76%) and hsv(181, 35%, 93%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #99ebec a light or a dark color?

It is a light color. Relative luminance is 0.7225 and perceived brightness is 84%, so black text on it reaches 15.45:1.

Should I use black or white text on #99ebec?

Black. It scores 15.45:1 against #99ebec, versus 1.36:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #99ebec accessible on a white background?

#99ebec on white scores 1.36:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #188182 to reach 4.5:1, or #136364 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #99ebec?

#EC9A99 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #EC99C2 and #ECC499, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #99ebec?

For interface work: #F4FAFA as the surface, #C0ECED for borders, #4B9A9B for secondary text, #AF1D40 as an accent and #146A6B for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #99ECC4 and #99C2EC stays calm, while #EC9A99 is the loudest partner.

What is #99ebec in CMYK for printing?

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

Is #99ebec 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 #99ECCF; nudged cooler, #98CDED.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #99ebec?

The cyan family — its 500 step is #06b6d4, ΔE2000 17 away. That is a visible difference, so define #99ebec as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #99ebec in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#99ebec] or text-[#99ebec], 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 #99ebec with 50% opacity?

rgba(153, 235, 236, 0.5), or #99ebec80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #CCF5F6; over black, #4D7676.

Is #99ebec a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #99FFFF, ΔE2000 4.4 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #99ebec 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 #99ebec?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #CDF5F6, #99ebec 45%, #146A6B). For more colour, a short hue run to #7F98E7 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #99ebec in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #99ebec at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.