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cyan · cool

#9eedf3

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

Token name suggestion: Meadow Glacier

RGB
158, 237, 243
HSL
184°, 78%, 79%
CMYK
35, 3, 0, 5
Luminance
0.7431

#9eedf3 is a light electric cyan, 184° on the wheel and 89/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (15.86:1). As text it scores 1.32:1 on white — use #11828B instead. Nearest name is Pale Turquoise, nearest Tailwind family is cyan.

hsl(184 78% 79%)rgb(158 237 243)Base step 300AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #9eedf3 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#9eedf3
Hue
184°
cyan
Saturation
78%
electric
Lightness
79%
light
Brightness
95%
HSV value
Perceived
85%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.7431
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
89/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Electric
Best ink
Black
15.86:1
Closest name
Pale Turquoise
ΔE2000 3
Chroma
25.0
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.897
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
cyan
500 · ΔE 16.7
Web-safe
#99FFFF
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue184° of 360°
Saturation78%
Lightness79%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #9eedf3.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool89% 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%
Green82%
Blue9%

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

Every format

HEX#9eedf3
HEX (8-digit)#9eedf3ff
RGBrgb(158, 237, 243)
RGBArgba(158, 237, 243, 1)
HSLhsl(184, 78%, 79%)
HSV / HSBhsv(184, 35%, 95%)
HWBhwb(184 62% 5%)
CMYKcmyk(35%, 3%, 0%, 5%)
LABlab(89.1 -22.6 -10.6)
LCHlch(89.1 25.0 205.1)
OKLCHoklch(0.897 0.078 201.9)
XYZ (D65)xyz(60.56, 74.30, 95.93)
Decimal10415603
Display P3color(display-p3 0.620 0.929 0.953)
Web-safe#99FFFF

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #9eedf3;
background-color: #9eedf3;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #9eedf3;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#9eedf3] bg-[#9eedf3]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #9eedf3;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.620, green: 0.929, blue: 0.953)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.620, green: 0.929, blue: 0.953, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#9EEDF3</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFF9EEDF3)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFF9EEDF3)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(243, 237, 158)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(158, 237, 243)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(158, 237, 243)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 158, 237, 243)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.6196f, 0.9294f, 0.9529f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{158,237,243}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #9eedf3 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #9eedf3 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#0E6B71, #D3ECEE);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #9eedf3 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: #E6F8F9;
  --brand-200: #C7F1F5;
  --brand-300: #9eedf3;
  --brand-400: #69E3EC;
  --brand-500: #37DAE6;
  --brand-600: #1BCDDA;
  --brand-700: #16AAB6;
  --brand-800: #128891;
  --brand-900: #116369;
  --brand-950: #0B3E42;
  --brand: #9eedf3;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F4FAFA;
  --brand-border: #C0E9ED;
  --brand-hover: #7EE7EF;
  --brand-pressed: #5EE1EB;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #142324;
    --brand-ink: #D3ECEE;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F3FBFC',
        100: '#E6F8F9',
        200: '#C7F1F5',
        300: '#9eedf3',
        400: '#69E3EC',
        500: '#37DAE6',
        600: '#1BCDDA',
        700: '#16AAB6',
        800: '#128891',
        900: '#116369',
        950: '#0B3E42',
        DEFAULT: '#9eedf3',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F3FBFC,
  '100': #E6F8F9,
  '200': #C7F1F5,
  '300': #9eedf3,
  '400': #69E3EC,
  '500': #37DAE6,
  '600': #1BCDDA,
  '700': #16AAB6,
  '800': #128891,
  '900': #116369,
  '950': #0B3E42,
);
$brand-base: #9eedf3;
$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": "#E6F8F9", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#C7F1F5", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#9eedf3", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#69E3EC", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#37DAE6", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#1BCDDA", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#16AAB6", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#128891", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#116369", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#0B3E42", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #9eedf3 · 15.86:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 1.32:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 15.86:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #9eedf3 as text scores 1.32:1 on white and 15.86:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #0E6B71 at 4.72:1.

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
#11828B · 4.58:1
AA on white−48% L
#11828B
The quick fox
#0D6067 · 7.28:1
AAA on white−56% L
#0D6067
The quick fox
#9eedf3 · 15.86:1
AA on blackalready passes
#9eedf3
The quick fox
#9eedf3 · 15.86:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#9eedf3

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #16A4AF 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
#9eedf3 on white: 1.32:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#9eedf3 on black: 15.86:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #9eedf3 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #9eedf3.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White1.32:1AaAa
Slate 501.27:1AaAa
Slate 1001.21:1AaAa
Slate 2001.07:1AaAa
Slate 3001.12:1AaAa
Slate 4001.94:1AaAa
Slate 5003.59:1AaAa
Slate 6005.72:1AaAa
Slate 7007.82:1AaAa
Slate 80011.05:1AaAa
Slate 90013.48:1AaAa
Black15.86:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #E2E6F4
deuteranopia · #D3DBF4
tritanopia · #7DF3EF

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. #9eedf3 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
#E6F8F9
#C7F1F5
#9eedf3
#69E3EC
#37DAE6
#1BCDDA
#16AAB6
#128891
#116369
#0B3E42
Base = 300Lightest = 50 · #F3FBFCDarkest = 950 · #0B3E42Text 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 0.019 201.9);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.031 201.9);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.047 201.9);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.061 201.9);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.071 201.9);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.078 201.9);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.078 201.9);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.073 201.9);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.065 201.9);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.054 201.9);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.043 201.9);
}

Colors that work with #9eedf3

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#C0E9ED
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B959B
Captions on the surface
Accent#B91331
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#0E6B71
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#E8FBFC
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#142324
Dark-mode background
Hover#7EE7EF
One step down in lightness
Pressed#5EE1EB
Two steps down
Disabled#F3F7F7
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#ACF4FA
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 #9eedf3

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 #0E6B71
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #16A4AF

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.

At this chroma the association is amplified — it will dominate anything placed beside it, so give it space and use it sparingly. The lightness keeps it airy and approachable.

Worth knowing

At high lightness it disappears into white surfaces and thin strokes vanish entirely.

Reads as
  • FormalityLow
  • EnergyHigh
  • Weight21/100
  • 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#F3A49E
Analogous left#9EF3CE
Analogous right#9EC2F3
Split-complement 1#F39EC2
Split-complement 2#F3CE9E
Triadic 1#F39EED
Triadic 2#EDF39E
Tetradic#CE9EF3
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°184°

#9eedf3 sits at 184°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red62.0%
Green92.9%
Blue95.3%
R · 0–255
158
0x9e
G · 0–255
237
0xed
B · 0–255
243
0xf3

CMYK percentages

Cyan35.0%
Magenta2.5%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)4.7%

Total ink coverage is 42%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#9eedf3 text on a black background

contrast 15.86:1

Card sample

#9eedf3 text on a white background

contrast 1.32:1

Card sample

#9eedf3 on grey

1.21:1

#9eedf3 on its own surface

1.25:1

#9eedf3 on its dark surface

12.24:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #9eedf3;
Background color
Panel with #9eedf3 background
background-color: #9eedf3;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #9eedf3;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(158, 237, 243, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(158, 237, 243, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #9eedf3;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #9eedf3, #9EB4F3);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #9eedf3, #9E9FF3);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #9eedf3;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #9eedf3;
caret-color: #9eedf3;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #9eedf3;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #E8FBFC;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #9eedf3;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#9eedf3 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #9eedf3 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(158, 237, 243, 0.5)
rgb(158 237 243 / 50%)
#9eedf380
hsl(184 78% 79% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #9eedf3 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#9eedf31a#F5FDFE
20%#9eedf333#ECFBFD
40%#9eedf366#D8F8FA
60%#9eedf399#C5F4F8
80%#9eedf3cc#B1F1F5

Gradients from #9eedf3

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, #D4F7FA, #9eedf3 45%, #0E6B71);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #9eedf3, #8396F0);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #9eedf3, #F3A49E);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #F0FCFD 0%, #9eedf3 45%, #0E6B71 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%, #CBF9E1 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #B9CEF6 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #0E6B71 0%, transparent 65%), #9eedf3;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #9eedf3

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.

#9eedf3 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

Sits outside most CMYK gamuts — expect a duller press result, or specify a spot ink.

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 15.86:1.

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.

#9eedf3, answered

What color is #9eedf3?

#9eedf3 is a light electric cyan, closest to Pale Turquoise (ΔE2000 3). It sits at 184° on the hue wheel with 78% saturation and 79% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #9eedf3?

rgb(158, 237, 243) — 158 red, 237 green and 243 blue out of 255, or 62% / 92.9% / 95.3% by channel.

What is #9eedf3 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(184, 78%, 79%) and hsv(184, 35%, 95%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #9eedf3 a light or a dark color?

It is a light color. Relative luminance is 0.7431 and perceived brightness is 85%, so black text on it reaches 15.86:1.

Should I use black or white text on #9eedf3?

Black. It scores 15.86:1 against #9eedf3, versus 1.32:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #9eedf3 accessible on a white background?

#9eedf3 on white scores 1.32:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #11828B to reach 4.5:1, or #0D6067 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #9eedf3?

#F3A49E sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #F39EC2 and #F3CE9E, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #9eedf3?

For interface work: #F4FAFA as the surface, #C0E9ED for borders, #4B959B for secondary text, #B91331 as an accent and #0E6B71 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #9EF3CE and #9EC2F3 stays calm, while #F3A49E is the loudest partner.

What is #9eedf3 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(35%, 3%, 0%, 5%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — a color this saturated sits outside most CMYK gamuts and will print duller than it looks here.

Is #9eedf3 warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 89 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #9EF3DA; nudged cooler, #9DD2F4.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #9eedf3?

The cyan family — its 500 step is #06b6d4, ΔE2000 16.7 away. That is a visible difference, so define #9eedf3 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #9eedf3 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#9eedf3] or text-[#9eedf3], 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 #9eedf3 with 50% opacity?

rgba(158, 237, 243, 0.5), or #9eedf380 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #CFF6F9; over black, #4F777A.

Is #9eedf3 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #99FFFF, ΔE2000 5 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #9eedf3 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 #9eedf3?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #D4F7FA, #9eedf3 45%, #0E6B71). For more colour, a short hue run to #8396F0 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #9eedf3 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #9eedf3 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.