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cyan · cool

#9fd5cb

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

Token name suggestion: Meadow Glacier

RGB
159, 213, 203
HSL
169°, 39%, 73%
CMYK
25, 0, 5, 17
Luminance
0.5927

#9fd5cb is a light soft cyan, 169° on the wheel and 83/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (12.85:1). As text it scores 1.63:1 on white — use #387F72 instead. Nearest name is Pale Turquoise, nearest Tailwind family is teal.

hsl(169 39% 73%)rgb(159 213 203)Base step 300AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #9fd5cb is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#9fd5cb
Hue
169°
cyan
Saturation
39%
soft
Lightness
73%
light
Brightness
84%
HSV value
Perceived
77%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.5927
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
83/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Soft
Best ink
Black
12.85:1
Closest name
Pale Turquoise
ΔE2000 7
Chroma
19.4
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.833
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
teal
500 · ΔE 14.2
Web-safe
#99CCCC
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue169° of 360°
Saturation39%
Lightness73%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #9fd5cb.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool83% 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
Red12%
Green80%
Blue7%

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

Every format

HEX#9fd5cb
HEX (8-digit)#9fd5cbff
RGBrgb(159, 213, 203)
RGBArgba(159, 213, 203, 1)
HSLhsl(169, 39%, 73%)
HSV / HSBhsv(169, 25%, 84%)
HWBhwb(169 62% 16%)
CMYKcmyk(25%, 0%, 5%, 17%)
LABlab(81.4 -19.4 -0.7)
LCHlch(81.4 19.4 182.1)
OKLCHoklch(0.833 0.058 182.2)
XYZ (D65)xyz(48.87, 59.27, 65.35)
Decimal10474955
Display P3color(display-p3 0.624 0.835 0.796)
Web-safe#99CCCC

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #9fd5cb;
background-color: #9fd5cb;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #9fd5cb;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#9fd5cb] bg-[#9fd5cb]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #9fd5cb;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.624, green: 0.835, blue: 0.796)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.624, green: 0.835, blue: 0.796, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#9FD5CB</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFF9FD5CB)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFF9FD5CB)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(203, 213, 159)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(159, 213, 203)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(159, 213, 203)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 159, 213, 203)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.6235f, 0.8353f, 0.7961f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{159,213,203}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #9fd5cb 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #9fd5cb 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#27594F, #D4ECE8);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #9fd5cb 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: #EBF4F3;
  --brand-200: #D2E9E5;
  --brand-300: #9fd5cb;
  --brand-400: #8ACCC0;
  --brand-500: #63BBAA;
  --brand-600: #4BAA99;
  --brand-700: #3E8E7F;
  --brand-800: #327266;
  --brand-900: #27534B;
  --brand-950: #18342F;
  --brand: #9fd5cb;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F4FAF9;
  --brand-border: #C6E6E0;
  --brand-hover: #86CABD;
  --brand-pressed: #6DBFB0;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #142421;
    --brand-ink: #D4ECE8;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F5FAF9',
        100: '#EBF4F3',
        200: '#D2E9E5',
        300: '#9fd5cb',
        400: '#8ACCC0',
        500: '#63BBAA',
        600: '#4BAA99',
        700: '#3E8E7F',
        800: '#327266',
        900: '#27534B',
        950: '#18342F',
        DEFAULT: '#9fd5cb',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F5FAF9,
  '100': #EBF4F3,
  '200': #D2E9E5,
  '300': #9fd5cb,
  '400': #8ACCC0,
  '500': #63BBAA,
  '600': #4BAA99,
  '700': #3E8E7F,
  '800': #327266,
  '900': #27534B,
  '950': #18342F,
);
$brand-base: #9fd5cb;
$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": "#EBF4F3", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#D2E9E5", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#9fd5cb", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#8ACCC0", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#63BBAA", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#4BAA99", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#3E8E7F", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#327266", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#27534B", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#18342F", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #9fd5cb · 12.85:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 1.63:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 12.85:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #9fd5cb as text scores 1.63:1 on white and 12.85:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #27594F at 4.89:1.

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
#387F72 · 4.72:1
AA on white−37% L
#387F72
The quick fox
#2A5F55 · 7.33:1
AAA on white−46% L
#2A5F55
The quick fox
#9fd5cb · 12.85:1
AA on blackalready passes
#9fd5cb
The quick fox
#9fd5cb · 12.85:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#9fd5cb

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #47A392 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
#9fd5cb on white: 1.63:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#9fd5cb on black: 12.85:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #9fd5cb as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #9fd5cb.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White1.63:1AaAa
Slate 501.56:1AaAa
Slate 1001.49:1AaAa
Slate 2001.33:1AaAa
Slate 3001.10:1AaAa
Slate 4001.57:1AaAa
Slate 5002.91:1AaAa
Slate 6004.64:1AaAa
Slate 7006.34:1AaAa
Slate 8008.95:1AaAa
Slate 90010.93:1AaAa
Black12.85:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #D0CFCB
deuteranopia · #C6C7CC
tritanopia · #90D7D2

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. #9fd5cb 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.

#F5FAF9
#EBF4F3
#D2E9E5
#9fd5cb
#8ACCC0
#63BBAA
#4BAA99
#3E8E7F
#327266
#27534B
#18342F
Base = 300Lightest = 50 · #F5FAF9Darkest = 950 · #18342FText 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 0.014 182.2);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.023 182.2);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.035 182.2);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.045 182.2);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.053 182.2);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.058 182.2);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.058 182.2);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.054 182.2);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.048 182.2);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.040 182.2);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.032 182.2);
}

Colors that work with #9fd5cb

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#C6E6E0
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B9B8C
Captions on the surface
Accent#923A60
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#27594F
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#EDF7F5
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#142421
Dark-mode background
Hover#86CABD
One step down in lightness
Pressed#6DBFB0
Two steps down
Disabled#EFF5F4
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#A7E1D6
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 #9fd5cb

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 #27594F
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #47A392

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
  • Weight27/100
  • 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#D59FA9
Analogous left#9FD5B0
Analogous right#9FC4D5
Split-complement 1#D59FC4
Split-complement 2#D5B09F
Triadic 1#CB9FD5
Triadic 2#D5CB9F
Tetradic#B09FD5
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°169°

#9fd5cb sits at 169°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red62.4%
Green83.5%
Blue79.6%
R · 0–255
159
0x9f
G · 0–255
213
0xd5
B · 0–255
203
0xcb

CMYK percentages

Cyan25.4%
Magenta0.0%
Yellow4.7%
Key (black)16.5%

Total ink coverage is 47%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#9fd5cb text on a black background

contrast 12.85:1

Card sample

#9fd5cb text on a white background

contrast 1.63:1

Card sample

#9fd5cb on grey

1.49:1

#9fd5cb on its own surface

1.55:1

#9fd5cb on its dark surface

9.86:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #9fd5cb;
Background color
Panel with #9fd5cb background
background-color: #9fd5cb;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #9fd5cb;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(159, 213, 203, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(159, 213, 203, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #9fd5cb;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #9fd5cb, #9FBBD5);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #9fd5cb, #9FADD5);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #9fd5cb;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #9fd5cb;
caret-color: #9fd5cb;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #9fd5cb;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #EDF7F5;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #9fd5cb;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#9fd5cb 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #9fd5cb 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(159, 213, 203, 0.5)
rgb(159 213 203 / 50%)
#9fd5cb80
hsl(169 39% 73% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #9fd5cb 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#9fd5cb1a#F5FBFA
20%#9fd5cb33#ECF7F5
40%#9fd5cb66#D9EEEA
60%#9fd5cb99#C5E6E0
80%#9fd5cbcc#B2DDD5

Gradients from #9fd5cb

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, #C9E8E2, #9fd5cb 45%, #27594F);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #9fd5cb, #8AA6CC);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #9fd5cb, #D59FA9);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #DFF1EE 0%, #9fd5cb 45%, #27594F 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%, #C2E4CA 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #B4CDDE 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #27594F 0%, transparent 65%), #9fd5cb;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #9fd5cb

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.

#9fd5cb 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 12.85:1.

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.

#9fd5cb, answered

What color is #9fd5cb?

#9fd5cb is a light soft cyan, closest to Pale Turquoise (ΔE2000 7). It sits at 169° on the hue wheel with 39% saturation and 73% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #9fd5cb?

rgb(159, 213, 203) — 159 red, 213 green and 203 blue out of 255, or 62.4% / 83.5% / 79.6% by channel.

What is #9fd5cb in HSL and HSV?

hsl(169, 39%, 73%) and hsv(169, 25%, 84%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #9fd5cb a light or a dark color?

It is a light color. Relative luminance is 0.5927 and perceived brightness is 77%, so black text on it reaches 12.85:1.

Should I use black or white text on #9fd5cb?

Black. It scores 12.85:1 against #9fd5cb, versus 1.63:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #9fd5cb accessible on a white background?

#9fd5cb on white scores 1.63:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #387F72 to reach 4.5:1, or #2A5F55 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #9fd5cb?

#D59FA9 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #D59FC4 and #D5B09F, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #9fd5cb?

For interface work: #F4FAF9 as the surface, #C6E6E0 for borders, #4B9B8C for secondary text, #923A60 as an accent and #27594F for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #9FD5B0 and #9FC4D5 stays calm, while #D59FA9 is the loudest partner.

What is #9fd5cb in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(25%, 0%, 5%, 17%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #9fd5cb warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 83 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #9FD5B7; nudged cooler, #9DCCD6.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #9fd5cb?

The teal family — its 500 step is #14b8a6, ΔE2000 14.2 away. That is a visible difference, so define #9fd5cb as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #9fd5cb in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#9fd5cb] or text-[#9fd5cb], 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 #9fd5cb with 50% opacity?

rgba(159, 213, 203, 0.5), or #9fd5cb80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #CFEAE5; over black, #506B66.

Is #9fd5cb a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #99CCCC, ΔE2000 4.6 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #9fd5cb 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 #9fd5cb?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #C9E8E2, #9fd5cb 45%, #27594F). For more colour, a short hue run to #8AA6CC keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #9fd5cb in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #9fd5cb at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.