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blue · cool

#9ec6fd

a light, electric blue · cool · closest name: Light Steel Blue

Token name suggestion: Linen Denim

RGB
158, 198, 253
HSL
215°, 96%, 81%
CMYK
38, 22, 0, 1
Luminance
0.5475

#9ec6fd is a light electric blue, 215° on the wheel and 97/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (11.95:1). As text it scores 1.76:1 on white — use #086EFA instead. Nearest name is Light Steel Blue, nearest Tailwind family is sky.

hsl(215 96% 81%)rgb(158 198 253)Base step 300AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #9ec6fd is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#9ec6fd
Hue
215°
blue
Saturation
96%
electric
Lightness
81%
light
Brightness
99%
HSV value
Perceived
76%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.5475
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
97/100 cool
Color family
Blue
Tone
Electric
Best ink
Black
11.95:1
Closest name
Light Steel Blue
ΔE2000 7.1
Chroma
31.3
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.818
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
sky
500 · ΔE 15.3
Web-safe
#99CCFF
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue215° of 360°
Saturation96%
Lightness81%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #9ec6fd.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool97% 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
Red13%
Green74%
Blue13%

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

Every format

HEX#9ec6fd
HEX (8-digit)#9ec6fdff
RGBrgb(158, 198, 253)
RGBArgba(158, 198, 253, 1)
HSLhsl(215, 96%, 81%)
HSV / HSBhsv(215, 38%, 99%)
HWBhwb(215 62% 1%)
CMYKcmyk(38%, 22%, 0%, 1%)
LABlab(78.9 -0.0 -31.3)
LCHlch(78.9 31.3 269.9)
OKLCHoklch(0.818 0.089 256.5)
XYZ (D65)xyz(52.02, 54.75, 100.74)
Decimal10405629
Display P3color(display-p3 0.620 0.776 0.992)
Web-safe#99CCFF

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #9ec6fd;
background-color: #9ec6fd;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #9ec6fd;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#9ec6fd] bg-[#9ec6fd]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #9ec6fd;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.620, green: 0.776, blue: 0.992)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.620, green: 0.776, blue: 0.992, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#9EC6FD</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFF9EC6FD)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFF9EC6FD)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(253, 198, 158)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(158, 198, 253)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(158, 198, 253)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 158, 198, 253)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.6196f, 0.7765f, 0.9922f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{158,198,253}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #9ec6fd 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #9ec6fd 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#03367D, #D3DEEE);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #9ec6fd 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: #F1F6FD;
  --brand-100: #E4EEFC;
  --brand-200: #C1D9FA;
  --brand-300: #9ec6fd;
  --brand-400: #5A9EFC;
  --brand-500: #237EFB;
  --brand-600: #0568F0;
  --brand-700: #0457C8;
  --brand-800: #0345A0;
  --brand-900: #073573;
  --brand-950: #042148;
  --brand: #9ec6fd;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F4F7FA;
  --brand-border: #C0D3ED;
  --brand-hover: #7BB2FC;
  --brand-pressed: #589DFC;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #141B24;
    --brand-ink: #D3DEEE;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F1F6FD',
        100: '#E4EEFC',
        200: '#C1D9FA',
        300: '#9ec6fd',
        400: '#5A9EFC',
        500: '#237EFB',
        600: '#0568F0',
        700: '#0457C8',
        800: '#0345A0',
        900: '#073573',
        950: '#042148',
        DEFAULT: '#9ec6fd',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F1F6FD,
  '100': #E4EEFC,
  '200': #C1D9FA,
  '300': #9ec6fd,
  '400': #5A9EFC,
  '500': #237EFB,
  '600': #0568F0,
  '700': #0457C8,
  '800': #0345A0,
  '900': #073573,
  '950': #042148,
);
$brand-base: #9ec6fd;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F1F6FD", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#E4EEFC", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#C1D9FA", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#9ec6fd", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#5A9EFC", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#237EFB", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#0568F0", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#0457C8", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#0345A0", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#073573", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#042148", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #9ec6fd · 11.95:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 1.76:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 11.95:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #9ec6fd as text scores 1.76:1 on white and 11.95:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #03367D at 6.54:1.

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
#086EFA · 4.54:1
AA on white−30% L
#086EFA
The quick fox
#0451BC · 7.22:1
AAA on white−43% L
#0451BC
The quick fox
#9ec6fd · 11.95:1
AA on blackalready passes
#9ec6fd
The quick fox
#9ec6fd · 11.95:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#9ec6fd

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #4994FB 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
#9ec6fd on white: 1.76:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#9ec6fd on black: 11.95:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #9ec6fd as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #9ec6fd.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White1.76:1AaAa
Slate 501.68:1AaAa
Slate 1001.60:1AaAa
Slate 2001.43:1AaAa
Slate 3001.18:1AaAa
Slate 4001.46:1AaAa
Slate 5002.71:1AaAa
Slate 6004.31:1AaAa
Slate 7005.89:1AaAa
Slate 8008.32:1AaAa
Slate 90010.16:1AaAa
Black11.95:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #B2C8FF
deuteranopia · #A7BFFC
tritanopia · #7ED2D9

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. #9ec6fd 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.

#F1F6FD
#E4EEFC
#C1D9FA
#9ec6fd
#5A9EFC
#237EFB
#0568F0
#0457C8
#0345A0
#073573
#042148
Base = 300Lightest = 50 · #F1F6FDDarkest = 950 · #042148Text step on white = 600
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 0.022 256.5);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.036 256.5);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.053 256.5);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.069 256.5);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.082 256.5);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.089 256.5);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.089 256.5);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.084 256.5);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.075 256.5);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.062 256.5);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.049 256.5);
}

Colors that work with #9ec6fd

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#F4F7FA
Tinted page background
Border#C0D3ED
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B6C9B
Captions on the surface
Accent#CC4400
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#03367D
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#E6F0FE
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#141B24
Dark-mode background
Hover#7BB2FC
One step down in lightness
Pressed#589DFC
Two steps down
Disabled#F3F4F7
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#B0D2FF
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 #9ec6fd

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
  • 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 #03367D
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #4994FB

Meaning and mood

What a colour in this family tends to signal, and how this particular chroma and lightness change the reading.

trustedcalmcompetentcorporate

The default of institutions for a reason: blue is read as stable and safe across nearly every culture that has been surveyed.

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

It is also the most crowded hue on the web. Distinctiveness has to come from your other choices.

Reads as
  • FormalityLow
  • EnergyHigh
  • Weight19/100
  • 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#FDD59E
Analogous left#9EF6FD
Analogous right#A59EFD
Split-complement 1#FDA59E
Split-complement 2#F6FD9E
Triadic 1#FD9EC6
Triadic 2#C6FD9E
Tetradic#FD9EF6
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°215°

#9ec6fd sits at 215°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red62.0%
Green77.6%
Blue99.2%
R · 0–255
158
0x9e
G · 0–255
198
0xc6
B · 0–255
253
0xfd

CMYK percentages

Cyan37.5%
Magenta21.7%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)0.8%

Total ink coverage is 60%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#9ec6fd text on a black background

contrast 11.95:1

Card sample

#9ec6fd text on a white background

contrast 1.76:1

Card sample

#9ec6fd on grey

1.60:1

#9ec6fd on its own surface

1.63:1

#9ec6fd on its dark surface

9.86:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #9ec6fd;
Background color
Panel with #9ec6fd background
background-color: #9ec6fd;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #9ec6fd;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(158, 198, 253, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(158, 198, 253, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #9ec6fd;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #9ec6fd, #B59EFD);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #9ec6fd, #CD9EFD);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #9ec6fd;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #9ec6fd;
caret-color: #9ec6fd;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #9ec6fd;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #E6F0FE;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #9ec6fd;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#9ec6fd 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #9ec6fd 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, 198, 253, 0.5)
rgb(158 198 253 / 50%)
#9ec6fd80
hsl(215 96% 81% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #9ec6fd 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#9ec6fd1a#F5F9FF
20%#9ec6fd33#ECF4FF
40%#9ec6fd66#D8E8FE
60%#9ec6fd99#C5DDFE
80%#9ec6fdcc#B1D1FD

Gradients from #9ec6fd

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, #DAE9FE, #9ec6fd 45%, #03367D);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #9ec6fd, #A980FC);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #9ec6fd, #FDD59E);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #F0F6FF 0%, #9ec6fd 45%, #03367D 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F4F7FA, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #D0FEFE 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #C7BCFE 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #03367D 0%, transparent 65%), #9ec6fd;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #9ec6fd

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.

#9ec6fd in the real world

Where a color in this family tends to land, and the interface roles it is usually asked to play.

Industries
TechnologyFinanceHealthcareEnterprise SaaS
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 11.95:1.

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.

#9ec6fd, answered

What color is #9ec6fd?

#9ec6fd is a light electric blue, closest to Light Steel Blue (ΔE2000 7.1). It sits at 215° on the hue wheel with 96% saturation and 81% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #9ec6fd?

rgb(158, 198, 253) — 158 red, 198 green and 253 blue out of 255, or 62% / 77.6% / 99.2% by channel.

What is #9ec6fd in HSL and HSV?

hsl(215, 96%, 81%) and hsv(215, 38%, 99%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #9ec6fd a light or a dark color?

It is a light color. Relative luminance is 0.5475 and perceived brightness is 76%, so black text on it reaches 11.95:1.

Should I use black or white text on #9ec6fd?

Black. It scores 11.95:1 against #9ec6fd, versus 1.76:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #9ec6fd accessible on a white background?

#9ec6fd on white scores 1.76:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #086EFA to reach 4.5:1, or #0451BC for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #9ec6fd?

#FDD59E sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #FDA59E and #F6FD9E, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #9ec6fd?

For interface work: #F4F7FA as the surface, #C0D3ED for borders, #4B6C9B for secondary text, #CC4400 as an accent and #03367D for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #9EF6FD and #A59EFD stays calm, while #FDD59E is the loudest partner.

What is #9ec6fd in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(38%, 22%, 0%, 1%). 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 #9ec6fd warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 97 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #9EA3FD; nudged cooler, #84BBFE.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #9ec6fd?

The sky family — its 500 step is #0ea5e9, ΔE2000 15.3 away. That is a visible difference, so define #9ec6fd as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #9ec6fd in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#9ec6fd] or text-[#9ec6fd], 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 #9ec6fd with 50% opacity?

rgba(158, 198, 253, 0.5), or #9ec6fd80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #CFE3FE; over black, #4F637F.

Is #9ec6fd a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #99CCFF, ΔE2000 3 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #9ec6fd mean?

As a blue, it reads trusted, calm, competent. The default of institutions for a reason: blue is read as stable and safe across nearly every culture that has been surveyed. At this chroma the effect is amplified — it will dominate whatever sits beside it.

What gradient works with #9ec6fd?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #DAE9FE, #9ec6fd 45%, #03367D). For more colour, a short hue run to #A980FC keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #9ec6fd in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #9ec6fd at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.