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cyan · cool

#a1fdfb

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

Token name suggestion: Meadow Glacier

RGB
161, 253, 251
HSL
179°, 96%, 81%
CMYK
36, 0, 1, 1
Luminance
0.8479

#a1fdfb is a light electric cyan, 179° on the wheel and 87/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (17.96:1). As text it scores 1.17:1 on white — use #038380 instead. Nearest name is Pale Turquoise, nearest Tailwind family is teal.

hsl(179 96% 81%)rgb(161 253 251)Base step 300AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #a1fdfb is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#a1fdfb
Hue
179°
cyan
Saturation
96%
electric
Lightness
81%
light
Brightness
99%
HSV value
Perceived
90%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.8479
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
87/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Electric
Best ink
Black
17.96:1
Closest name
Pale Turquoise
ΔE2000 4.8
Chroma
28.8
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.936
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
teal
500 · ΔE 19.6
Web-safe
#99FFFF
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue179° 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 #a1fdfb.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool87% 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%
Green83%
Blue8%

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

Every format

HEX#a1fdfb
HEX (8-digit)#a1fdfbff
RGBrgb(161, 253, 251)
RGBArgba(161, 253, 251, 1)
HSLhsl(179, 96%, 81%)
HSV / HSBhsv(179, 36%, 99%)
HWBhwb(179 63% 1%)
CMYKcmyk(36%, 0%, 1%, 1%)
LABlab(93.8 -27.7 -7.7)
LCHlch(93.8 28.8 195.5)
OKLCHoklch(0.936 0.088 194.0)
XYZ (D65)xyz(67.23, 84.79, 104.07)
Decimal10616315
Display P3color(display-p3 0.631 0.992 0.984)
Web-safe#99FFFF

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #a1fdfb;
background-color: #a1fdfb;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #a1fdfb;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#a1fdfb] bg-[#a1fdfb]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #a1fdfb;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.631, green: 0.992, blue: 0.984)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.631, green: 0.992, blue: 0.984, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#A1FDFB</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFA1FDFB)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFA1FDFB)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(251, 253, 161)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(161, 253, 251)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(161, 253, 251)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 161, 253, 251)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.6314f, 0.9922f, 0.9843f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{161,253,251}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #a1fdfb 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #a1fdfb 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#037D7A, #D3EEEE);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #a1fdfb 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: #F1FDFD;
  --brand-100: #E4FCFB;
  --brand-200: #C1FAF9;
  --brand-300: #a1fdfb;
  --brand-400: #5AFBF8;
  --brand-500: #23FAF6;
  --brand-600: #05F0EB;
  --brand-700: #04C8C3;
  --brand-800: #03A09C;
  --brand-900: #077371;
  --brand-950: #054847;
  --brand: #a1fdfb;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F4FAFA;
  --brand-border: #C0EDEC;
  --brand-hover: #7EFCFA;
  --brand-pressed: #5BFBF8;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #142424;
    --brand-ink: #D3EEEE;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F1FDFD',
        100: '#E4FCFB',
        200: '#C1FAF9',
        300: '#a1fdfb',
        400: '#5AFBF8',
        500: '#23FAF6',
        600: '#05F0EB',
        700: '#04C8C3',
        800: '#03A09C',
        900: '#077371',
        950: '#054847',
        DEFAULT: '#a1fdfb',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F1FDFD,
  '100': #E4FCFB,
  '200': #C1FAF9,
  '300': #a1fdfb,
  '400': #5AFBF8,
  '500': #23FAF6,
  '600': #05F0EB,
  '700': #04C8C3,
  '800': #03A09C,
  '900': #077371,
  '950': #054847,
);
$brand-base: #a1fdfb;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F1FDFD", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#E4FCFB", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#C1FAF9", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#a1fdfb", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#5AFBF8", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#23FAF6", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#05F0EB", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#04C8C3", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#03A09C", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#077371", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#054847", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #a1fdfb · 17.96:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 1.17:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 17.96:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #a1fdfb as text scores 1.17:1 on white and 17.96:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #037D7A at 4.26:1.

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
#038380 · 4.60:1
AA on white−55% L
#038380
The quick fox
#02605E · 7.40:1
AAA on white−62% L
#02605E
The quick fox
#a1fdfb · 17.96:1
AA on blackalready passes
#a1fdfb
The quick fox
#a1fdfb · 17.96:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#a1fdfb

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #04A6A2 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
#a1fdfb on white: 1.17:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#a1fdfb on black: 17.96:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #a1fdfb as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #a1fdfb.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White1.17:1AaAa
Slate 501.12:1AaAa
Slate 1001.07:1AaAa
Slate 2001.05:1AaAa
Slate 3001.27:1AaAa
Slate 4002.19:1AaAa
Slate 5004.07:1AaAa
Slate 6006.48:1AaAa
Slate 7008.86:1AaAa
Slate 80012.51:1AaAa
Slate 90015.27:1AaAa
Black17.96:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #F2F4FB
deuteranopia · #E1E8FC
tritanopia · #7BFFFC

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. #a1fdfb 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.

#F1FDFD
#E4FCFB
#C1FAF9
#a1fdfb
#5AFBF8
#23FAF6
#05F0EB
#04C8C3
#03A09C
#077371
#054847
Base = 300Lightest = 50 · #F1FDFDDarkest = 950 · #054847Text 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 0.022 194.0);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.035 194.0);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.053 194.0);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.069 194.0);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.081 194.0);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.088 194.0);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.088 194.0);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.083 194.0);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.074 194.0);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.062 194.0);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.048 194.0);
}

Colors that work with #a1fdfb

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#C0EDEC
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B9B99
Captions on the surface
Accent#CC0037
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#037D7A
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#E6FEFE
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#142424
Dark-mode background
Hover#7EFCFA
One step down in lightness
Pressed#5BFBF8
Two steps down
Disabled#F3F7F7
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#B4FFFD
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 #a1fdfb

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 #037D7A
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #04A6A2

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
  • 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#FDA1A3
Analogous left#A1FDCD
Analogous right#A1D1FD
Split-complement 1#FDA1D1
Split-complement 2#FDCDA1
Triadic 1#FBA1FD
Triadic 2#FDFBA1
Tetradic#CDA1FD
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°179°

#a1fdfb sits at 179°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red63.1%
Green99.2%
Blue98.4%
R · 0–255
161
0xa1
G · 0–255
253
0xfd
B · 0–255
251
0xfb

CMYK percentages

Cyan36.4%
Magenta0.0%
Yellow0.8%
Key (black)0.8%

Total ink coverage is 38%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#a1fdfb text on a black background

contrast 17.96:1

Card sample

#a1fdfb text on a white background

contrast 1.17:1

Card sample

#a1fdfb on grey

1.07:1

#a1fdfb on its own surface

1.11:1

#a1fdfb on its dark surface

13.73:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #a1fdfb;
Background color
Panel with #a1fdfb background
background-color: #a1fdfb;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #a1fdfb;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(161, 253, 251, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(161, 253, 251, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #a1fdfb;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #a1fdfb, #A1C2FD);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #a1fdfb, #A1ABFD);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #a1fdfb;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #a1fdfb;
caret-color: #a1fdfb;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #a1fdfb;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #E6FEFE;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #a1fdfb;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#a1fdfb 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #a1fdfb 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(161, 253, 251, 0.5)
rgb(161 253 251 / 50%)
#a1fdfb80
hsl(179 96% 81% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #a1fdfb 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#a1fdfb1a#F6FFFF
20%#a1fdfb33#ECFFFE
40%#a1fdfb66#D9FEFD
60%#a1fdfb99#C7FEFD
80%#a1fdfbcc#B4FDFC

Gradients from #a1fdfb

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, #DDFEFE, #a1fdfb 45%, #037D7A);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #a1fdfb, #83A4FC);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #a1fdfb, #FDA1A3);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #F0FFFE 0%, #a1fdfb 45%, #037D7A 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%, #D3FEE4 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #BFDBFE 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #037D7A 0%, transparent 65%), #a1fdfb;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #a1fdfb

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.

#a1fdfb 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 17.96:1.

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.

#a1fdfb, answered

What color is #a1fdfb?

#a1fdfb is a light electric cyan, closest to Pale Turquoise (ΔE2000 4.8). It sits at 179° on the hue wheel with 96% saturation and 81% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #a1fdfb?

rgb(161, 253, 251) — 161 red, 253 green and 251 blue out of 255, or 63.1% / 99.2% / 98.4% by channel.

What is #a1fdfb in HSL and HSV?

hsl(179, 96%, 81%) and hsv(179, 36%, 99%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #a1fdfb a light or a dark color?

It is a light color. Relative luminance is 0.8479 and perceived brightness is 90%, so black text on it reaches 17.96:1.

Should I use black or white text on #a1fdfb?

Black. It scores 17.96:1 against #a1fdfb, versus 1.17:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #a1fdfb accessible on a white background?

#a1fdfb on white scores 1.17:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #038380 to reach 4.5:1, or #02605E for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #a1fdfb?

#FDA1A3 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #FDA1D1 and #FDCDA1, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #a1fdfb?

For interface work: #F4FAFA as the surface, #C0EDEC for borders, #4B9B99 for secondary text, #CC0037 as an accent and #037D7A for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #A1FDCD and #A1D1FD stays calm, while #FDA1A3 is the loudest partner.

What is #a1fdfb in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(36%, 0%, 1%, 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 #a1fdfb warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 87 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #A1FDD9; nudged cooler, #A0DEFE.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #a1fdfb?

The teal family — its 500 step is #14b8a6, ΔE2000 19.6 away. That is a visible difference, so define #a1fdfb as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #a1fdfb in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#a1fdfb] or text-[#a1fdfb], 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 #a1fdfb with 50% opacity?

rgba(161, 253, 251, 0.5), or #a1fdfb80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #D0FEFD; over black, #517F7E.

Is #a1fdfb a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #99FFFF, ΔE2000 1.2 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #a1fdfb 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 #a1fdfb?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #DDFEFE, #a1fdfb 45%, #037D7A). For more colour, a short hue run to #83A4FC keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #a1fdfb in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #a1fdfb at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.