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cyan · cool

#a3f8eb

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

Token name suggestion: Meadow Lagoon

RGB
163, 248, 235
HSL
171°, 86%, 81%
CMYK
34, 0, 5, 3
Luminance
0.8092

#a3f8eb is a light electric cyan, 171° on the wheel and 84/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (17.18:1). As text it scores 1.22:1 on white — use #0A8370 instead. Nearest name is Pale Turquoise, nearest Tailwind family is teal.

hsl(171 86% 81%)rgb(163 248 235)Base step 300AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #a3f8eb is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#a3f8eb
Hue
171°
cyan
Saturation
86%
electric
Lightness
81%
light
Brightness
97%
HSV value
Perceived
88%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.8092
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
84/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Electric
Best ink
Black
17.18:1
Closest name
Pale Turquoise
ΔE2000 6.1
Chroma
28.5
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.921
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
teal
500 · ΔE 17.9
Web-safe
#99FFFF
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue171° of 360°
Saturation86%
Lightness81%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #a3f8eb.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool84% 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%
Green83%
Blue7%

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

Every format

HEX#a3f8eb
HEX (8-digit)#a3f8ebff
RGBrgb(163, 248, 235)
RGBArgba(163, 248, 235, 1)
HSLhsl(171, 86%, 81%)
HSV / HSBhsv(171, 34%, 97%)
HWBhwb(171 64% 3%)
CMYKcmyk(34%, 0%, 5%, 3%)
LABlab(92.1 -28.4 -1.9)
LCHlch(92.1 28.5 183.8)
OKLCHoklch(0.921 0.084 183.8)
XYZ (D65)xyz(63.66, 80.92, 90.84)
Decimal10746091
Display P3color(display-p3 0.639 0.973 0.922)
Web-safe#99FFFF

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #a3f8eb;
background-color: #a3f8eb;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #a3f8eb;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#a3f8eb] bg-[#a3f8eb]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #a3f8eb;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.639, green: 0.973, blue: 0.922)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.639, green: 0.973, blue: 0.922, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#A3F8EB</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFA3F8EB)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFA3F8EB)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(235, 248, 163)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(163, 248, 235)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(163, 248, 235)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 163, 248, 235)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.6392f, 0.9725f, 0.9216f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{163,248,235}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #a3f8eb 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #a3f8eb 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#097766, #D3EEEA);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #a3f8eb 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: #F2FDFB;
  --brand-100: #E5FAF7;
  --brand-200: #C5F7EF;
  --brand-300: #a3f8eb;
  --brand-400: #63F3DD;
  --brand-500: #2EEFD2;
  --brand-600: #11E4C3;
  --brand-700: #0EBEA3;
  --brand-800: #0C9882;
  --brand-900: #0D6E5F;
  --brand-950: #08443B;
  --brand: #a3f8eb;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F4FAF9;
  --brand-border: #C0EDE6;
  --brand-hover: #82F6E4;
  --brand-pressed: #61F3DD;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #142422;
    --brand-ink: #D3EEEA;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F2FDFB',
        100: '#E5FAF7',
        200: '#C5F7EF',
        300: '#a3f8eb',
        400: '#63F3DD',
        500: '#2EEFD2',
        600: '#11E4C3',
        700: '#0EBEA3',
        800: '#0C9882',
        900: '#0D6E5F',
        950: '#08443B',
        DEFAULT: '#a3f8eb',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F2FDFB,
  '100': #E5FAF7,
  '200': #C5F7EF,
  '300': #a3f8eb,
  '400': #63F3DD,
  '500': #2EEFD2,
  '600': #11E4C3,
  '700': #0EBEA3,
  '800': #0C9882,
  '900': #0D6E5F,
  '950': #08443B,
);
$brand-base: #a3f8eb;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F2FDFB", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#E5FAF7", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#C5F7EF", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#a3f8eb", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#63F3DD", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#2EEFD2", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#11E4C3", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#0EBEA3", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#0C9882", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#0D6E5F", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#08443B", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #a3f8eb · 17.18:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 1.22:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 17.18:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #a3f8eb as text scores 1.22:1 on white and 17.18:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #097766 at 4.47:1.

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
#0A8370 · 4.67:1
AA on white−53% L
#0A8370
The quick fox
#076254 · 7.28:1
AAA on white−60% L
#076254
The quick fox
#a3f8eb · 17.18:1
AA on blackalready passes
#a3f8eb
The quick fox
#a3f8eb · 17.18:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#a3f8eb

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #0CA48D 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
#a3f8eb on white: 1.22:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#a3f8eb on black: 17.18:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #a3f8eb as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #a3f8eb.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White1.22:1AaAa
Slate 501.17:1AaAa
Slate 1001.12:1AaAa
Slate 2001.01:1AaAa
Slate 3001.21:1AaAa
Slate 4002.10:1AaAa
Slate 5003.89:1AaAa
Slate 6006.20:1AaAa
Slate 7008.47:1AaAa
Slate 80011.97:1AaAa
Slate 90014.61:1AaAa
Black17.18:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #F0EFEB
deuteranopia · #E1E4EC
tritanopia · #86FBF4

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. #a3f8eb 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.

#F2FDFB
#E5FAF7
#C5F7EF
#a3f8eb
#63F3DD
#2EEFD2
#11E4C3
#0EBEA3
#0C9882
#0D6E5F
#08443B
Base = 300Lightest = 50 · #F2FDFBDarkest = 950 · #08443BText 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 0.021 183.8);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.034 183.8);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.051 183.8);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.066 183.8);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.078 183.8);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.084 183.8);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.084 183.8);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.079 183.8);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.071 183.8);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.059 183.8);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.046 183.8);
}

Colors that work with #a3f8eb

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#C0EDE6
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B9B8F
Captions on the surface
Accent#C20A55
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#097766
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#E7FDFA
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#142422
Dark-mode background
Hover#82F6E4
One step down in lightness
Pressed#61F3DD
Two steps down
Disabled#F3F7F6
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#B2FDF2
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 #a3f8eb

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 #097766
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #0CA48D

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#F8A3B0
Analogous left#A3F8C0
Analogous right#A3DBF8
Split-complement 1#F8A3DB
Split-complement 2#F8C0A3
Triadic 1#EBA3F8
Triadic 2#F8EBA3
Tetradic#C0A3F8
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°171°

#a3f8eb sits at 171°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red63.9%
Green97.3%
Blue92.2%
R · 0–255
163
0xa3
G · 0–255
248
0xf8
B · 0–255
235
0xeb

CMYK percentages

Cyan34.3%
Magenta0.0%
Yellow5.2%
Key (black)2.7%

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

Color previews

#a3f8eb text on a black background

contrast 17.18:1

Card sample

#a3f8eb text on a white background

contrast 1.22:1

Card sample

#a3f8eb on grey

1.12:1

#a3f8eb on its own surface

1.16:1

#a3f8eb on its dark surface

13.17:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #a3f8eb;
Background color
Panel with #a3f8eb background
background-color: #a3f8eb;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #a3f8eb;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(163, 248, 235, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(163, 248, 235, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #a3f8eb;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #a3f8eb, #A3CCF8);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #a3f8eb, #A3B7F8);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #a3f8eb;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #a3f8eb;
caret-color: #a3f8eb;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #a3f8eb;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #E7FDFA;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #a3f8eb;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#a3f8eb 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #a3f8eb 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(163, 248, 235, 0.5)
rgb(163 248 235 / 50%)
#a3f8eb80
hsl(171 86% 81% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #a3f8eb 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#a3f8eb1a#F6FEFD
20%#a3f8eb33#EDFEFB
40%#a3f8eb66#DAFCF7
60%#a3f8eb99#C8FBF3
80%#a3f8ebcc#B5F9EF

Gradients from #a3f8eb

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, #DCFCF7, #a3f8eb 45%, #097766);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #a3f8eb, #87B3F6);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #a3f8eb, #F8A3B0);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #F1FEFC 0%, #a3f8eb 45%, #097766 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%, #D2FCDD 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #BFE1FA 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #097766 0%, transparent 65%), #a3f8eb;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #a3f8eb

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.

#a3f8eb 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 17.18:1.

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.

#a3f8eb, answered

What color is #a3f8eb?

#a3f8eb is a light electric cyan, closest to Pale Turquoise (ΔE2000 6.1). It sits at 171° on the hue wheel with 86% saturation and 81% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #a3f8eb?

rgb(163, 248, 235) — 163 red, 248 green and 235 blue out of 255, or 63.9% / 97.3% / 92.2% by channel.

What is #a3f8eb in HSL and HSV?

hsl(171, 86%, 81%) and hsv(171, 34%, 97%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #a3f8eb a light or a dark color?

It is a light color. Relative luminance is 0.8092 and perceived brightness is 88%, so black text on it reaches 17.18:1.

Should I use black or white text on #a3f8eb?

Black. It scores 17.18:1 against #a3f8eb, versus 1.22:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #a3f8eb accessible on a white background?

#a3f8eb on white scores 1.22:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #0A8370 to reach 4.5:1, or #076254 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #a3f8eb?

#F8A3B0 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #F8A3DB and #F8C0A3, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #a3f8eb?

For interface work: #F4FAF9 as the surface, #C0EDE6 for borders, #4B9B8F for secondary text, #C20A55 as an accent and #097766 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #A3F8C0 and #A3DBF8 stays calm, while #F8A3B0 is the loudest partner.

What is #a3f8eb in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(34%, 0%, 5%, 3%). 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 #a3f8eb warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 84 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #A3F8CC; nudged cooler, #A2E6F9.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #a3f8eb?

The teal family — its 500 step is #14b8a6, ΔE2000 17.9 away. That is a visible difference, so define #a3f8eb as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #a3f8eb in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#a3f8eb] or text-[#a3f8eb], 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 #a3f8eb with 50% opacity?

rgba(163, 248, 235, 0.5), or #a3f8eb80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #D1FCF5; over black, #527C76.

Is #a3f8eb a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #99FFFF, ΔE2000 5.2 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #a3f8eb 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 #a3f8eb?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #DCFCF7, #a3f8eb 45%, #097766). For more colour, a short hue run to #87B3F6 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #a3f8eb in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #a3f8eb at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.