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cyan · cool

#a5dace

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

Token name suggestion: Drift Reef

RGB
165, 218, 206
HSL
166°, 42%, 75%
CMYK
24, 0, 6, 15
Luminance
0.6260

#a5dace is a light soft cyan, 166° on the wheel and 82/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (13.52:1). As text it scores 1.55:1 on white — use #368271 instead. Nearest name is Pale Turquoise, nearest Tailwind family is teal.

hsl(166 42% 75%)rgb(165 218 206)Base step 300AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #a5dace is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#a5dace
Hue
166°
cyan
Saturation
42%
soft
Lightness
75%
light
Brightness
85%
HSV value
Perceived
79%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.6260
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
82/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Soft
Best ink
Black
13.52:1
Closest name
Pale Turquoise
ΔE2000 6.6
Chroma
19.5
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.848
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
teal
500 · ΔE 15.1
Web-safe
#99CCCC
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue166° of 360°
Saturation42%
Lightness75%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #a5dace.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool82% 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%
Green80%
Blue7%

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

Every format

HEX#a5dace
HEX (8-digit)#a5daceff
RGBrgb(165, 218, 206)
RGBArgba(165, 218, 206, 1)
HSLhsl(166, 42%, 75%)
HSV / HSBhsv(166, 24%, 85%)
HWBhwb(166 65% 15%)
CMYKcmyk(24%, 0%, 6%, 15%)
LABlab(83.2 -19.5 0.3)
LCHlch(83.2 19.5 179.0)
OKLCHoklch(0.848 0.057 179.4)
XYZ (D65)xyz(51.73, 62.60, 67.74)
Decimal10869454
Display P3color(display-p3 0.647 0.855 0.808)
Web-safe#99CCCC

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #a5dace;
background-color: #a5dace;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #a5dace;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#a5dace] bg-[#a5dace]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #a5dace;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.647, green: 0.855, blue: 0.808)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.647, green: 0.855, blue: 0.808, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#A5DACE</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFA5DACE)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFA5DACE)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(206, 218, 165)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(165, 218, 206)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(165, 218, 206)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 165, 218, 206)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.6471f, 0.8549f, 0.8078f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{165,218,206}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #a5dace 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #a5dace 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#255A4E, #D4EDE7);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #a5dace 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: #EBF5F2;
  --brand-200: #D2EAE5;
  --brand-300: #a5dace;
  --brand-400: #88CEBE;
  --brand-500: #60BEA8;
  --brand-600: #47AD96;
  --brand-700: #3B917D;
  --brand-800: #307464;
  --brand-900: #26554A;
  --brand-950: #18352E;
  --brand: #a5dace;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F4FAF9;
  --brand-border: #C5E7E0;
  --brand-hover: #8CD0C0;
  --brand-pressed: #72C5B2;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #142421;
    --brand-ink: #D4EDE7;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F5FAF9',
        100: '#EBF5F2',
        200: '#D2EAE5',
        300: '#a5dace',
        400: '#88CEBE',
        500: '#60BEA8',
        600: '#47AD96',
        700: '#3B917D',
        800: '#307464',
        900: '#26554A',
        950: '#18352E',
        DEFAULT: '#a5dace',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F5FAF9,
  '100': #EBF5F2,
  '200': #D2EAE5,
  '300': #a5dace,
  '400': #88CEBE,
  '500': #60BEA8,
  '600': #47AD96,
  '700': #3B917D,
  '800': #307464,
  '900': #26554A,
  '950': #18352E,
);
$brand-base: #a5dace;
$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": "#EBF5F2", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#D2EAE5", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#a5dace", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#88CEBE", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#60BEA8", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#47AD96", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#3B917D", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#307464", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#26554A", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#18352E", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #a5dace · 13.52:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 1.55:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 13.52:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #a5dace as text scores 1.55:1 on white and 13.52:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #255A4E at 5.10:1.

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
#368271 · 4.58:1
AA on white−39% L
#368271
The quick fox
#286255 · 7.07:1
AAA on white−48% L
#286255
The quick fox
#a5dace · 13.52:1
AA on blackalready passes
#a5dace
The quick fox
#a5dace · 13.52:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#a5dace

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #43A38D 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
#a5dace on white: 1.55:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#a5dace on black: 13.52:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #a5dace as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #a5dace.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White1.55:1AaAa
Slate 501.48:1AaAa
Slate 1001.42:1AaAa
Slate 2001.26:1AaAa
Slate 3001.05:1AaAa
Slate 4001.65:1AaAa
Slate 5003.06:1AaAa
Slate 6004.88:1AaAa
Slate 7006.67:1AaAa
Slate 8009.42:1AaAa
Slate 90011.49:1AaAa
Black13.52:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #D5D4CE
deuteranopia · #CCCCCF
tritanopia · #97DCD6

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. #a5dace 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
#EBF5F2
#D2EAE5
#a5dace
#88CEBE
#60BEA8
#47AD96
#3B917D
#307464
#26554A
#18352E
Base = 300Lightest = 50 · #F5FAF9Darkest = 950 · #18352EText 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 0.014 179.4);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.023 179.4);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.034 179.4);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.045 179.4);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.053 179.4);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.057 179.4);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.057 179.4);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.054 179.4);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.048 179.4);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.040 179.4);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.031 179.4);
}

Colors that work with #a5dace

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#C5E7E0
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B9B89
Captions on the surface
Accent#953764
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#255A4E
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#EDF8F5
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#142421
Dark-mode background
Hover#8CD0C0
One step down in lightness
Pressed#72C5B2
Two steps down
Disabled#F3F7F6
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#AEE5D9
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 #a5dace

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 #255A4E
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #43A38D

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
  • Weight25/100
  • 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#DAA5B1
Analogous left#A5DAB4
Analogous right#A5CCDA
Split-complement 1#DAA5CC
Split-complement 2#DAB4A5
Triadic 1#CEA5DA
Triadic 2#DACEA5
Tetradic#B4A5DA
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°166°

#a5dace sits at 166°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red64.7%
Green85.5%
Blue80.8%
R · 0–255
165
0xa5
G · 0–255
218
0xda
B · 0–255
206
0xce

CMYK percentages

Cyan24.3%
Magenta0.0%
Yellow5.5%
Key (black)14.5%

Total ink coverage is 44%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#a5dace text on a black background

contrast 13.52:1

Card sample

#a5dace text on a white background

contrast 1.55:1

Card sample

#a5dace on grey

1.42:1

#a5dace on its own surface

1.47:1

#a5dace on its dark surface

10.37:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #a5dace;
Background color
Panel with #a5dace background
background-color: #a5dace;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #a5dace;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(165, 218, 206, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(165, 218, 206, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #a5dace;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #a5dace, #A5C3DA);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #a5dace, #A5B5DA);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #a5dace;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #a5dace;
caret-color: #a5dace;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #a5dace;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #EDF8F5;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #a5dace;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#a5dace 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #a5dace 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(165, 218, 206, 0.5)
rgb(165 218 206 / 50%)
#a5dace80
hsl(166 42% 75% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #a5dace 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#a5dace1a#F6FBFA
20%#a5dace33#EDF8F5
40%#a5dace66#DBF0EB
60%#a5dace99#C9E9E2
80%#a5dacecc#B7E1D8

Gradients from #a5dace

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, #D0ECE6, #a5dace 45%, #255A4E);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #a5dace, #8FAFD1);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #a5dace, #DAA5B1);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #E6F5F1 0%, #a5dace 45%, #255A4E 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%, #C9E9CF 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #BBD5E3 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #255A4E 0%, transparent 65%), #a5dace;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #a5dace

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.

#a5dace 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 13.52:1.

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.

#a5dace, answered

What color is #a5dace?

#a5dace is a light soft cyan, closest to Pale Turquoise (ΔE2000 6.6). It sits at 166° on the hue wheel with 42% saturation and 75% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #a5dace?

rgb(165, 218, 206) — 165 red, 218 green and 206 blue out of 255, or 64.7% / 85.5% / 80.8% by channel.

What is #a5dace in HSL and HSV?

hsl(166, 42%, 75%) and hsv(166, 24%, 85%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #a5dace a light or a dark color?

It is a light color. Relative luminance is 0.6260 and perceived brightness is 79%, so black text on it reaches 13.52:1.

Should I use black or white text on #a5dace?

Black. It scores 13.52:1 against #a5dace, versus 1.55:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #a5dace accessible on a white background?

#a5dace on white scores 1.55:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #368271 to reach 4.5:1, or #286255 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #a5dace?

#DAA5B1 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #DAA5CC and #DAB4A5, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #a5dace?

For interface work: #F4FAF9 as the surface, #C5E7E0 for borders, #4B9B89 for secondary text, #953764 as an accent and #255A4E for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #A5DAB4 and #A5CCDA stays calm, while #DAA5B1 is the loudest partner.

What is #a5dace in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(24%, 0%, 6%, 15%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #a5dace warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 82 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #A5DABB; nudged cooler, #A4D3DB.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #a5dace?

The teal family — its 500 step is #14b8a6, ΔE2000 15.1 away. That is a visible difference, so define #a5dace as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #a5dace in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#a5dace] or text-[#a5dace], 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 #a5dace with 50% opacity?

rgba(165, 218, 206, 0.5), or #a5dace80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #D2EDE7; over black, #536D67.

Is #a5dace a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #99CCCC, ΔE2000 5.8 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #a5dace 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 #a5dace?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #D0ECE6, #a5dace 45%, #255A4E). For more colour, a short hue run to #8FAFD1 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #a5dace in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #a5dace at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.