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cyan · cool

#a5dcd3

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

Token name suggestion: Meadow Lagoon

RGB
165, 220, 211
HSL
170°, 44%, 76%
CMYK
25, 0, 4, 14
Luminance
0.6389

#a5dcd3 is a light soft cyan, 170° on the wheel and 83/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (13.78:1). As text it scores 1.52:1 on white — use #338275 instead. Nearest name is Pale Turquoise, nearest Tailwind family is teal.

hsl(170 44% 76%)rgb(165 220 211)Base step 300AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #a5dcd3 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#a5dcd3
Hue
170°
cyan
Saturation
44%
soft
Lightness
76%
light
Brightness
86%
HSV value
Perceived
80%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.6389
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
83/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Soft
Best ink
Black
13.78:1
Closest name
Pale Turquoise
ΔE2000 5.4
Chroma
19.5
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.854
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
teal
500 · ΔE 15.4
Web-safe
#99CCCC
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue170° of 360°
Saturation44%
Lightness76%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #a5dcd3.

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
Red13%
Green80%
Blue7%

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

Every format

HEX#a5dcd3
HEX (8-digit)#a5dcd3ff
RGBrgb(165, 220, 211)
RGBArgba(165, 220, 211, 1)
HSLhsl(170, 44%, 76%)
HSV / HSBhsv(170, 25%, 86%)
HWBhwb(170 65% 14%)
CMYKcmyk(25%, 0%, 4%, 14%)
LABlab(83.9 -19.4 -1.3)
LCHlch(83.9 19.5 183.9)
OKLCHoklch(0.854 0.058 183.8)
XYZ (D65)xyz(52.86, 63.89, 71.16)
Decimal10869971
Display P3color(display-p3 0.647 0.863 0.827)
Web-safe#99CCCC

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #a5dcd3;
background-color: #a5dcd3;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #a5dcd3;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#a5dcd3] bg-[#a5dcd3]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #a5dcd3;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.647, green: 0.863, blue: 0.827)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.647, green: 0.863, blue: 0.827, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#A5DCD3</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFA5DCD3)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFA5DCD3)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(211, 220, 165)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(165, 220, 211)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(165, 220, 211)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 165, 220, 211)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.6471f, 0.8627f, 0.8275f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{165,220,211}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #a5dcd3 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #a5dcd3 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#245C53, #D3EEE9);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #a5dcd3 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: #EAF5F3;
  --brand-200: #D1EBE6;
  --brand-300: #a5dcd3;
  --brand-400: #86D0C4;
  --brand-500: #5DC0B0;
  --brand-600: #45B09F;
  --brand-700: #399384;
  --brand-800: #2E766A;
  --brand-900: #24564E;
  --brand-950: #173631;
  --brand: #a5dcd3;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F4FAF9;
  --brand-border: #C4E8E2;
  --brand-hover: #8BD2C6;
  --brand-pressed: #72C8BA;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #142422;
    --brand-ink: #D3EEE9;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F5FAF9',
        100: '#EAF5F3',
        200: '#D1EBE6',
        300: '#a5dcd3',
        400: '#86D0C4',
        500: '#5DC0B0',
        600: '#45B09F',
        700: '#399384',
        800: '#2E766A',
        900: '#24564E',
        950: '#173631',
        DEFAULT: '#a5dcd3',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F5FAF9,
  '100': #EAF5F3,
  '200': #D1EBE6,
  '300': #a5dcd3,
  '400': #86D0C4,
  '500': #5DC0B0,
  '600': #45B09F,
  '700': #399384,
  '800': #2E766A,
  '900': #24564E,
  '950': #173631,
);
$brand-base: #a5dcd3;
$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": "#EAF5F3", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#D1EBE6", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#a5dcd3", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#86D0C4", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#5DC0B0", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#45B09F", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#399384", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#2E766A", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#24564E", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#173631", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #a5dcd3 · 13.78:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 1.52:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 13.78:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #a5dcd3 as text scores 1.52:1 on white and 13.78:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #245C53 at 5.05:1.

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
#338275 · 4.57:1
AA on white−40% L
#338275
The quick fox
#266158 · 7.16:1
AAA on white−49% L
#266158
The quick fox
#a5dcd3 · 13.78:1
AA on blackalready passes
#a5dcd3
The quick fox
#a5dcd3 · 13.78:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#a5dcd3

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #40A393 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
#a5dcd3 on white: 1.52:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#a5dcd3 on black: 13.78:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #a5dcd3 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #a5dcd3.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White1.52:1AaAa
Slate 501.46:1AaAa
Slate 1001.39:1AaAa
Slate 2001.24:1AaAa
Slate 3001.03:1AaAa
Slate 4001.68:1AaAa
Slate 5003.12:1AaAa
Slate 6004.97:1AaAa
Slate 7006.79:1AaAa
Slate 8009.60:1AaAa
Slate 90011.71:1AaAa
Black13.78:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #D7D6D3
deuteranopia · #CCCED4
tritanopia · #95DED9

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. #a5dcd3 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
#EAF5F3
#D1EBE6
#a5dcd3
#86D0C4
#5DC0B0
#45B09F
#399384
#2E766A
#24564E
#173631
Base = 300Lightest = 50 · #F5FAF9Darkest = 950 · #173631Text 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 0.014 183.8);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.023 183.8);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.035 183.8);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.045 183.8);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.053 183.8);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.058 183.8);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.058 183.8);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.054 183.8);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.049 183.8);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.040 183.8);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.032 183.8);
}

Colors that work with #a5dcd3

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#C4E8E2
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B9B8E
Captions on the surface
Accent#97355C
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#245C53
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#EDF8F6
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#142422
Dark-mode background
Hover#8BD2C6
One step down in lightness
Pressed#72C8BA
Two steps down
Disabled#F3F7F6
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#AEE7DE
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 #a5dcd3

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 #245C53
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #40A393

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#DCA5AE
Analogous left#A5DCB8
Analogous right#A5CADC
Split-complement 1#DCA5CA
Split-complement 2#DCB8A5
Triadic 1#D3A5DC
Triadic 2#DCD3A5
Tetradic#B8A5DC
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°170°

#a5dcd3 sits at 170°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red64.7%
Green86.3%
Blue82.7%
R · 0–255
165
0xa5
G · 0–255
220
0xdc
B · 0–255
211
0xd3

CMYK percentages

Cyan25.0%
Magenta0.0%
Yellow4.1%
Key (black)13.7%

Total ink coverage is 43%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#a5dcd3 text on a black background

contrast 13.78:1

Card sample

#a5dcd3 text on a white background

contrast 1.52:1

Card sample

#a5dcd3 on grey

1.39:1

#a5dcd3 on its own surface

1.44:1

#a5dcd3 on its dark surface

10.56:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #a5dcd3;
Background color
Panel with #a5dcd3 background
background-color: #a5dcd3;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #a5dcd3;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(165, 220, 211, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(165, 220, 211, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #a5dcd3;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #a5dcd3, #A5C0DC);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #a5dcd3, #A5B3DC);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #a5dcd3;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #a5dcd3;
caret-color: #a5dcd3;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #a5dcd3;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #EDF8F6;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #a5dcd3;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#a5dcd3 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #a5dcd3 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, 220, 211, 0.5)
rgb(165 220 211 / 50%)
#a5dcd380
hsl(170 44% 76% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #a5dcd3 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#a5dcd31a#F6FCFB
20%#a5dcd333#EDF8F6
40%#a5dcd366#DBF1ED
60%#a5dcd399#C9EAE5
80%#a5dcd3cc#B7E3DC

Gradients from #a5dcd3

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, #D1EDE9, #a5dcd3 45%, #245C53);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #a5dcd3, #8FABD3);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #a5dcd3, #DCA5AE);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #E7F6F3 0%, #a5dcd3 45%, #245C53 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%, #CAEAD2 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #BBD3E5 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #245C53 0%, transparent 65%), #a5dcd3;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #a5dcd3

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.

#a5dcd3 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 13.78:1.

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.

#a5dcd3, answered

What color is #a5dcd3?

#a5dcd3 is a light soft cyan, closest to Pale Turquoise (ΔE2000 5.4). It sits at 170° on the hue wheel with 44% saturation and 76% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #a5dcd3?

rgb(165, 220, 211) — 165 red, 220 green and 211 blue out of 255, or 64.7% / 86.3% / 82.7% by channel.

What is #a5dcd3 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(170, 44%, 76%) and hsv(170, 25%, 86%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #a5dcd3 a light or a dark color?

It is a light color. Relative luminance is 0.6389 and perceived brightness is 80%, so black text on it reaches 13.78:1.

Should I use black or white text on #a5dcd3?

Black. It scores 13.78:1 against #a5dcd3, versus 1.52:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #a5dcd3 accessible on a white background?

#a5dcd3 on white scores 1.52:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #338275 to reach 4.5:1, or #266158 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #a5dcd3?

#DCA5AE sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #DCA5CA and #DCB8A5, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #a5dcd3?

For interface work: #F4FAF9 as the surface, #C4E8E2 for borders, #4B9B8E for secondary text, #97355C as an accent and #245C53 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #A5DCB8 and #A5CADC stays calm, while #DCA5AE is the loudest partner.

What is #a5dcd3 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(25%, 0%, 4%, 14%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #a5dcd3 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 #A5DCBF; nudged cooler, #A4D2DD.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #a5dcd3?

The teal family — its 500 step is #14b8a6, ΔE2000 15.4 away. That is a visible difference, so define #a5dcd3 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #a5dcd3 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#a5dcd3] or text-[#a5dcd3], 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 #a5dcd3 with 50% opacity?

rgba(165, 220, 211, 0.5), or #a5dcd380 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #D2EEE9; over black, #536E6A.

Is #a5dcd3 a web-safe color?

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

What does the color #a5dcd3 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 #a5dcd3?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #D1EDE9, #a5dcd3 45%, #245C53). For more colour, a short hue run to #8FABD3 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #a5dcd3 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #a5dcd3 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.