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cyan · cool

#a8f3fd

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

Token name suggestion: Linen Teal

RGB
168, 243, 253
HSL
187°, 96%, 83%
CMYK
34, 4, 0, 1
Luminance
0.7952

#a8f3fd is a light electric cyan, 187° on the wheel and 90/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (16.90:1). As text it scores 1.24:1 on white — use #038293 instead. Nearest name is Pale Turquoise, nearest Tailwind family is cyan.

hsl(187 96% 83%)rgb(168 243 253)Base step 200AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #a8f3fd is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#a8f3fd
Hue
187°
cyan
Saturation
96%
electric
Lightness
83%
light
Brightness
99%
HSV value
Perceived
88%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.7952
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
90/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Electric
Best ink
Black
16.90:1
Closest name
Pale Turquoise
ΔE2000 3.9
Chroma
23.9
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.919
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
cyan
500 · ΔE 17.6
Web-safe
#99FFFF
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue187° of 360°
Saturation96%
Lightness83%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #a8f3fd.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool90% 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%
Green81%
Blue9%

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

Every format

HEX#a8f3fd
HEX (8-digit)#a8f3fdff
RGBrgb(168, 243, 253)
RGBArgba(168, 243, 253, 1)
HSLhsl(187, 96%, 83%)
HSV / HSBhsv(187, 34%, 99%)
HWBhwb(187 66% 1%)
CMYKcmyk(34%, 4%, 0%, 1%)
LABlab(91.5 -20.6 -12.2)
LCHlch(91.5 23.9 210.5)
OKLCHoklch(0.919 0.075 206.4)
XYZ (D65)xyz(65.92, 79.51, 104.78)
Decimal11072509
Display P3color(display-p3 0.659 0.953 0.992)
Web-safe#99FFFF

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #a8f3fd;
background-color: #a8f3fd;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #a8f3fd;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#a8f3fd] bg-[#a8f3fd]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #a8f3fd;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.659, green: 0.953, blue: 0.992)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.659, green: 0.953, blue: 0.992, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#A8F3FD</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFA8F3FD)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFA8F3FD)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(253, 243, 168)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(168, 243, 253)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(168, 243, 253)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 168, 243, 253)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.6588f, 0.9529f, 0.9922f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{168,243,253}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #a8f3fd 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #a8f3fd 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#036E7D, #D3EBEE);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #a8f3fd 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: #F1FCFD;
  --brand-100: #E4F9FC;
  --brand-200: #a8f3fd;
  --brand-300: #91F0FC;
  --brand-400: #5AE8FB;
  --brand-500: #24E1FA;
  --brand-600: #06D4EF;
  --brand-700: #05B0C7;
  --brand-800: #048DA0;
  --brand-900: #076673;
  --brand-950: #054048;
  --brand: #a8f3fd;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F4FAFA;
  --brand-border: #C0E7ED;
  --brand-hover: #85EEFC;
  --brand-pressed: #62E9FB;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #142224;
    --brand-ink: #D3EBEE;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F1FCFD',
        100: '#E4F9FC',
        200: '#a8f3fd',
        300: '#91F0FC',
        400: '#5AE8FB',
        500: '#24E1FA',
        600: '#06D4EF',
        700: '#05B0C7',
        800: '#048DA0',
        900: '#076673',
        950: '#054048',
        DEFAULT: '#a8f3fd',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F1FCFD,
  '100': #E4F9FC,
  '200': #a8f3fd,
  '300': #91F0FC,
  '400': #5AE8FB,
  '500': #24E1FA,
  '600': #06D4EF,
  '700': #05B0C7,
  '800': #048DA0,
  '900': #076673,
  '950': #054048,
);
$brand-base: #a8f3fd;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F1FCFD", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#E4F9FC", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#a8f3fd", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#91F0FC", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#5AE8FB", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#24E1FA", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#06D4EF", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#05B0C7", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#048DA0", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#076673", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#054048", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #a8f3fd · 16.90:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 1.24:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 16.90:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #a8f3fd as text scores 1.24:1 on white and 16.90:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #036E7D at 4.79:1.

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
#038293 · 4.55:1
AA on white−53% L
#038293
The quick fox
#025F6B · 7.36:1
AAA on white−61% L
#025F6B
The quick fox
#a8f3fd · 16.90:1
AA on blackalready passes
#a8f3fd
The quick fox
#a8f3fd · 16.90:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#a8f3fd

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #04A1B6 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
#a8f3fd on white: 1.24:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#a8f3fd on black: 16.90:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #a8f3fd as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #a8f3fd.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White1.24:1AaAa
Slate 501.19:1AaAa
Slate 1001.13:1AaAa
Slate 2001.01:1AaAa
Slate 3001.20:1AaAa
Slate 4002.06:1AaAa
Slate 5003.83:1AaAa
Slate 6006.10:1AaAa
Slate 7008.33:1AaAa
Slate 80011.78:1AaAa
Slate 90014.37:1AaAa
Black16.90:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #E7EDFE
deuteranopia · #D9E2FD
tritanopia · #88F9F6

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. #a8f3fd is pinned to step 200; the rest hold its hue and let saturation ease off at the extremes so the pale end never turns neon.

#F1FCFD
#E4F9FC
#a8f3fd
#91F0FC
#5AE8FB
#24E1FA
#06D4EF
#05B0C7
#048DA0
#076673
#054048
Base = 200Lightest = 50 · #F1FCFDDarkest = 950 · #054048Text 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 0.019 206.4);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.030 206.4);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.045 206.4);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.058 206.4);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.069 206.4);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.075 206.4);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.075 206.4);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.070 206.4);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.063 206.4);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.052 206.4);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.041 206.4);
}

Colors that work with #a8f3fd

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#C0E7ED
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B919B
Captions on the surface
Accent#CC001C
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#036E7D
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#E6FCFE
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#142224
Dark-mode background
Hover#85EEFC
One step down in lightness
Pressed#62E9FB
Two steps down
Disabled#F3F7F7
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#BAF7FF
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 #a8f3fd

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 #036E7D
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #04A1B6

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
  • Weight18/100
  • 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#FDB2A8
Analogous left#A8FDDC
Analogous right#A8C8FD
Split-complement 1#FDA8C8
Split-complement 2#FDDCA8
Triadic 1#FDA8F3
Triadic 2#F3FDA8
Tetradic#DCA8FD
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°187°

#a8f3fd sits at 187°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red65.9%
Green95.3%
Blue99.2%
R · 0–255
168
0xa8
G · 0–255
243
0xf3
B · 0–255
253
0xfd

CMYK percentages

Cyan33.6%
Magenta4.0%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)0.8%

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

Color previews

#a8f3fd text on a black background

contrast 16.90:1

Card sample

#a8f3fd text on a white background

contrast 1.24:1

Card sample

#a8f3fd on grey

1.13:1

#a8f3fd on its own surface

1.18:1

#a8f3fd on its dark surface

13.16:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #a8f3fd;
Background color
Panel with #a8f3fd background
background-color: #a8f3fd;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #a8f3fd;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(168, 243, 253, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(168, 243, 253, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #a8f3fd;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #a8f3fd, #A8BAFD);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #a8f3fd, #ABA8FD);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #a8f3fd;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #a8f3fd;
caret-color: #a8f3fd;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #a8f3fd;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #E6FCFE;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #a8f3fd;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#a8f3fd 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #a8f3fd 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(168, 243, 253, 0.5)
rgb(168 243 253 / 50%)
#a8f3fd80
hsl(187 96% 83% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #a8f3fd 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#a8f3fd1a#F6FEFF
20%#a8f3fd33#EEFDFF
40%#a8f3fd66#DCFAFE
60%#a8f3fd99#CBF8FE
80%#a8f3fdcc#B9F5FD

Gradients from #a8f3fd

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, #E4FBFE, #a8f3fd 45%, #036E7D);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #a8f3fd, #8A99FC);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #a8f3fd, #FDB2A8);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #F0FDFF 0%, #a8f3fd 45%, #036E7D 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%, #DAFEED 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #C6D6FE 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #036E7D 0%, transparent 65%), #a8f3fd;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #a8f3fd

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.

#a8f3fd 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 16.90:1.

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.

#a8f3fd, answered

What color is #a8f3fd?

#a8f3fd is a light electric cyan, closest to Pale Turquoise (ΔE2000 3.9). It sits at 187° on the hue wheel with 96% saturation and 83% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #a8f3fd?

rgb(168, 243, 253) — 168 red, 243 green and 253 blue out of 255, or 65.9% / 95.3% / 99.2% by channel.

What is #a8f3fd in HSL and HSV?

hsl(187, 96%, 83%) and hsv(187, 34%, 99%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #a8f3fd a light or a dark color?

It is a light color. Relative luminance is 0.7952 and perceived brightness is 88%, so black text on it reaches 16.90:1.

Should I use black or white text on #a8f3fd?

Black. It scores 16.90:1 against #a8f3fd, versus 1.24:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #a8f3fd accessible on a white background?

#a8f3fd on white scores 1.24:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #038293 to reach 4.5:1, or #025F6B for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #a8f3fd?

#FDB2A8 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #FDA8C8 and #FDDCA8, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #a8f3fd?

For interface work: #F4FAFA as the surface, #C0E7ED for borders, #4B919B for secondary text, #CC001C as an accent and #036E7D for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #A8FDDC and #A8C8FD stays calm, while #FDB2A8 is the loudest partner.

What is #a8f3fd in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(34%, 4%, 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 #a8f3fd warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 90 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #A8FDE8; nudged cooler, #A7DBFE.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #a8f3fd?

The cyan family — its 500 step is #06b6d4, ΔE2000 17.6 away. That is a visible difference, so define #a8f3fd as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #a8f3fd in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#a8f3fd] or text-[#a8f3fd], 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 #a8f3fd with 50% opacity?

rgba(168, 243, 253, 0.5), or #a8f3fd80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #D4F9FE; over black, #547A7F.

Is #a8f3fd a web-safe color?

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

What does the color #a8f3fd 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 #a8f3fd?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #E4FBFE, #a8f3fd 45%, #036E7D). For more colour, a short hue run to #8A99FC keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #a8f3fd in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #a8f3fd at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.