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cyan · cool

#abfef8

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

Token name suggestion: Morning Reef

RGB
171, 254, 248
HSL
176°, 98%, 83%
CMYK
33, 0, 2, 0
Luminance
0.8632

#abfef8 is a light electric cyan, 176° on the wheel and 86/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (18.26:1). As text it scores 1.15:1 on white — use #02857B instead. Nearest name is Pale Turquoise, nearest Tailwind family is teal.

hsl(176 98% 83%)rgb(171 254 248)Base step 200AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #abfef8 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#abfef8
Hue
176°
cyan
Saturation
98%
electric
Lightness
83%
light
Brightness
100%
HSV value
Perceived
91%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.8632
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
86/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Electric
Best ink
Black
18.26:1
Closest name
Pale Turquoise
ΔE2000 4.7
Chroma
26.8
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.942
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
teal
500 · ΔE 19.8
Web-safe
#99FFFF
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue176° of 360°
Saturation98%
Lightness83%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #abfef8.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool86% 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%
Green82%
Blue8%

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

Every format

HEX#abfef8
HEX (8-digit)#abfef8ff
RGBrgb(171, 254, 248)
RGBArgba(171, 254, 248, 1)
HSLhsl(176, 98%, 83%)
HSV / HSBhsv(176, 33%, 100%)
HWBhwb(176 67% 0%)
CMYKcmyk(33%, 0%, 2%, 0%)
LABlab(94.5 -26.3 -5.1)
LCHlch(94.5 26.8 191.1)
OKLCHoklch(0.942 0.081 190.1)
XYZ (D65)xyz(69.17, 86.31, 101.80)
Decimal11271928
Display P3color(display-p3 0.671 0.996 0.973)
Web-safe#99FFFF

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #abfef8;
background-color: #abfef8;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #abfef8;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#abfef8] bg-[#abfef8]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #abfef8;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.671, green: 0.996, blue: 0.973)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.671, green: 0.996, blue: 0.973, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#ABFEF8</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFABFEF8)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFABFEF8)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(248, 254, 171)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(171, 254, 248)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(171, 254, 248)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 171, 254, 248)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.6706f, 0.9961f, 0.9725f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{171,254,248}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #abfef8 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #abfef8 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#027E75, #D3EEEC);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #abfef8 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: #E4FCFA;
  --brand-200: #abfef8;
  --brand-300: #90FEF6;
  --brand-400: #59FDF1;
  --brand-500: #21FCED;
  --brand-600: #03F2E1;
  --brand-700: #02CABB;
  --brand-800: #02A196;
  --brand-900: #06746C;
  --brand-950: #044944;
  --brand: #abfef8;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F4FAFA;
  --brand-border: #C0EDE9;
  --brand-hover: #88FEF5;
  --brand-pressed: #64FDF2;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #142423;
    --brand-ink: #D3EEEC;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F1FDFD',
        100: '#E4FCFA',
        200: '#abfef8',
        300: '#90FEF6',
        400: '#59FDF1',
        500: '#21FCED',
        600: '#03F2E1',
        700: '#02CABB',
        800: '#02A196',
        900: '#06746C',
        950: '#044944',
        DEFAULT: '#abfef8',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F1FDFD,
  '100': #E4FCFA,
  '200': #abfef8,
  '300': #90FEF6,
  '400': #59FDF1,
  '500': #21FCED,
  '600': #03F2E1,
  '700': #02CABB,
  '800': #02A196,
  '900': #06746C,
  '950': #044944,
);
$brand-base: #abfef8;
$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": "#E4FCFA", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#abfef8", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#90FEF6", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#59FDF1", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#21FCED", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#03F2E1", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#02CABB", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#02A196", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#06746C", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#044944", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #abfef8 · 18.26:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 1.15:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 18.26:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #abfef8 as text scores 1.15:1 on white and 18.26:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #027E75 at 4.30:1.

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
#02857B · 4.52:1
AA on white−57% L
#02857B
The quick fox
#01615A · 7.35:1
AAA on white−64% L
#01615A
The quick fox
#abfef8 · 18.26:1
AA on blackalready passes
#abfef8
The quick fox
#abfef8 · 18.26:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#abfef8

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #02A397 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
#abfef8 on white: 1.15:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#abfef8 on black: 18.26:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #abfef8 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #abfef8.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White1.15:1AaAa
Slate 501.10:1AaAa
Slate 1001.05:1AaAa
Slate 2001.07:1AaAa
Slate 3001.29:1AaAa
Slate 4002.23:1AaAa
Slate 5004.14:1AaAa
Slate 6006.59:1AaAa
Slate 7009.01:1AaAa
Slate 80012.72:1AaAa
Slate 90015.53:1AaAa
Black18.26:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #F5F6F8
deuteranopia · #E6EAF9
tritanopia · #8DFFFC

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. #abfef8 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.

#F1FDFD
#E4FCFA
#abfef8
#90FEF6
#59FDF1
#21FCED
#03F2E1
#02CABB
#02A196
#06746C
#044944
Base = 200Lightest = 50 · #F1FDFDDarkest = 950 · #044944Text 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 0.020 190.1);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.032 190.1);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.049 190.1);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.063 190.1);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.074 190.1);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.081 190.1);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.081 190.1);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.076 190.1);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.068 190.1);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.057 190.1);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.044 190.1);
}

Colors that work with #abfef8

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#C0EDE9
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B9B95
Captions on the surface
Accent#CC0041
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#027E75
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#E6FFFD
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#142423
Dark-mode background
Hover#88FEF5
One step down in lightness
Pressed#64FDF2
Two steps down
Disabled#F3F7F7
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#BEFFFA
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 #abfef8

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 #027E75
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #02A397

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
  • Weight17/100
  • 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#FEABB1
Analogous left#ABFECE
Analogous right#ABDAFE
Split-complement 1#FEABDA
Split-complement 2#FECEAB
Triadic 1#F8ABFE
Triadic 2#FEF8AB
Tetradic#CEABFE
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°176°

#abfef8 sits at 176°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red67.1%
Green99.6%
Blue97.3%
R · 0–255
171
0xab
G · 0–255
254
0xfe
B · 0–255
248
0xf8

CMYK percentages

Cyan32.7%
Magenta0.0%
Yellow2.4%
Key (black)0.4%

Total ink coverage is 36%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#abfef8 text on a black background

contrast 18.26:1

Card sample

#abfef8 text on a white background

contrast 1.15:1

Card sample

#abfef8 on grey

1.05:1

#abfef8 on its own surface

1.09:1

#abfef8 on its dark surface

13.98:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #abfef8;
Background color
Panel with #abfef8 background
background-color: #abfef8;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #abfef8;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(171, 254, 248, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(171, 254, 248, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #abfef8;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #abfef8, #ABCDFE);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #abfef8, #ABB8FE);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #abfef8;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #abfef8;
caret-color: #abfef8;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #abfef8;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #E6FFFD;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #abfef8;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#abfef8 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #abfef8 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(171, 254, 248, 0.5)
rgb(171 254 248 / 50%)
#abfef880
hsl(176 98% 83% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #abfef8 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#abfef81a#F7FFFE
20%#abfef833#EEFFFE
40%#abfef866#DDFFFC
60%#abfef899#CDFEFB
80%#abfef8cc#BCFEF9

Gradients from #abfef8

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, #E7FFFD, #abfef8 45%, #027E75);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #abfef8, #8DB1FE);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #abfef8, #FEABB1);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #F0FFFE 0%, #abfef8 45%, #027E75 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%, #DDFFE9 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #C9E3FE 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #027E75 0%, transparent 65%), #abfef8;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #abfef8

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.

#abfef8 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

Very light values are indistinguishable from white on a dim phone screen outdoors. Give it a border if the boundary matters.

In dark mode

Usable as-is on a dark surface at 18.26:1.

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.

#abfef8, answered

What color is #abfef8?

#abfef8 is a light electric cyan, closest to Pale Turquoise (ΔE2000 4.7). It sits at 176° on the hue wheel with 98% saturation and 83% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #abfef8?

rgb(171, 254, 248) — 171 red, 254 green and 248 blue out of 255, or 67.1% / 99.6% / 97.3% by channel.

What is #abfef8 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(176, 98%, 83%) and hsv(176, 33%, 100%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #abfef8 a light or a dark color?

It is a light color. Relative luminance is 0.8632 and perceived brightness is 91%, so black text on it reaches 18.26:1.

Should I use black or white text on #abfef8?

Black. It scores 18.26:1 against #abfef8, versus 1.15:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #abfef8 accessible on a white background?

#abfef8 on white scores 1.15:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #02857B to reach 4.5:1, or #01615A for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #abfef8?

#FEABB1 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #FEABDA and #FECEAB, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #abfef8?

For interface work: #F4FAFA as the surface, #C0EDE9 for borders, #4B9B95 for secondary text, #CC0041 as an accent and #027E75 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #ABFECE and #ABDAFE stays calm, while #FEABB1 is the loudest partner.

What is #abfef8 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(33%, 0%, 2%, 0%). 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 #abfef8 warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 86 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #ABFEDA; nudged cooler, #AAE6FF.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #abfef8?

The teal family — its 500 step is #14b8a6, ΔE2000 19.8 away. That is a visible difference, so define #abfef8 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #abfef8 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#abfef8] or text-[#abfef8], 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 #abfef8 with 50% opacity?

rgba(171, 254, 248, 0.5), or #abfef880 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #D5FFFC; over black, #567F7C.

Is #abfef8 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #99FFFF, ΔE2000 3 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #abfef8 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 #abfef8?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #E7FFFD, #abfef8 45%, #027E75). For more colour, a short hue run to #8DB1FE keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #abfef8 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #abfef8 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.