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cyan · cool

#acbfc8

a light, soft cyan · cool · closest name: Light Steel Blue

Token name suggestion: Morning Teal

RGB
172, 191, 200
HSL
199°, 20%, 73%
CMYK
14, 5, 0, 22
Luminance
0.5020

#acbfc8 is a light soft cyan, 199° on the wheel and 76/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (11.04:1). As text it scores 1.90:1 on white — use #5B7B8A instead. Nearest name is Light Steel Blue, nearest Tailwind family is cyan.

hsl(199 20% 73%)rgb(172 191 200)Base step 300AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #acbfc8 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#acbfc8
Hue
199°
cyan
Saturation
20%
soft
Lightness
73%
light
Brightness
78%
HSV value
Perceived
73%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.5020
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
76/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Soft
Best ink
Black
11.04:1
Closest name
Light Steel Blue
ΔE2000 7.3
Chroma
8.2
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.793
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
cyan
500 · ΔE 16.9
Web-safe
#99CCCC
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue199° of 360°
Saturation20%
Lightness73%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #acbfc8.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool76% 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
Red17%
Green74%
Blue8%

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

Every format

HEX#acbfc8
HEX (8-digit)#acbfc8ff
RGBrgb(172, 191, 200)
RGBArgba(172, 191, 200, 1)
HSLhsl(199, 20%, 73%)
HSV / HSBhsv(199, 14%, 78%)
HWBhwb(199 67% 22%)
CMYKcmyk(14%, 5%, 0%, 22%)
LABlab(76.2 -4.6 -6.7)
LCHlch(76.2 8.2 235.4)
OKLCHoklch(0.793 0.025 227.8)
XYZ (D65)xyz(46.07, 50.20, 61.90)
Decimal11321288
Display P3color(display-p3 0.675 0.749 0.784)
Web-safe#99CCCC

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #acbfc8;
background-color: #acbfc8;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #acbfc8;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#acbfc8] bg-[#acbfc8]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #acbfc8;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.675, green: 0.749, blue: 0.784)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.675, green: 0.749, blue: 0.784, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#ACBFC8</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFACBFC8)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFACBFC8)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(200, 191, 172)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(172, 191, 200)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(172, 191, 200)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 172, 191, 200)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.6745f, 0.7490f, 0.7843f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{172,191,200}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #acbfc8 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #acbfc8 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#33444D, #DAE3E7);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #acbfc8 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: #F6F8F9;
  --brand-100: #EDF1F2;
  --brand-200: #D8E0E4;
  --brand-300: #acbfc8;
  --brand-400: #9AB1BC;
  --brand-500: #7897A6;
  --brand-600: #628393;
  --brand-700: #516D7B;
  --brand-800: #415862;
  --brand-900: #324149;
  --brand-950: #1F292D;
  --brand: #acbfc8;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F6F8F9;
  --brand-border: #CED9DE;
  --brand-hover: #96AEBA;
  --brand-pressed: #819EAB;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #161E22;
    --brand-ink: #DAE3E7;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F6F8F9',
        100: '#EDF1F2',
        200: '#D8E0E4',
        300: '#acbfc8',
        400: '#9AB1BC',
        500: '#7897A6',
        600: '#628393',
        700: '#516D7B',
        800: '#415862',
        900: '#324149',
        950: '#1F292D',
        DEFAULT: '#acbfc8',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F6F8F9,
  '100': #EDF1F2,
  '200': #D8E0E4,
  '300': #acbfc8,
  '400': #9AB1BC,
  '500': #7897A6,
  '600': #628393,
  '700': #516D7B,
  '800': #415862,
  '900': #324149,
  '950': #1F292D,
);
$brand-base: #acbfc8;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F6F8F9", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#EDF1F2", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#D8E0E4", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#acbfc8", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#9AB1BC", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#7897A6", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#628393", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#516D7B", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#415862", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#324149", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#1F292D", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #acbfc8 · 11.04:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 1.90:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 11.04:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #acbfc8 as text scores 1.90:1 on white and 11.04:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #33444D at 5.32:1.

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
#5B7B8A · 4.52:1
AA on white−28% L
#5B7B8A
The quick fox
#435A65 · 7.27:1
AAA on white−40% L
#435A65
The quick fox
#acbfc8 · 11.04:1
AA on blackalready passes
#acbfc8
The quick fox
#acbfc8 · 11.04:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#acbfc8

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #7B99A7 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
#acbfc8 on white: 1.90:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#acbfc8 on black: 11.04:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #acbfc8 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #acbfc8.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White1.90:1AaAa
Slate 501.82:1AaAa
Slate 1001.74:1AaAa
Slate 2001.54:1AaAa
Slate 3001.28:1AaAa
Slate 4001.35:1AaAa
Slate 5002.50:1AaAa
Slate 6003.98:1AaAa
Slate 7005.44:1AaAa
Slate 8007.69:1AaAa
Slate 9009.39:1AaAa
Black11.04:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #BABEC9
deuteranopia · #B6BAC8
tritanopia · #A5C2C2

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. #acbfc8 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.

#F6F8F9
#EDF1F2
#D8E0E4
#acbfc8
#9AB1BC
#7897A6
#628393
#516D7B
#415862
#324149
#1F292D
Base = 300Lightest = 50 · #F6F8F9Darkest = 950 · #1F292DText step on white = 700
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 0.006 227.8);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.010 227.8);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.015 227.8);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.019 227.8);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.023 227.8);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.025 227.8);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.025 227.8);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.023 227.8);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.021 227.8);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.017 227.8);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.013 227.8);
}

Colors that work with #acbfc8

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#F6F8F9
Tinted page background
Border#CED9DE
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#5B7B8A
Captions on the surface
Accent#7F514D
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#33444D
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#F0F3F5
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#161E22
Dark-mode background
Hover#96AEBA
One step down in lightness
Pressed#819EAB
Two steps down
Disabled#EFF3F5
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#B2CAD6
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 #acbfc8

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 #33444D
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #7B99A7

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
  • Weight27/100
  • 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#C8B5AC
Analogous left#ACC8C3
Analogous right#ACB1C8
Split-complement 1#C8ACB1
Split-complement 2#C8C3AC
Triadic 1#C8ACBF
Triadic 2#BFC8AC
Tetradic#C3ACC8
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°199°

#acbfc8 sits at 199°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red67.5%
Green74.9%
Blue78.4%
R · 0–255
172
0xac
G · 0–255
191
0xbf
B · 0–255
200
0xc8

CMYK percentages

Cyan14.0%
Magenta4.5%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)21.6%

Total ink coverage is 40%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#acbfc8 text on a black background

contrast 11.04:1

Card sample

#acbfc8 text on a white background

contrast 1.90:1

Card sample

#acbfc8 on grey

1.74:1

#acbfc8 on its own surface

1.79:1

#acbfc8 on its dark surface

8.88:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #acbfc8;
Background color
Panel with #acbfc8 background
background-color: #acbfc8;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #acbfc8;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(172, 191, 200, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(172, 191, 200, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #acbfc8;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #acbfc8, #ACACC8);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #acbfc8, #B3ACC8);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #acbfc8;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #acbfc8;
caret-color: #acbfc8;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #acbfc8;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #F0F3F5;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #acbfc8;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#acbfc8 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #acbfc8 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(172, 191, 200, 0.5)
rgb(172 191 200 / 50%)
#acbfc880
hsl(199 20% 73% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #acbfc8 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#acbfc81a#F7F9FA
20%#acbfc833#EEF2F4
40%#acbfc866#DEE5E9
60%#acbfc899#CDD9DE
80%#acbfc8cc#BDCCD3

Gradients from #acbfc8

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, #D1DBE0, #acbfc8 45%, #33444D);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #acbfc8, #9C99BC);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #acbfc8, #C8B5AC);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #E3E9ED 0%, #acbfc8 45%, #33444D 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F6F8F9, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #CBDCD8 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #BEC0D4 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #33444D 0%, transparent 65%), #acbfc8;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #acbfc8

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.

#acbfc8 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 11.04:1.

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.

#acbfc8, answered

What color is #acbfc8?

#acbfc8 is a light soft cyan, closest to Light Steel Blue (ΔE2000 7.3). It sits at 199° on the hue wheel with 20% saturation and 73% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #acbfc8?

rgb(172, 191, 200) — 172 red, 191 green and 200 blue out of 255, or 67.5% / 74.9% / 78.4% by channel.

What is #acbfc8 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(199, 20%, 73%) and hsv(199, 14%, 78%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #acbfc8 a light or a dark color?

It is a light color. Relative luminance is 0.5020 and perceived brightness is 73%, so black text on it reaches 11.04:1.

Should I use black or white text on #acbfc8?

Black. It scores 11.04:1 against #acbfc8, versus 1.90:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #acbfc8 accessible on a white background?

#acbfc8 on white scores 1.90:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #5B7B8A to reach 4.5:1, or #435A65 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #acbfc8?

#C8B5AC sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #C8ACB1 and #C8C3AC, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #acbfc8?

For interface work: #F6F8F9 as the surface, #CED9DE for borders, #5B7B8A for secondary text, #7F514D as an accent and #33444D for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #ACC8C3 and #ACB1C8 stays calm, while #C8B5AC is the loudest partner.

What is #acbfc8 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(14%, 5%, 0%, 22%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #acbfc8 warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 76 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #ACC8C7; nudged cooler, #AABAC9.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #acbfc8?

The cyan family — its 500 step is #06b6d4, ΔE2000 16.9 away. That is a visible difference, so define #acbfc8 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #acbfc8 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#acbfc8] or text-[#acbfc8], 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 #acbfc8 with 50% opacity?

rgba(172, 191, 200, 0.5), or #acbfc880 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #D6DFE4; over black, #566064.

Is #acbfc8 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #99CCCC, ΔE2000 10.8 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #acbfc8 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 #acbfc8?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #D1DBE0, #acbfc8 45%, #33444D). For more colour, a short hue run to #9C99BC keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #acbfc8 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #acbfc8 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.