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cyan · cool

#ace1f9

a light, electric cyan · cool · closest name: Light Blue

Token name suggestion: Linen Glacier

RGB
172, 225, 249
HSL
199°, 87%, 83%
CMYK
31, 10, 0, 2
Luminance
0.6946

#ace1f9 is a light electric cyan, 199° on the wheel and 95/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (14.89:1). As text it scores 1.41:1 on white — use #0D7BAE instead. Nearest name is Light Blue, nearest Tailwind family is cyan.

hsl(199 87% 83%)rgb(172 225 249)Base step 200AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #ace1f9 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#ace1f9
Hue
199°
cyan
Saturation
87%
electric
Lightness
83%
light
Brightness
98%
HSV value
Perceived
84%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.6946
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
95/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Electric
Best ink
Black
14.89:1
Closest name
Light Blue
ΔE2000 3.9
Chroma
20.6
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.881
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
cyan
500 · ΔE 15.8
Web-safe
#99CCFF
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue199° of 360°
Saturation87%
Lightness83%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #ace1f9.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool95% 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%
Green78%
Blue10%

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

Every format

HEX#ace1f9
HEX (8-digit)#ace1f9ff
RGBrgb(172, 225, 249)
RGBArgba(172, 225, 249, 1)
HSLhsl(199, 87%, 83%)
HSV / HSBhsv(199, 31%, 98%)
HWBhwb(199 67% 2%)
CMYKcmyk(31%, 10%, 0%, 2%)
LABlab(86.7 -11.4 -17.1)
LCHlch(86.7 20.6 236.3)
OKLCHoklch(0.881 0.064 227.5)
XYZ (D65)xyz(61.03, 69.46, 99.80)
Decimal11330041
Display P3color(display-p3 0.675 0.882 0.976)
Web-safe#99CCFF

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #ace1f9;
background-color: #ace1f9;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #ace1f9;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#ace1f9] bg-[#ace1f9]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #ace1f9;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.675, green: 0.882, blue: 0.976)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.675, green: 0.882, blue: 0.976, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#ACE1F9</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFACE1F9)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFACE1F9)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(249, 225, 172)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(172, 225, 249)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(172, 225, 249)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 172, 225, 249)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.6745f, 0.8824f, 0.9765f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{172,225,249}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #ace1f9 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #ace1f9 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#095577, #D3E6EE);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #ace1f9 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: #F2F9FD;
  --brand-100: #E5F4FA;
  --brand-200: #ace1f9;
  --brand-300: #96D9F7;
  --brand-400: #62C6F4;
  --brand-500: #2EB3F0;
  --brand-600: #11A2E4;
  --brand-700: #0E87BE;
  --brand-800: #0B6C98;
  --brand-900: #0C506E;
  --brand-950: #083245;
  --brand: #ace1f9;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F4F9FA;
  --brand-border: #C0DFED;
  --brand-hover: #8AD5F7;
  --brand-pressed: #69C9F4;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #141F24;
    --brand-ink: #D3E6EE;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F2F9FD',
        100: '#E5F4FA',
        200: '#ace1f9',
        300: '#96D9F7',
        400: '#62C6F4',
        500: '#2EB3F0',
        600: '#11A2E4',
        700: '#0E87BE',
        800: '#0B6C98',
        900: '#0C506E',
        950: '#083245',
        DEFAULT: '#ace1f9',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F2F9FD,
  '100': #E5F4FA,
  '200': #ace1f9,
  '300': #96D9F7,
  '400': #62C6F4,
  '500': #2EB3F0,
  '600': #11A2E4,
  '700': #0E87BE,
  '800': #0B6C98,
  '900': #0C506E,
  '950': #083245,
);
$brand-base: #ace1f9;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F2F9FD", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#E5F4FA", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#ace1f9", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#96D9F7", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#62C6F4", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#2EB3F0", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#11A2E4", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#0E87BE", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#0B6C98", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#0C506E", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#083245", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #ace1f9 · 14.89:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 1.41:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 14.89:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #ace1f9 as text scores 1.41:1 on white and 14.89:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #095577 at 5.78:1.

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
#0D7BAE · 4.71:1
AA on white−46% L
#0D7BAE
The quick fox
#095D83 · 7.23:1
AAA on white−55% L
#095D83
The quick fox
#ace1f9 · 14.89:1
AA on blackalready passes
#ace1f9
The quick fox
#ace1f9 · 14.89:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#ace1f9

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #109DDD 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
#ace1f9 on white: 1.41:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#ace1f9 on black: 14.89:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #ace1f9 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #ace1f9.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White1.41:1AaAa
Slate 501.35:1AaAa
Slate 1001.29:1AaAa
Slate 2001.14:1AaAa
Slate 3001.05:1AaAa
Slate 4001.82:1AaAa
Slate 5003.37:1AaAa
Slate 6005.37:1AaAa
Slate 7007.34:1AaAa
Slate 80010.37:1AaAa
Slate 90012.66:1AaAa
Black14.89:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #D4DEFA
deuteranopia · #C9D5F9
tritanopia · #93E8E8

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. #ace1f9 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.

#F2F9FD
#E5F4FA
#ace1f9
#96D9F7
#62C6F4
#2EB3F0
#11A2E4
#0E87BE
#0B6C98
#0C506E
#083245
Base = 200Lightest = 50 · #F2F9FDDarkest = 950 · #083245Text 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 0.016 227.5);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.025 227.5);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.038 227.5);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.050 227.5);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.059 227.5);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.064 227.5);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.064 227.5);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.060 227.5);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.054 227.5);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.045 227.5);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.035 227.5);
}

Colors that work with #ace1f9

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#F4F9FA
Tinted page background
Border#C0DFED
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B829B
Captions on the surface
Accent#C31509
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#095577
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#E7F6FD
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#141F24
Dark-mode background
Hover#8AD5F7
One step down in lightness
Pressed#69C9F4
Two steps down
Disabled#F3F6F7
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#BBE9FE
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 #ace1f9

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 #095577
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #109DDD

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#F9C4AC
Analogous left#ACF9EA
Analogous right#ACBAF9
Split-complement 1#F9ACBA
Split-complement 2#F9EAAC
Triadic 1#F9ACE1
Triadic 2#E1F9AC
Tetradic#EAACF9
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°199°

#ace1f9 sits at 199°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red67.5%
Green88.2%
Blue97.6%
R · 0–255
172
0xac
G · 0–255
225
0xe1
B · 0–255
249
0xf9

CMYK percentages

Cyan30.9%
Magenta9.6%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)2.4%

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

Color previews

#ace1f9 text on a black background

contrast 14.89:1

Card sample

#ace1f9 text on a white background

contrast 1.41:1

Card sample

#ace1f9 on grey

1.29:1

#ace1f9 on its own surface

1.33:1

#ace1f9 on its dark surface

11.90:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #ace1f9;
Background color
Panel with #ace1f9 background
background-color: #ace1f9;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #ace1f9;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(172, 225, 249, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(172, 225, 249, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #ace1f9;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #ace1f9, #ACADF9);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #ace1f9, #BDACF9);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #ace1f9;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #ace1f9;
caret-color: #ace1f9;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #ace1f9;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #E7F6FD;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #ace1f9;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#ace1f9 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #ace1f9 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, 225, 249, 0.5)
rgb(172 225 249 / 50%)
#ace1f980
hsl(199 87% 83% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #ace1f9 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#ace1f91a#F7FCFE
20%#ace1f933#EEF9FE
40%#ace1f966#DEF3FD
60%#ace1f999#CDEDFB
80%#ace1f9cc#BDE7FA

Gradients from #ace1f9

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, #E5F6FD, #ace1f9 45%, #095577);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #ace1f9, #968FF7);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #ace1f9, #F9C4AC);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #F1FAFE 0%, #ace1f9 45%, #095577 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F4F9FA, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #DBFCF3 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #C8CEFB 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #095577 0%, transparent 65%), #ace1f9;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #ace1f9

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.

#ace1f9 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 14.89:1.

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.

#ace1f9, answered

What color is #ace1f9?

#ace1f9 is a light electric cyan, closest to Light Blue (ΔE2000 3.9). It sits at 199° on the hue wheel with 87% saturation and 83% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #ace1f9?

rgb(172, 225, 249) — 172 red, 225 green and 249 blue out of 255, or 67.5% / 88.2% / 97.6% by channel.

What is #ace1f9 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(199, 87%, 83%) and hsv(199, 31%, 98%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #ace1f9 a light or a dark color?

It is a light color. Relative luminance is 0.6946 and perceived brightness is 84%, so black text on it reaches 14.89:1.

Should I use black or white text on #ace1f9?

Black. It scores 14.89:1 against #ace1f9, versus 1.41:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #ace1f9 accessible on a white background?

#ace1f9 on white scores 1.41:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #0D7BAE to reach 4.5:1, or #095D83 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #ace1f9?

#F9C4AC sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #F9ACBA and #F9EAAC, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #ace1f9?

For interface work: #F4F9FA as the surface, #C0DFED for borders, #4B829B for secondary text, #C31509 as an accent and #095577 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #ACF9EA and #ACBAF9 stays calm, while #F9C4AC is the loudest partner.

What is #ace1f9 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(31%, 10%, 0%, 2%). 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 #ace1f9 warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 95 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #ACF9F5; nudged cooler, #ABD5FA.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #ace1f9?

The cyan family — its 500 step is #06b6d4, ΔE2000 15.8 away. That is a visible difference, so define #ace1f9 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #ace1f9 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#ace1f9] or text-[#ace1f9], 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 #ace1f9 with 50% opacity?

rgba(172, 225, 249, 0.5), or #ace1f980 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #D6F0FC; over black, #56717D.

Is #ace1f9 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #99CCFF, ΔE2000 9.3 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #ace1f9 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 #ace1f9?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #E5F6FD, #ace1f9 45%, #095577). For more colour, a short hue run to #968FF7 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #ace1f9 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #ace1f9 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.