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cyan · cool

#acecf8

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

Token name suggestion: Morning Lagoon

RGB
172, 236, 248
HSL
190°, 84%, 82%
CMYK
31, 5, 0, 3
Luminance
0.7554

#acecf8 is a light electric cyan, 190° on the wheel and 91/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (16.11:1). As text it scores 1.30:1 on white — use #0D8298 instead. Nearest name is Powder Blue, nearest Tailwind family is cyan.

hsl(190 84% 82%)rgb(172 236 248)Base step 300AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #acecf8 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#acecf8
Hue
190°
cyan
Saturation
84%
electric
Lightness
82%
light
Brightness
97%
HSV value
Perceived
86%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.7554
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
91/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Electric
Best ink
Black
16.11:1
Closest name
Powder Blue
ΔE2000 3.8
Chroma
21.1
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.904
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
cyan
500 · ΔE 16.8
Web-safe
#99FFFF
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue190° of 360°
Saturation84%
Lightness82%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #acecf8.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool91% 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
Red12%
Green79%
Blue9%

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

Every format

HEX#acecf8
HEX (8-digit)#acecf8ff
RGBrgb(172, 236, 248)
RGBArgba(172, 236, 248, 1)
HSLhsl(190, 84%, 82%)
HSV / HSBhsv(189, 31%, 97%)
HWBhwb(190 67% 3%)
CMYKcmyk(31%, 5%, 0%, 3%)
LABlab(89.6 -17.2 -12.3)
LCHlch(89.6 21.1 215.4)
OKLCHoklch(0.904 0.066 210.4)
XYZ (D65)xyz(63.95, 75.54, 100.00)
Decimal11332856
Display P3color(display-p3 0.675 0.925 0.973)
Web-safe#99FFFF

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #acecf8;
background-color: #acecf8;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #acecf8;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#acecf8] bg-[#acecf8]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #acecf8;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.675, green: 0.925, blue: 0.973)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.675, green: 0.925, blue: 0.973, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#ACECF8</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFACECF8)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFACECF8)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(248, 236, 172)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(172, 236, 248)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(172, 236, 248)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 172, 236, 248)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.6745f, 0.9255f, 0.9725f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{172,236,248}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #acecf8 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #acecf8 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#0A6576, #D3EAEE);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #acecf8 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: #F2FBFC;
  --brand-100: #E6F7FA;
  --brand-200: #C5EFF7;
  --brand-300: #acecf8;
  --brand-400: #64DBF2;
  --brand-500: #30D0ED;
  --brand-600: #13C1E2;
  --brand-700: #10A1BC;
  --brand-800: #0D8196;
  --brand-900: #0E5E6D;
  --brand-950: #093B44;
  --brand: #acecf8;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F4F9FA;
  --brand-border: #C0E6ED;
  --brand-hover: #8BE4F5;
  --brand-pressed: #6ADDF2;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #142224;
    --brand-ink: #D3EAEE;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F2FBFC',
        100: '#E6F7FA',
        200: '#C5EFF7',
        300: '#acecf8',
        400: '#64DBF2',
        500: '#30D0ED',
        600: '#13C1E2',
        700: '#10A1BC',
        800: '#0D8196',
        900: '#0E5E6D',
        950: '#093B44',
        DEFAULT: '#acecf8',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F2FBFC,
  '100': #E6F7FA,
  '200': #C5EFF7,
  '300': #acecf8,
  '400': #64DBF2,
  '500': #30D0ED,
  '600': #13C1E2,
  '700': #10A1BC,
  '800': #0D8196,
  '900': #0E5E6D,
  '950': #093B44,
);
$brand-base: #acecf8;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F2FBFC", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#E6F7FA", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#C5EFF7", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#acecf8", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#64DBF2", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#30D0ED", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#13C1E2", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#10A1BC", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#0D8196", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#0E5E6D", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#093B44", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #acecf8 · 16.11:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 1.30:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 16.11:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #acecf8 as text scores 1.30:1 on white and 16.11:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #0A6576 at 5.14:1.

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
#0D8298 · 4.50:1
AA on white−50% L
#0D8298
The quick fox
#095E6E · 7.40:1
AAA on white−59% L
#095E6E
The quick fox
#acecf8 · 16.11:1
AA on blackalready passes
#acecf8
The quick fox
#acecf8 · 16.11:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#acecf8

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #10A2BE 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
#acecf8 on white: 1.30:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#acecf8 on black: 16.11:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #acecf8 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #acecf8.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White1.30:1AaAa
Slate 501.25:1AaAa
Slate 1001.19:1AaAa
Slate 2001.06:1AaAa
Slate 3001.14:1AaAa
Slate 4001.97:1AaAa
Slate 5003.65:1AaAa
Slate 6005.81:1AaAa
Slate 7007.94:1AaAa
Slate 80011.22:1AaAa
Slate 90013.69:1AaAa
Black16.11:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #E1E7F9
deuteranopia · #D4DDF8
tritanopia · #92F2EF

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. #acecf8 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.

#F2FBFC
#E6F7FA
#C5EFF7
#acecf8
#64DBF2
#30D0ED
#13C1E2
#10A1BC
#0D8196
#0E5E6D
#093B44
Base = 300Lightest = 50 · #F2FBFCDarkest = 950 · #093B44Text 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 0.017 210.4);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.026 210.4);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.040 210.4);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.052 210.4);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.061 210.4);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.066 210.4);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.066 210.4);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.062 210.4);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.056 210.4);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.046 210.4);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.036 210.4);
}

Colors that work with #acecf8

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#C0E6ED
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B8E9B
Captions on the surface
Accent#C10B1D
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#0A6576
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#E7FAFD
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#142224
Dark-mode background
Hover#8BE4F5
One step down in lightness
Pressed#6ADDF2
Two steps down
Disabled#F3F6F7
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#BCF3FD
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 #acecf8

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 #0A6576
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #10A2BE

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#F8B8AC
Analogous left#ACF8DE
Analogous right#ACC6F8
Split-complement 1#F8ACC6
Split-complement 2#F8DEAC
Triadic 1#F8ACEC
Triadic 2#ECF8AC
Tetradic#DEACF8
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°190°

#acecf8 sits at 190°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red67.5%
Green92.5%
Blue97.3%
R · 0–255
172
0xac
G · 0–255
236
0xec
B · 0–255
248
0xf8

CMYK percentages

Cyan30.6%
Magenta4.8%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)2.7%

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

Color previews

#acecf8 text on a black background

contrast 16.11:1

Card sample

#acecf8 text on a white background

contrast 1.30:1

Card sample

#acecf8 on grey

1.19:1

#acecf8 on its own surface

1.23:1

#acecf8 on its dark surface

12.54:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #acecf8;
Background color
Panel with #acecf8 background
background-color: #acecf8;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #acecf8;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(172, 236, 248, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(172, 236, 248, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #acecf8;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #acecf8, #ACB9F8);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #acecf8, #B2ACF8);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #acecf8;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #acecf8;
caret-color: #acecf8;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #acecf8;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #E7FAFD;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #acecf8;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#acecf8 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #acecf8 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, 236, 248, 0.5)
rgb(172 236 248 / 50%)
#acecf880
hsl(190 84% 82% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #acecf8 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#acecf81a#F7FDFE
20%#acecf833#EEFBFE
40%#acecf866#DEF7FC
60%#acecf899#CDF4FB
80%#acecf8cc#BDF0F9

Gradients from #acecf8

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, #E5F9FD, #acecf8 45%, #0A6576);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #acecf8, #9099F6);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #acecf8, #F8B8AC);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #F1FCFE 0%, #acecf8 45%, #0A6576 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%, #DBFCEE 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #C8D5FA 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #0A6576 0%, transparent 65%), #acecf8;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #acecf8

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.

#acecf8 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 16.11:1.

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.

#acecf8, answered

What color is #acecf8?

#acecf8 is a light electric cyan, closest to Powder Blue (ΔE2000 3.8). It sits at 190° on the hue wheel with 84% saturation and 82% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #acecf8?

rgb(172, 236, 248) — 172 red, 236 green and 248 blue out of 255, or 67.5% / 92.5% / 97.3% by channel.

What is #acecf8 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(190, 84%, 82%) and hsv(189, 31%, 97%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #acecf8 a light or a dark color?

It is a light color. Relative luminance is 0.7554 and perceived brightness is 86%, so black text on it reaches 16.11:1.

Should I use black or white text on #acecf8?

Black. It scores 16.11:1 against #acecf8, versus 1.30:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #acecf8 accessible on a white background?

#acecf8 on white scores 1.30:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #0D8298 to reach 4.5:1, or #095E6E for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #acecf8?

#F8B8AC sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #F8ACC6 and #F8DEAC, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #acecf8?

For interface work: #F4F9FA as the surface, #C0E6ED for borders, #4B8E9B for secondary text, #C10B1D as an accent and #0A6576 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #ACF8DE and #ACC6F8 stays calm, while #F8B8AC is the loudest partner.

What is #acecf8 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(31%, 5%, 0%, 3%). 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 #acecf8 warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 91 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #ACF8E8; nudged cooler, #ABD8F9.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #acecf8?

The cyan family — its 500 step is #06b6d4, ΔE2000 16.8 away. That is a visible difference, so define #acecf8 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #acecf8 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#acecf8] or text-[#acecf8], 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 #acecf8 with 50% opacity?

rgba(172, 236, 248, 0.5), or #acecf880 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #D6F6FC; over black, #56767C.

Is #acecf8 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #99FFFF, ΔE2000 8 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #acecf8 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 #acecf8?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #E5F9FD, #acecf8 45%, #0A6576). For more colour, a short hue run to #9099F6 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #acecf8 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #acecf8 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.