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green · neutral

#afba9e

a light, soft green · neutral · closest name: Dark Sea Green

Token name suggestion: Drift Jade

RGB
175, 186, 158
HSL
84°, 17%, 68%
CMYK
6, 0, 15, 27
Luminance
0.4670

#afba9e is a light soft green, 84° on the wheel and 47/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (10.34:1). As text it scores 2.03:1 on white — use #6B7956 instead. Nearest name is Dark Sea Green, nearest Tailwind family is emerald.

hsl(84 17% 68%)rgb(175 186 158)Base step 400AAA inkNeutral

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #afba9e is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#afba9e
Hue
84°
green
Saturation
17%
soft
Lightness
68%
light
Brightness
73%
HSV value
Perceived
70%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.4670
WCAG relative
Temperature
Neutral
47/100 cool
Color family
Green
Tone
Soft
Best ink
Black
10.34:1
Closest name
Dark Sea Green
ΔE2000 9.5
Chroma
15.7
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.773
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
emerald
500 · ΔE 19.6
Web-safe
#99CC99
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue84° of 360°
Saturation17%
Lightness68%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #afba9e.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool47% cool

Reads neutral. Warm and cool siblings keep the same lightness, so you can swap one in without redoing your contrast maths.

Luminance by channel
Red20%
Green75%
Blue5%

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

Every format

HEX#afba9e
HEX (8-digit)#afba9eff
RGBrgb(175, 186, 158)
RGBArgba(175, 186, 158, 1)
HSLhsl(84, 17%, 68%)
HSV / HSBhsv(84, 15%, 73%)
HWBhwb(84 62% 27%)
CMYKcmyk(6%, 0%, 15%, 27%)
LABlab(74.0 -8.9 12.9)
LCHlch(74.0 15.7 124.5)
OKLCHoklch(0.773 0.041 124.8)
XYZ (D65)xyz(41.41, 46.70, 39.17)
Decimal11516574
Display P3color(display-p3 0.686 0.729 0.620)
Web-safe#99CC99

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #afba9e;
background-color: #afba9e;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #afba9e;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#afba9e] bg-[#afba9e]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #afba9e;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.686, green: 0.729, blue: 0.620)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.686, green: 0.729, blue: 0.620, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#AFBA9E</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFAFBA9E)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFAFBA9E)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(158, 186, 175)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(175, 186, 158)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(175, 186, 158)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 175, 186, 158)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.6863f, 0.7294f, 0.6196f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{175,186,158}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #afba9e 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #afba9e 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#424B35, #E2E6DB);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #afba9e 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: #F8F8F6;
  --brand-100: #F0F2EE;
  --brand-200: #DFE3D9;
  --brand-300: #C9D0BD;
  --brand-400: #afba9e;
  --brand-500: #93A27C;
  --brand-600: #7F8F66;
  --brand-700: #6A7755;
  --brand-800: #555F44;
  --brand-900: #3F4734;
  --brand-950: #282C20;
  --brand: #afba9e;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F8F9F6;
  --brand-border: #D8DDCF;
  --brand-hover: #9EAB89;
  --brand-pressed: #8D9C74;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #1D2117;
    --brand-ink: #E2E6DB;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F8F8F6',
        100: '#F0F2EE',
        200: '#DFE3D9',
        300: '#C9D0BD',
        400: '#afba9e',
        500: '#93A27C',
        600: '#7F8F66',
        700: '#6A7755',
        800: '#555F44',
        900: '#3F4734',
        950: '#282C20',
        DEFAULT: '#afba9e',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F8F8F6,
  '100': #F0F2EE,
  '200': #DFE3D9,
  '300': #C9D0BD,
  '400': #afba9e,
  '500': #93A27C,
  '600': #7F8F66,
  '700': #6A7755,
  '800': #555F44,
  '900': #3F4734,
  '950': #282C20,
);
$brand-base: #afba9e;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F8F8F6", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#F0F2EE", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#DFE3D9", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#C9D0BD", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#afba9e", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#93A27C", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#7F8F66", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#6A7755", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#555F44", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#3F4734", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#282C20", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #afba9e · 10.34:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 2.03:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 10.34:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #afba9e as text scores 2.03:1 on white and 10.34:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #424B35 at 4.52:1.

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
#6B7956 · 4.67:1
AA on white−27% L
#6B7956
The quick fox
#515B41 · 7.19:1
AAA on white−37% L
#515B41
The quick fox
#afba9e · 10.34:1
AA on blackalready passes
#afba9e
The quick fox
#afba9e · 10.34:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#afba9e

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #8A9A71 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
#afba9e on white: 2.03:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#afba9e on black: 10.34:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #afba9e as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #afba9e.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White2.03:1AaAa
Slate 501.94:1AaAa
Slate 1001.85:1AaAa
Slate 2001.65:1AaAa
Slate 3001.37:1AaAa
Slate 4001.26:1AaAa
Slate 5002.34:1AaAa
Slate 6003.73:1AaAa
Slate 7005.10:1AaAa
Slate 8007.20:1AaAa
Slate 9008.79:1AaAa
Black10.34:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #BEB69C
deuteranopia · #BCB69F
tritanopia · #B1B7B2

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. #afba9e is pinned to step 400; the rest hold its hue and let saturation ease off at the extremes so the pale end never turns neon.

#F8F8F6
#F0F2EE
#DFE3D9
#C9D0BD
#afba9e
#93A27C
#7F8F66
#6A7755
#555F44
#3F4734
#282C20
Base = 400Lightest = 50 · #F8F8F6Darkest = 950 · #282C20Text 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 0.010 124.8);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.016 124.8);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.024 124.8);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.032 124.8);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.037 124.8);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.041 124.8);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.041 124.8);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.038 124.8);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.034 124.8);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.028 124.8);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.022 124.8);
}

Colors that work with #afba9e

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#F8F9F6
Tinted page background
Border#D8DDCF
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#77865F
Captions on the surface
Accent#57517B
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#424B35
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#F3F4F0
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#1D2117
Dark-mode background
Hover#9EAB89
One step down in lightness
Pressed#8D9C74
Two steps down
Disabled#E5E9E0
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#BACAA3
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 #afba9e

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
  • Status meaning — pair it with an icon or label, never colour alone
  • 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 #424B35
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #8A9A71

Meaning and mood

What a colour in this family tends to signal, and how this particular chroma and lightness change the reading.

safegrowingnaturalpermissive

Green means go, well, and grown. It carries finance, sustainability and health with almost no explanation needed.

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

Red/green pairs are the most common colour-blindness failure — never let the two carry meaning alone.

Reads as
  • FormalityMedium
  • EnergyMedium
  • Weight33/100
  • TemperatureNeutral
  • ApproachabilityBalanced

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#A99EBA
Analogous left#BAB79E
Analogous right#A1BA9E
Split-complement 1#9EA1BA
Split-complement 2#B79EBA
Triadic 1#9EAFBA
Triadic 2#BA9EAF
Tetradic#9EBAB7
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°84°

#afba9e sits at 84°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red68.6%
Green72.9%
Blue62.0%
R · 0–255
175
0xaf
G · 0–255
186
0xba
B · 0–255
158
0x9e

CMYK percentages

Cyan5.9%
Magenta0.0%
Yellow15.1%
Key (black)27.1%

Total ink coverage is 48%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#afba9e text on a black background

contrast 10.34:1

Card sample

#afba9e text on a white background

contrast 2.03:1

Card sample

#afba9e on grey

1.85:1

#afba9e on its own surface

1.92:1

#afba9e on its dark surface

8.06:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #afba9e;
Background color
Panel with #afba9e background
background-color: #afba9e;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #afba9e;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(175, 186, 158, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(175, 186, 158, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #afba9e;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #afba9e, #9EBAA0);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #afba9e, #9EBAA7);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #afba9e;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #afba9e;
caret-color: #afba9e;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #afba9e;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #F3F4F0;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #afba9e;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#afba9e 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #afba9e 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(175, 186, 158, 0.5)
rgb(175 186 158 / 50%)
#afba9e80
hsl(84 17% 68% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #afba9e 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#afba9e1a#F7F8F5
20%#afba9e33#EFF1EC
40%#afba9e66#DFE3D8
60%#afba9e99#CFD6C5
80%#afba9ecc#BFC8B1

Gradients from #afba9e

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, #CDD4C2, #afba9e 45%, #424B35);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #afba9e, #8CAD91);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #afba9e, #A99EBA);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #DBE0D4 0%, #afba9e 45%, #424B35 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F8F9F6, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #CFCCBC 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #B1C7B0 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #424B35 0%, transparent 65%), #afba9e;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #afba9e

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.

#afba9e in the real world

Where a color in this family tends to land, and the interface roles it is usually asked to play.

Industries
SustainabilityFinanceHealth and wellnessAgriculture
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 10.34:1.

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.

#afba9e, answered

What color is #afba9e?

#afba9e is a light soft green, closest to Dark Sea Green (ΔE2000 9.5). It sits at 84° on the hue wheel with 17% saturation and 68% lightness, which reads as neutral.

What is the RGB value of #afba9e?

rgb(175, 186, 158) — 175 red, 186 green and 158 blue out of 255, or 68.6% / 72.9% / 62% by channel.

What is #afba9e in HSL and HSV?

hsl(84, 17%, 68%) and hsv(84, 15%, 73%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #afba9e a light or a dark color?

It is a mid-tone. Relative luminance is 0.4670 and perceived brightness is 70%, so black text on it reaches 10.34:1.

Should I use black or white text on #afba9e?

Black. It scores 10.34:1 against #afba9e, versus 2.03:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #afba9e accessible on a white background?

#afba9e on white scores 2.03:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #6B7956 to reach 4.5:1, or #515B41 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #afba9e?

#A99EBA sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #9EA1BA and #B79EBA, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #afba9e?

For interface work: #F8F9F6 as the surface, #D8DDCF for borders, #77865F for secondary text, #57517B as an accent and #424B35 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #BAB79E and #A1BA9E stays calm, while #A99EBA is the loudest partner.

What is #afba9e in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(6%, 0%, 15%, 27%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #afba9e warm or cool?

Neutral — it scores 47 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #B9BA9E; nudged cooler, #A4BC9C.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #afba9e?

The emerald family — its 500 step is #10b981, ΔE2000 19.6 away. That is a visible difference, so define #afba9e as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #afba9e in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#afba9e] or text-[#afba9e], 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 #afba9e with 50% opacity?

rgba(175, 186, 158, 0.5), or #afba9e80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #D7DDCF; over black, #585D4F.

Is #afba9e a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #99CC99, ΔE2000 10.8 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #afba9e mean?

As a green, it reads safe, growing, natural. Green means go, well, and grown. It carries finance, sustainability and health with almost no explanation needed. At this moderate chroma the association is present but not shouted.

What gradient works with #afba9e?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #CDD4C2, #afba9e 45%, #424B35). For more colour, a short hue run to #8CAD91 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #afba9e in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #afba9e at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.