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cyan · cool

#bcfafa

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

Token name suggestion: Chalk Reef

RGB
188, 250, 250
HSL
180°, 86%, 86%
CMYK
25, 0, 0, 2
Luminance
0.8596

#bcfafa is a pale electric cyan, 180° on the wheel and 88/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (18.19:1). As text it scores 1.15:1 on white — use #0A8484 instead. Nearest name is Pale Turquoise, nearest Tailwind family is cyan.

hsl(180 86% 86%)rgb(188 250 250)Base step 200AAA inkCool

At a glance

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

Hex
#bcfafa
Hue
180°
cyan
Saturation
86%
electric
Lightness
86%
pale
Brightness
98%
HSV value
Perceived
91%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.8596
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
88/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Electric
Best ink
Black
18.19:1
Closest name
Pale Turquoise
ΔE2000 2.6
Chroma
20.3
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.944
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
cyan
500 · ΔE 20.9
Web-safe
#CCFFFF
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue180° of 360°
Saturation86%
Lightness86%
Saturation × lightness field

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

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool88% 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%
Green80%
Blue8%

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

Every format

HEX#bcfafa
HEX (8-digit)#bcfafaff
RGBrgb(188, 250, 250)
RGBArgba(188, 250, 250, 1)
HSLhsl(180, 86%, 86%)
HSV / HSBhsv(180, 25%, 98%)
HWBhwb(180 74% 2%)
CMYKcmyk(25%, 0%, 0%, 2%)
LABlab(94.3 -19.3 -6.3)
LCHlch(94.3 20.3 198.1)
OKLCHoklch(0.944 0.062 196.1)
XYZ (D65)xyz(72.17, 85.96, 103.21)
Decimal12385018
Display P3color(display-p3 0.737 0.980 0.980)
Web-safe#CCFFFF

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #bcfafa;
background-color: #bcfafa;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #bcfafa;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#bcfafa] bg-[#bcfafa]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #bcfafa;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.737, green: 0.980, blue: 0.980)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.737, green: 0.980, blue: 0.980, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#BCFAFA</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFBCFAFA)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFBCFAFA)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(250, 250, 188)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(188, 250, 250)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(188, 250, 250)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 188, 250, 250)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.7373f, 0.9804f, 0.9804f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{188,250,250}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #bcfafa 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #bcfafa 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#097777, #D3EEEE);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #bcfafa 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: #F2FDFD;
  --brand-100: #E5FAFA;
  --brand-200: #bcfafa;
  --brand-300: #97F7F7;
  --brand-400: #62F3F3;
  --brand-500: #2EEFEF;
  --brand-600: #11E4E4;
  --brand-700: #0EBEBE;
  --brand-800: #0B9898;
  --brand-900: #0D6E6E;
  --brand-950: #084545;
  --brand: #bcfafa;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F4FAFA;
  --brand-border: #C0EDED;
  --brand-hover: #9BF8F8;
  --brand-pressed: #7AF5F5;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #142424;
    --brand-ink: #D3EEEE;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F2FDFD',
        100: '#E5FAFA',
        200: '#bcfafa',
        300: '#97F7F7',
        400: '#62F3F3',
        500: '#2EEFEF',
        600: '#11E4E4',
        700: '#0EBEBE',
        800: '#0B9898',
        900: '#0D6E6E',
        950: '#084545',
        DEFAULT: '#bcfafa',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F2FDFD,
  '100': #E5FAFA,
  '200': #bcfafa,
  '300': #97F7F7,
  '400': #62F3F3,
  '500': #2EEFEF,
  '600': #11E4E4,
  '700': #0EBEBE,
  '800': #0B9898,
  '900': #0D6E6E,
  '950': #084545,
);
$brand-base: #bcfafa;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F2FDFD", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#E5FAFA", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#bcfafa", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#97F7F7", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#62F3F3", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#2EEFEF", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#11E4E4", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#0EBEBE", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#0B9898", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#0D6E6E", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#084545", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #bcfafa · 18.19:1
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 · 18.19:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #bcfafa as text scores 1.15:1 on white and 18.19:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #097777 at 4.64:1.

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
#0A8484 · 4.52:1
AA on white−58% L
#0A8484
The quick fox
#076363 · 7.06:1
AAA on white−65% L
#076363
The quick fox
#bcfafa · 18.19:1
AA on blackalready passes
#bcfafa
The quick fox
#bcfafa · 18.19:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#bcfafa

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #0CA1A1 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
#bcfafa on white: 1.15:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#bcfafa on black: 18.19:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

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

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White1.15:1AaAa
Slate 501.10:1AaAa
Slate 1001.05:1AaAa
Slate 2001.07:1AaAa
Slate 3001.29:1AaAa
Slate 4002.22:1AaAa
Slate 5004.12:1AaAa
Slate 6006.56:1AaAa
Slate 7008.97:1AaAa
Slate 80012.67:1AaAa
Slate 90015.47:1AaAa
Black18.19:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #F2F4FA
deuteranopia · #E6EBFB
tritanopia · #A7FEFA

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. #bcfafa 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.

#F2FDFD
#E5FAFA
#bcfafa
#97F7F7
#62F3F3
#2EEFEF
#11E4E4
#0EBEBE
#0B9898
#0D6E6E
#084545
Base = 200Lightest = 50 · #F2FDFDDarkest = 950 · #084545Text 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 0.015 196.1);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.025 196.1);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.037 196.1);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.048 196.1);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.057 196.1);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.062 196.1);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.062 196.1);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.058 196.1);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.052 196.1);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.043 196.1);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.034 196.1);
}

Colors that work with #bcfafa

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#C0EDED
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B9B9B
Captions on the surface
Accent#C10B39
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#097777
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#E7FDFD
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#142424
Dark-mode background
Hover#9BF8F8
One step down in lightness
Pressed#7AF5F5
Two steps down
Disabled#F3F7F7
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#CCFEFE
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 #bcfafa

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 #097777
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #0CA1A1

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 high lightness makes it recede — a surface colour rather than a statement.

Worth knowing

At high lightness it disappears into white surfaces and thin strokes vanish entirely.

Reads as
  • FormalityLow
  • EnergyHigh
  • Weight14/100
  • 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#FABCBC
Analogous left#BCFADB
Analogous right#BCDBFA
Split-complement 1#FABCDB
Split-complement 2#FADBBC
Triadic 1#FABCFA
Triadic 2#FAFABC
Tetradic#DBBCFA
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°180°

#bcfafa sits at 180°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red73.7%
Green98.0%
Blue98.0%
R · 0–255
188
0xbc
G · 0–255
250
0xfa
B · 0–255
250
0xfa

CMYK percentages

Cyan24.8%
Magenta0.0%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)2.0%

Total ink coverage is 27%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#bcfafa text on a black background

contrast 18.19:1

Card sample

#bcfafa text on a white background

contrast 1.15:1

Card sample

#bcfafa on grey

1.05:1

#bcfafa on its own surface

1.09:1

#bcfafa on its dark surface

13.91:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

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

Glowing headline

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

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(188, 250, 250, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(188, 250, 250, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #bcfafa;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #bcfafa, #BCD1FA);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #bcfafa, #BCC1FA);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #bcfafa;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #bcfafa;
caret-color: #bcfafa;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #bcfafa;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #E7FDFD;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #bcfafa;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#bcfafa 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #bcfafa 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(188, 250, 250, 0.5)
rgb(188 250 250 / 50%)
#bcfafa80
hsl(180 86% 86% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #bcfafa 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#bcfafa1a#F8FFFF
20%#bcfafa33#F2FEFE
40%#bcfafa66#E4FDFD
60%#bcfafa99#D7FCFC
80%#bcfafacc#C9FBFB

Gradients from #bcfafa

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, #ECFEFE, #bcfafa 45%, #097777);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #bcfafa, #A0B6F8);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #bcfafa, #FABCBC);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #F1FEFE 0%, #bcfafa 45%, #097777 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%, #ECFEF3 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #D9E7FC 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #097777 0%, transparent 65%), #bcfafa;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #bcfafa

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.

#bcfafa 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 18.19:1.

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.

#bcfafa, answered

What color is #bcfafa?

#bcfafa is a pale electric cyan, closest to Pale Turquoise (ΔE2000 2.6). It sits at 180° on the hue wheel with 86% saturation and 86% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #bcfafa?

rgb(188, 250, 250) — 188 red, 250 green and 250 blue out of 255, or 73.7% / 98% / 98% by channel.

What is #bcfafa in HSL and HSV?

hsl(180, 86%, 86%) and hsv(180, 25%, 98%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #bcfafa a light or a dark color?

It is a light color. Relative luminance is 0.8596 and perceived brightness is 91%, so black text on it reaches 18.19:1.

Should I use black or white text on #bcfafa?

Black. It scores 18.19:1 against #bcfafa, versus 1.15:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #bcfafa accessible on a white background?

#bcfafa on white scores 1.15:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #0A8484 to reach 4.5:1, or #076363 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #bcfafa?

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

What colors go well with #bcfafa?

For interface work: #F4FAFA as the surface, #C0EDED for borders, #4B9B9B for secondary text, #C10B39 as an accent and #097777 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #BCFADB and #BCDBFA stays calm, while #FABCBC is the loudest partner.

What is #bcfafa in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(25%, 0%, 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 #bcfafa warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 88 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #BCFAE3; nudged cooler, #BBE3FB.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #bcfafa?

The cyan family — its 500 step is #06b6d4, ΔE2000 20.9 away. That is a visible difference, so define #bcfafa as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #bcfafa in Tailwind CSS?

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

rgba(188, 250, 250, 0.5), or #bcfafa80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #DEFDFD; over black, #5E7D7D.

Is #bcfafa a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #CCFFFF, ΔE2000 2.5 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #bcfafa 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 #bcfafa?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #ECFEFE, #bcfafa 45%, #097777). For more colour, a short hue run to #A0B6F8 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #bcfafa in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

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