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cyan · cool

#bfeaff

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

Token name suggestion: Mist Reef

RGB
191, 234, 255
HSL
200°, 100%, 88%
CMYK
25, 8, 0, 0
Luminance
0.7714

#bfeaff is a pale electric cyan, 200° on the wheel and 96/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (16.43:1). As text it scores 1.28:1 on white — use #007DBA instead. Nearest name is Light Blue, nearest Tailwind family is cyan.

hsl(200 100% 88%)rgb(191 234 255)Base step 200AAA inkCool

At a glance

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

Hex
#bfeaff
Hue
200°
cyan
Saturation
100%
electric
Lightness
88%
pale
Brightness
100%
HSV value
Perceived
88%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.7714
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
96/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Electric
Best ink
Black
16.43:1
Closest name
Light Blue
ΔE2000 5
Chroma
17.4
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.913
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
cyan
500 · ΔE 18.7
Web-safe
#CCFFFF
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue200° of 360°
Saturation100%
Lightness88%
Saturation × lightness field

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

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool96% 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
Red14%
Green76%
Blue9%

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

Every format

HEX#bfeaff
HEX (8-digit)#bfeaffff
RGBrgb(191, 234, 255)
RGBArgba(191, 234, 255, 1)
HSLhsl(200, 100%, 88%)
HSV / HSBhsv(200, 25%, 100%)
HWBhwb(200 75% 0%)
CMYKcmyk(25%, 8%, 0%, 0%)
LABlab(90.4 -9.3 -14.7)
LCHlch(90.4 17.4 237.7)
OKLCHoklch(0.913 0.053 229.1)
XYZ (D65)xyz(68.95, 77.14, 105.84)
Decimal12577535
Display P3color(display-p3 0.749 0.918 1.000)
Web-safe#CCFFFF

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #bfeaff;
background-color: #bfeaff;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #bfeaff;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#bfeaff] bg-[#bfeaff]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #bfeaff;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.749, green: 0.918, blue: 1.000)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.749, green: 0.918, blue: 1.000, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#BFEAFF</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFBFEAFF)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFBFEAFF)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(255, 234, 191)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(191, 234, 255)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(191, 234, 255)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 191, 234, 255)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.7490f, 0.9176f, 1.0000f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{191,234,255}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #bfeaff 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #bfeaff 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#005680, #D3E5EE);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #bfeaff 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: #F1FAFE;
  --brand-100: #E3F4FC;
  --brand-200: #bfeaff;
  --brand-300: #8FDAFF;
  --brand-400: #57C8FF;
  --brand-500: #1FB5FF;
  --brand-600: #00A4F5;
  --brand-700: #0089CC;
  --brand-800: #006EA3;
  --brand-900: #055176;
  --brand-950: #033249;
  --brand: #bfeaff;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F4F8FA;
  --brand-border: #C0DEED;
  --brand-hover: #9CDEFF;
  --brand-pressed: #78D3FF;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #141F24;
    --brand-ink: #D3E5EE;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F1FAFE',
        100: '#E3F4FC',
        200: '#bfeaff',
        300: '#8FDAFF',
        400: '#57C8FF',
        500: '#1FB5FF',
        600: '#00A4F5',
        700: '#0089CC',
        800: '#006EA3',
        900: '#055176',
        950: '#033249',
        DEFAULT: '#bfeaff',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F1FAFE,
  '100': #E3F4FC,
  '200': #bfeaff,
  '300': #8FDAFF,
  '400': #57C8FF,
  '500': #1FB5FF,
  '600': #00A4F5,
  '700': #0089CC,
  '800': #006EA3,
  '900': #055176,
  '950': #033249,
);
$brand-base: #bfeaff;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F1FAFE", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#E3F4FC", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#bfeaff", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#8FDAFF", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#57C8FF", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#1FB5FF", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#00A4F5", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#0089CC", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#006EA3", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#055176", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#033249", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #bfeaff · 16.43:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 1.28:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 16.43:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #bfeaff as text scores 1.28:1 on white and 16.43:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #005680 at 6.22:1.

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
#007DBA · 4.52:1
AA on white−51% L
#007DBA
The quick fox
#005E8C · 7.05:1
AAA on white−60% L
#005E8C
The quick fox
#bfeaff · 16.43:1
AA on blackalready passes
#bfeaff
The quick fox
#bfeaff · 16.43:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#bfeaff

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #009CE8 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
#bfeaff on white: 1.28:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#bfeaff on black: 16.43:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

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

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White1.28:1AaAa
Slate 501.22:1AaAa
Slate 1001.17:1AaAa
Slate 2001.04:1AaAa
Slate 3001.16:1AaAa
Slate 4002.01:1AaAa
Slate 5003.72:1AaAa
Slate 6005.93:1AaAa
Slate 7008.10:1AaAa
Slate 80011.44:1AaAa
Slate 90013.97:1AaAa
Black16.43:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #DFE8FF
deuteranopia · #D6E0FF
tritanopia · #ACF0F0

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. #bfeaff 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.

#F1FAFE
#E3F4FC
#bfeaff
#8FDAFF
#57C8FF
#1FB5FF
#00A4F5
#0089CC
#006EA3
#055176
#033249
Base = 200Lightest = 50 · #F1FAFEDarkest = 950 · #033249Text 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 0.013 229.1);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.021 229.1);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.032 229.1);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.041 229.1);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.049 229.1);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.053 229.1);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.053 229.1);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.050 229.1);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.045 229.1);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.037 229.1);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.029 229.1);
}

Colors that work with #bfeaff

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#F4F8FA
Tinted page background
Border#C0DEED
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B819B
Captions on the surface
Accent#CC1000
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#005680
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#E5F7FF
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#141F24
Dark-mode background
Hover#9CDEFF
One step down in lightness
Pressed#78D3FF
Two steps down
Disabled#F3F6F7
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#D4F1FF
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 #bfeaff

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 #005680
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #009CE8

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
  • Weight13/100
  • 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#FFD4BF
Analogous left#BFFFF4
Analogous right#BFCAFF
Split-complement 1#FFBFCA
Split-complement 2#FFF4BF
Triadic 1#FFBFEA
Triadic 2#EAFFBF
Tetradic#F4BFFF
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°200°

#bfeaff sits at 200°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red74.9%
Green91.8%
Blue100.0%
R · 0–255
191
0xbf
G · 0–255
234
0xea
B · 0–255
255
0xff

CMYK percentages

Cyan25.1%
Magenta8.2%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)0.0%

Total ink coverage is 33%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#bfeaff text on a black background

contrast 16.43:1

Card sample

#bfeaff text on a white background

contrast 1.28:1

Card sample

#bfeaff on grey

1.17:1

#bfeaff on its own surface

1.20:1

#bfeaff on its dark surface

13.13:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

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

Glowing headline

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

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(191, 234, 255, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(191, 234, 255, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #bfeaff;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #bfeaff, #BFC0FF);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

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

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #bfeaff;
caret-color: #bfeaff;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #bfeaff;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #E5F7FF;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #bfeaff;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#bfeaff 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #bfeaff 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(191, 234, 255, 0.5)
rgb(191 234 255 / 50%)
#bfeaff80
hsl(200 100% 88% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #bfeaff 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#bfeaff1a#F9FDFF
20%#bfeaff33#F2FBFF
40%#bfeaff66#E5F7FF
60%#bfeaff99#D9F2FF
80%#bfeaffcc#CCEEFF

Gradients from #bfeaff

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, #EBF8FF, #bfeaff 45%, #005680);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #bfeaff, #A8A1FF);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #bfeaff, #FFD4BF);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #F0FAFF 0%, #bfeaff 45%, #005680 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F4F8FA, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #F2FFFC 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #DEE1FF 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #005680 0%, transparent 65%), #bfeaff;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #bfeaff

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.

#bfeaff 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 16.43:1.

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.

#bfeaff, answered

What color is #bfeaff?

#bfeaff is a pale electric cyan, closest to Light Blue (ΔE2000 5). It sits at 200° on the hue wheel with 100% saturation and 88% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #bfeaff?

rgb(191, 234, 255) — 191 red, 234 green and 255 blue out of 255, or 74.9% / 91.8% / 100% by channel.

What is #bfeaff in HSL and HSV?

hsl(200, 100%, 88%) and hsv(200, 25%, 100%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #bfeaff a light or a dark color?

It is a light color. Relative luminance is 0.7714 and perceived brightness is 88%, so black text on it reaches 16.43:1.

Should I use black or white text on #bfeaff?

Black. It scores 16.43:1 against #bfeaff, versus 1.28:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #bfeaff accessible on a white background?

#bfeaff on white scores 1.28:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #007DBA to reach 4.5:1, or #005E8C for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #bfeaff?

#FFD4BF sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #FFBFCA and #FFF4BF, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #bfeaff?

For interface work: #F4F8FA as the surface, #C0DEED for borders, #4B819B for secondary text, #CC1000 as an accent and #005680 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #BFFFF4 and #BFCAFF stays calm, while #FFD4BF is the loudest partner.

What is #bfeaff in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(25%, 8%, 0%, 0%). 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 #bfeaff warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 96 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #BFFFFD; nudged cooler, #BFE1FF.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #bfeaff?

The cyan family — its 500 step is #06b6d4, ΔE2000 18.7 away. That is a visible difference, so define #bfeaff as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #bfeaff in Tailwind CSS?

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

rgba(191, 234, 255, 0.5), or #bfeaff80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #DFF5FF; over black, #607580.

Is #bfeaff a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #CCFFFF, ΔE2000 10.1 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #bfeaff 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 #bfeaff?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #EBF8FF, #bfeaff 45%, #005680). For more colour, a short hue run to #A8A1FF keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #bfeaff in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

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