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cyan · cool

#c9fcf7

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

Token name suggestion: Mist Lagoon

RGB
201, 252, 247
HSL
174°, 90%, 89%
CMYK
20, 0, 2, 1
Luminance
0.8875

#c9fcf7 is a pale electric cyan, 174° on the wheel and 85/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (18.75:1). As text it scores 1.12:1 on white — use #078275 instead. Nearest name is Pale Turquoise, nearest Tailwind family is teal.

hsl(174 90% 89%)rgb(201 252 247)Base step 200AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #c9fcf7 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#c9fcf7
Hue
174°
cyan
Saturation
90%
electric
Lightness
89%
pale
Brightness
99%
HSV value
Perceived
93%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.8875
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
85/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Electric
Best ink
Black
18.75:1
Closest name
Pale Turquoise
ΔE2000 4.3
Chroma
17.3
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.955
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
teal
500 · ΔE 22.2
Web-safe
#CCFFFF
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue174° of 360°
Saturation90%
Lightness89%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #c9fcf7.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool85% 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%
Green78%
Blue8%

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

Every format

HEX#c9fcf7
HEX (8-digit)#c9fcf7ff
RGBrgb(201, 252, 247)
RGBArgba(201, 252, 247, 1)
HSLhsl(174, 90%, 89%)
HSV / HSBhsv(174, 20%, 99%)
HWBhwb(174 79% 1%)
CMYKcmyk(20%, 0%, 2%, 1%)
LABlab(95.5 -17.1 -2.9)
LCHlch(95.5 17.3 189.7)
OKLCHoklch(0.955 0.052 188.9)
XYZ (D65)xyz(75.68, 88.75, 101.12)
Decimal13237495
Display P3color(display-p3 0.788 0.988 0.969)
Web-safe#CCFFFF

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #c9fcf7;
background-color: #c9fcf7;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #c9fcf7;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#c9fcf7] bg-[#c9fcf7]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #c9fcf7;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.788, green: 0.988, blue: 0.969)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.788, green: 0.988, blue: 0.969, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#C9FCF7</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFC9FCF7)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFC9FCF7)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(247, 252, 201)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(201, 252, 247)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(201, 252, 247)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 201, 252, 247)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.7882f, 0.9882f, 0.9686f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{201,252,247}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #c9fcf7 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #c9fcf7 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#07796E, #D3EEEB);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #c9fcf7 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: #F2FDFC;
  --brand-100: #E5FBF8;
  --brand-200: #c9fcf7;
  --brand-300: #95F9EF;
  --brand-400: #60F6E7;
  --brand-500: #2AF3DF;
  --brand-600: #0DE8D2;
  --brand-700: #0BC1AF;
  --brand-800: #099B8C;
  --brand-900: #0B7066;
  --brand-950: #074640;
  --brand: #c9fcf7;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F4FAFA;
  --brand-border: #C0EDE8;
  --brand-hover: #A7FAF2;
  --brand-pressed: #85F8ED;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #142423;
    --brand-ink: #D3EEEB;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F2FDFC',
        100: '#E5FBF8',
        200: '#c9fcf7',
        300: '#95F9EF',
        400: '#60F6E7',
        500: '#2AF3DF',
        600: '#0DE8D2',
        700: '#0BC1AF',
        800: '#099B8C',
        900: '#0B7066',
        950: '#074640',
        DEFAULT: '#c9fcf7',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F2FDFC,
  '100': #E5FBF8,
  '200': #c9fcf7,
  '300': #95F9EF,
  '400': #60F6E7,
  '500': #2AF3DF,
  '600': #0DE8D2,
  '700': #0BC1AF,
  '800': #099B8C,
  '900': #0B7066,
  '950': #074640,
);
$brand-base: #c9fcf7;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F2FDFC", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#E5FBF8", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#c9fcf7", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#95F9EF", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#60F6E7", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#2AF3DF", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#0DE8D2", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#0BC1AF", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#099B8C", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#0B7066", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#074640", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #c9fcf7 · 18.75:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 1.12:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 18.75:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #c9fcf7 as text scores 1.12:1 on white and 18.75:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #07796E at 4.72:1.

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
#078275 · 4.71:1
AA on white−62% L
#078275
The quick fox
#056057 · 7.45:1
AAA on white−69% L
#056057
The quick fox
#c9fcf7 · 18.75:1
AA on blackalready passes
#c9fcf7
The quick fox
#c9fcf7 · 18.75:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#c9fcf7

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #09A394 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
#c9fcf7 on white: 1.12:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#c9fcf7 on black: 18.75:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #c9fcf7 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #c9fcf7.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White1.12:1AaAa
Slate 501.07:1AaAa
Slate 1001.02:1AaAa
Slate 2001.10:1AaAa
Slate 3001.33:1AaAa
Slate 4002.29:1AaAa
Slate 5004.25:1AaAa
Slate 6006.77:1AaAa
Slate 7009.25:1AaAa
Slate 80013.06:1AaAa
Slate 90015.94:1AaAa
Black18.75:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #F6F6F7
deuteranopia · #ECEFF8
tritanopia · #BAFFFA

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. #c9fcf7 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.

#F2FDFC
#E5FBF8
#c9fcf7
#95F9EF
#60F6E7
#2AF3DF
#0DE8D2
#0BC1AF
#099B8C
#0B7066
#074640
Base = 200Lightest = 50 · #F2FDFCDarkest = 950 · #074640Text 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 0.013 188.9);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.021 188.9);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.031 188.9);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.041 188.9);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.048 188.9);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.052 188.9);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.052 188.9);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.049 188.9);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.044 188.9);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.036 188.9);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.029 188.9);
}

Colors that work with #c9fcf7

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#C0EDE8
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B9B93
Captions on the surface
Accent#C50748
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#07796E
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#E7FEFB
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#142423
Dark-mode background
Hover#A7FAF2
One step down in lightness
Pressed#85F8ED
Two steps down
Disabled#F3F7F7
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#D6FFFB
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 #c9fcf7

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 #07796E
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #09A394

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
  • Weight11/100
  • 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#FCC9CE
Analogous left#C9FCDD
Analogous right#C9E7FC
Split-complement 1#FCC9E7
Split-complement 2#FCDDC9
Triadic 1#F7C9FC
Triadic 2#FCF7C9
Tetradic#DDC9FC
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°174°

#c9fcf7 sits at 174°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red78.8%
Green98.8%
Blue96.9%
R · 0–255
201
0xc9
G · 0–255
252
0xfc
B · 0–255
247
0xf7

CMYK percentages

Cyan20.2%
Magenta0.0%
Yellow2.0%
Key (black)1.2%

Total ink coverage is 23%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#c9fcf7 text on a black background

contrast 18.75:1

Card sample

#c9fcf7 text on a white background

contrast 1.12:1

Card sample

#c9fcf7 on grey

1.02:1

#c9fcf7 on its own surface

1.06:1

#c9fcf7 on its dark surface

14.35:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #c9fcf7;
Background color
Panel with #c9fcf7 background
background-color: #c9fcf7;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #c9fcf7;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(201, 252, 247, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(201, 252, 247, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #c9fcf7;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #c9fcf7, #C9DFFC);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #c9fcf7, #C9D2FC);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #c9fcf7;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #c9fcf7;
caret-color: #c9fcf7;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #c9fcf7;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #E7FEFB;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #c9fcf7;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#c9fcf7 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #c9fcf7 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(201, 252, 247, 0.5)
rgb(201 252 247 / 50%)
#c9fcf780
hsl(174 90% 89% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #c9fcf7 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#c9fcf71a#FAFFFE
20%#c9fcf733#F4FEFD
40%#c9fcf766#E9FEFC
60%#c9fcf799#DFFDFA
80%#c9fcf7cc#D4FDF9

Gradients from #c9fcf7

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, #ECFEFC, #c9fcf7 45%, #07796E);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #c9fcf7, #ACC7FA);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #c9fcf7, #FCC9CE);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #F1FEFD 0%, #c9fcf7 45%, #07796E 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%, #F9FFFB 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #E6F2FE 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #07796E 0%, transparent 65%), #c9fcf7;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #c9fcf7

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.

#c9fcf7 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 18.75:1.

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.

#c9fcf7, answered

What color is #c9fcf7?

#c9fcf7 is a pale electric cyan, closest to Pale Turquoise (ΔE2000 4.3). It sits at 174° on the hue wheel with 90% saturation and 89% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #c9fcf7?

rgb(201, 252, 247) — 201 red, 252 green and 247 blue out of 255, or 78.8% / 98.8% / 96.9% by channel.

What is #c9fcf7 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(174, 90%, 89%) and hsv(174, 20%, 99%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #c9fcf7 a light or a dark color?

It is a light color. Relative luminance is 0.8875 and perceived brightness is 93%, so black text on it reaches 18.75:1.

Should I use black or white text on #c9fcf7?

Black. It scores 18.75:1 against #c9fcf7, versus 1.12:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #c9fcf7 accessible on a white background?

#c9fcf7 on white scores 1.12:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #078275 to reach 4.5:1, or #056057 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #c9fcf7?

#FCC9CE sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #FCC9E7 and #FCDDC9, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #c9fcf7?

For interface work: #F4FAFA as the surface, #C0EDE8 for borders, #4B9B93 for secondary text, #C50748 as an accent and #07796E for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #C9FCDD and #C9E7FC stays calm, while #FCC9CE is the loudest partner.

What is #c9fcf7 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(20%, 0%, 2%, 1%). 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 #c9fcf7 warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 85 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #C9FCE4; nudged cooler, #C8EFFD.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #c9fcf7?

The teal family — its 500 step is #14b8a6, ΔE2000 22.2 away. That is a visible difference, so define #c9fcf7 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #c9fcf7 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#c9fcf7] or text-[#c9fcf7], 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 #c9fcf7 with 50% opacity?

rgba(201, 252, 247, 0.5), or #c9fcf780 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #E4FEFB; over black, #657E7C.

Is #c9fcf7 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #CCFFFF, ΔE2000 2.1 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #c9fcf7 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 #c9fcf7?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #ECFEFC, #c9fcf7 45%, #07796E). For more colour, a short hue run to #ACC7FA keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #c9fcf7 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #c9fcf7 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.