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cyan · cool

#cad4d2

a light, muted cyan · cool · closest name: Light Gray

Token name suggestion: Drift Lagoon

RGB
202, 212, 210
HSL
168°, 10%, 81%
CMYK
5, 0, 1, 17
Luminance
0.6430

#cad4d2 is a light muted cyan, 168° on the wheel and 60/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (13.86:1). As text it scores 1.52:1 on white — use #637A75 instead. Nearest name is Light Gray, nearest Tailwind family is cyan.

hsl(168 10% 81%)rgb(202 212 210)Base step 300AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #cad4d2 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#cad4d2
Hue
168°
cyan
Saturation
10%
muted
Lightness
81%
light
Brightness
83%
HSV value
Perceived
82%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.6430
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
60/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Muted
Best ink
Black
13.86:1
Closest name
Light Gray
ΔE2000 5
Chroma
3.8
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.862
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
cyan
500 · ΔE 22.7
Web-safe
#CCCCCC
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue168° of 360°
Saturation10%
Lightness81%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #cad4d2.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool60% 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
Red20%
Green73%
Blue7%

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

Every format

HEX#cad4d2
HEX (8-digit)#cad4d2ff
RGBrgb(202, 212, 210)
RGBArgba(202, 212, 210, 1)
HSLhsl(168, 10%, 81%)
HSV / HSBhsv(168, 5%, 83%)
HWBhwb(168 79% 17%)
CMYKcmyk(5%, 0%, 1%, 17%)
LABlab(84.1 -3.8 -0.2)
LCHlch(84.1 3.8 182.9)
OKLCHoklch(0.862 0.011 182.8)
XYZ (D65)xyz(59.53, 64.30, 70.23)
Decimal13292754
Display P3color(display-p3 0.792 0.831 0.824)
Web-safe#CCCCCC

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #cad4d2;
background-color: #cad4d2;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #cad4d2;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#cad4d2] bg-[#cad4d2]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #cad4d2;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.792, green: 0.831, blue: 0.824)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.792, green: 0.831, blue: 0.824, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#CAD4D2</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFCAD4D2)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFCAD4D2)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(210, 212, 202)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(202, 212, 210)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(202, 212, 210)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 202, 212, 210)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.7922f, 0.8314f, 0.8235f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{202,212,210}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #cad4d2 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #cad4d2 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#394644, #DDE4E2);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #cad4d2 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: #F7F8F8;
  --brand-100: #EEF1F0;
  --brand-200: #DBE1E0;
  --brand-300: #cad4d2;
  --brand-400: #A2B4B0;
  --brand-500: #839A96;
  --brand-600: #6E8782;
  --brand-700: #5B716C;
  --brand-800: #495A57;
  --brand-900: #374341;
  --brand-950: #232A28;
  --brand: #cad4d2;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F7F8F8;
  --brand-border: #D2DAD9;
  --brand-hover: #B6C4C1;
  --brand-pressed: #A3B4B1;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #191F1E;
    --brand-ink: #DDE4E2;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F7F8F8',
        100: '#EEF1F0',
        200: '#DBE1E0',
        300: '#cad4d2',
        400: '#A2B4B0',
        500: '#839A96',
        600: '#6E8782',
        700: '#5B716C',
        800: '#495A57',
        900: '#374341',
        950: '#232A28',
        DEFAULT: '#cad4d2',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F7F8F8,
  '100': #EEF1F0,
  '200': #DBE1E0,
  '300': #cad4d2,
  '400': #A2B4B0,
  '500': #839A96,
  '600': #6E8782,
  '700': #5B716C,
  '800': #495A57,
  '900': #374341,
  '950': #232A28,
);
$brand-base: #cad4d2;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F7F8F8", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#EEF1F0", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#DBE1E0", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#cad4d2", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#A2B4B0", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#839A96", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#6E8782", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#5B716C", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#495A57", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#374341", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#232A28", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #cad4d2 · 13.86:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 1.52:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 13.86:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #cad4d2 as text scores 1.52:1 on white and 13.86:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #394644 at 6.50:1.

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
#637A75 · 4.59:1
AA on white−38% L
#637A75
The quick fox
#4A5B57 · 7.18:1
AAA on white−49% L
#4A5B57
The quick fox
#cad4d2 · 13.86:1
AA on blackalready passes
#cad4d2
The quick fox
#cad4d2 · 13.86:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#cad4d2

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #819994 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
#cad4d2 on white: 1.52:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#cad4d2 on black: 13.86:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #cad4d2 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #cad4d2.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White1.52:1AaAa
Slate 501.45:1AaAa
Slate 1001.38:1AaAa
Slate 2001.23:1AaAa
Slate 3001.02:1AaAa
Slate 4001.69:1AaAa
Slate 5003.14:1AaAa
Slate 6005.00:1AaAa
Slate 7006.83:1AaAa
Slate 8009.65:1AaAa
Slate 90011.78:1AaAa
Black13.86:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #D3D3D2
deuteranopia · #D1D1D2
tritanopia · #C8D4D3

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. #cad4d2 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.

#F7F8F8
#EEF1F0
#DBE1E0
#cad4d2
#A2B4B0
#839A96
#6E8782
#5B716C
#495A57
#374341
#232A28
Base = 300Lightest = 50 · #F7F8F8Darkest = 950 · #232A28Text 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 0.003 182.8);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.004 182.8);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.007 182.8);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.009 182.8);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.010 182.8);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.011 182.8);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.011 182.8);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.011 182.8);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.009 182.8);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.008 182.8);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.006 182.8);
}

Colors that work with #cad4d2

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#F7F8F8
Tinted page background
Border#D2DAD9
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#677F7A
Captions on the surface
Accent#755764
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#394644
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#F1F4F3
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#191F1E
Dark-mode background
Hover#B6C4C1
One step down in lightness
Pressed#A3B4B1
Two steps down
Disabled#F4F6F5
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#D2E1DE
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 #cad4d2

Derived from its contrast, chroma and lightness — not from taste.

Works well for
  • Text and icons on dark surfaces
  • Borders, dividers and quiet backgrounds
  • Long-form reading 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
  • 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 #394644
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #819994

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.

With almost no chroma left, the family association is barely present; treat it as a neutral that happens to lean this way. The lightness keeps it airy and approachable.

Worth knowing

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

Reads as
  • FormalityMedium
  • EnergyLow
  • Weight19/100
  • TemperatureCool
  • 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#D4CACC
Analogous left#CAD4CD
Analogous right#CAD1D4
Split-complement 1#D4CAD1
Split-complement 2#D4CDCA
Triadic 1#D2CAD4
Triadic 2#D4D2CA
Tetradic#CDCAD4
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°168°

#cad4d2 sits at 168°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red79.2%
Green83.1%
Blue82.4%
R · 0–255
202
0xca
G · 0–255
212
0xd4
B · 0–255
210
0xd2

CMYK percentages

Cyan4.7%
Magenta0.0%
Yellow0.9%
Key (black)16.9%

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

Color previews

#cad4d2 text on a black background

contrast 13.86:1

Card sample

#cad4d2 text on a white background

contrast 1.52:1

Card sample

#cad4d2 on grey

1.38:1

#cad4d2 on its own surface

1.42:1

#cad4d2 on its dark surface

11.03:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #cad4d2;
Background color
Panel with #cad4d2 background
background-color: #cad4d2;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #cad4d2;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(202, 212, 210, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(202, 212, 210, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #cad4d2;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #cad4d2, #CACFD4);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #cad4d2, #CACDD4);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #cad4d2;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #cad4d2;
caret-color: #cad4d2;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #cad4d2;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #F1F4F3;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #cad4d2;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#cad4d2 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #cad4d2 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(202, 212, 210, 0.5)
rgb(202 212 210 / 50%)
#cad4d280
hsl(168 10% 81% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #cad4d2 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#cad4d21a#FAFBFB
20%#cad4d233#F4F6F6
40%#cad4d266#EAEEED
60%#cad4d299#DFE5E4
80%#cad4d2cc#D5DDDB

Gradients from #cad4d2

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, #ECEFEF, #cad4d2 45%, #394644);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #cad4d2, #B9BFC6);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #cad4d2, #D4CACC);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #F7F8F8 0%, #cad4d2 45%, #394644 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F7F8F8, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #E6EBE7 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #DBDFE2 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #394644 0%, transparent 65%), #cad4d2;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #cad4d2

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.

#cad4d2 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
BackgroundsBordersBody textDividers
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 13.86:1.

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.

#cad4d2, answered

What color is #cad4d2?

#cad4d2 is a light muted cyan, closest to Light Gray (ΔE2000 5). It sits at 168° on the hue wheel with 10% saturation and 81% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #cad4d2?

rgb(202, 212, 210) — 202 red, 212 green and 210 blue out of 255, or 79.2% / 83.1% / 82.4% by channel.

What is #cad4d2 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(168, 10%, 81%) and hsv(168, 5%, 83%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #cad4d2 a light or a dark color?

It is a light color. Relative luminance is 0.6430 and perceived brightness is 82%, so black text on it reaches 13.86:1.

Should I use black or white text on #cad4d2?

Black. It scores 13.86:1 against #cad4d2, versus 1.52:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #cad4d2 accessible on a white background?

#cad4d2 on white scores 1.52:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #637A75 to reach 4.5:1, or #4A5B57 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #cad4d2?

#D4CACC sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #D4CAD1 and #D4CDCA, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #cad4d2?

For interface work: #F7F8F8 as the surface, #D2DAD9 for borders, #677F7A for secondary text, #755764 as an accent and #394644 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #CAD4CD and #CAD1D4 stays calm, while #D4CACC is the loudest partner.

What is #cad4d2 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(5%, 0%, 1%, 17%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #cad4d2 warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 60 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #CAD4CE; nudged cooler, #C9D3D5.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #cad4d2?

The cyan family — its 500 step is #06b6d4, ΔE2000 22.7 away. That is a visible difference, so define #cad4d2 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #cad4d2 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#cad4d2] or text-[#cad4d2], 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 #cad4d2 with 50% opacity?

rgba(202, 212, 210, 0.5), or #cad4d280 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #E5EAE9; over black, #656A69.

Is #cad4d2 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #CCCCCC, ΔE2000 5.2 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #cad4d2 mean?

As a cyan, it reads clean, technical, fresh. Cyan reads as water, air and infrastructure: cool, hygienic, engineered. At this low chroma the association is faint; it behaves more like a neutral.

What gradient works with #cad4d2?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #ECEFEF, #cad4d2 45%, #394644). For more colour, a short hue run to #B9BFC6 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #cad4d2 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #cad4d2 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.