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cyan · cool

#cbecf9

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

Token name suggestion: Frost Lagoon

RGB
203, 236, 249
HSL
197°, 79%, 89%
CMYK
19, 5, 0, 2
Luminance
0.7953

#cbecf9 is a pale electric cyan, 197° on the wheel and 95/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (16.91:1). As text it scores 1.24:1 on white — use #137DA7 instead. Nearest name is Light Blue, nearest Tailwind family is cyan.

hsl(197 79% 89%)rgb(203 236 249)Base step 200AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #cbecf9 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#cbecf9
Hue
197°
cyan
Saturation
79%
electric
Lightness
89%
pale
Brightness
98%
HSV value
Perceived
89%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.7953
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
95/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Electric
Best ink
Black
16.91:1
Closest name
Light Blue
ΔE2000 5.5
Chroma
12.7
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.923
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
cyan
500 · ΔE 20.4
Web-safe
#CCFFFF
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue197° of 360°
Saturation79%
Lightness89%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #cbecf9.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool95% 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
Red16%
Green75%
Blue9%

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

Every format

HEX#cbecf9
HEX (8-digit)#cbecf9ff
RGBrgb(203, 236, 249)
RGBArgba(203, 236, 249, 1)
HSLhsl(197, 79%, 89%)
HSV / HSBhsv(197, 18%, 98%)
HWBhwb(197 80% 2%)
CMYKcmyk(19%, 5%, 0%, 2%)
LABlab(91.5 -8.0 -9.9)
LCHlch(91.5 12.7 230.8)
OKLCHoklch(0.923 0.039 223.6)
XYZ (D65)xyz(71.72, 79.52, 101.18)
Decimal13364473
Display P3color(display-p3 0.796 0.925 0.976)
Web-safe#CCFFFF

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #cbecf9;
background-color: #cbecf9;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #cbecf9;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#cbecf9] bg-[#cbecf9]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #cbecf9;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.796, green: 0.925, blue: 0.976)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.796, green: 0.925, blue: 0.976, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#CBECF9</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFCBECF9)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFCBECF9)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(249, 236, 203)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(203, 236, 249)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(203, 236, 249)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 203, 236, 249)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.7961f, 0.9255f, 0.9765f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{203,236,249}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #cbecf9 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #cbecf9 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#0D5672, #D3E6EE);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #cbecf9 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: #F3F9FC;
  --brand-100: #E6F4F9;
  --brand-200: #cbecf9;
  --brand-300: #9ADAF3;
  --brand-400: #68C8EE;
  --brand-500: #36B5E8;
  --brand-600: #19A4DB;
  --brand-700: #1589B7;
  --brand-800: #116E92;
  --brand-900: #11516A;
  --brand-950: #0A3242;
  --brand: #cbecf9;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F4F9FA;
  --brand-border: #C0E0ED;
  --brand-hover: #ABE0F5;
  --brand-pressed: #8BD4F2;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #142024;
    --brand-ink: #D3E6EE;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F3F9FC',
        100: '#E6F4F9',
        200: '#cbecf9',
        300: '#9ADAF3',
        400: '#68C8EE',
        500: '#36B5E8',
        600: '#19A4DB',
        700: '#1589B7',
        800: '#116E92',
        900: '#11516A',
        950: '#0A3242',
        DEFAULT: '#cbecf9',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F3F9FC,
  '100': #E6F4F9,
  '200': #cbecf9,
  '300': #9ADAF3,
  '400': #68C8EE,
  '500': #36B5E8,
  '600': #19A4DB,
  '700': #1589B7,
  '800': #116E92,
  '900': #11516A,
  '950': #0A3242,
);
$brand-base: #cbecf9;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F3F9FC", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#E6F4F9", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#cbecf9", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#9ADAF3", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#68C8EE", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#36B5E8", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#19A4DB", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#1589B7", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#116E92", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#11516A", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#0A3242", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #cbecf9 · 16.91:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 1.24:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 16.91:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #cbecf9 as text scores 1.24:1 on white and 16.91:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #0D5672 at 6.52:1.

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
#137DA7 · 4.65:1
AA on white−52% L
#137DA7
The quick fox
#0F5F7E · 7.10:1
AAA on white−61% L
#0F5F7E
The quick fox
#cbecf9 · 16.91:1
AA on blackalready passes
#cbecf9
The quick fox
#cbecf9 · 16.91:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#cbecf9

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #189CD0 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
#cbecf9 on white: 1.24:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#cbecf9 on black: 16.91:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #cbecf9 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #cbecf9.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White1.24:1AaAa
Slate 501.19:1AaAa
Slate 1001.13:1AaAa
Slate 2001.01:1AaAa
Slate 3001.20:1AaAa
Slate 4002.06:1AaAa
Slate 5003.83:1AaAa
Slate 6006.10:1AaAa
Slate 7008.34:1AaAa
Slate 80011.78:1AaAa
Slate 90014.37:1AaAa
Black16.91:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #E5EAFA
deuteranopia · #DDE4F9
tritanopia · #BEF0F0

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. #cbecf9 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.

#F3F9FC
#E6F4F9
#cbecf9
#9ADAF3
#68C8EE
#36B5E8
#19A4DB
#1589B7
#116E92
#11516A
#0A3242
Base = 200Lightest = 50 · #F3F9FCDarkest = 950 · #0A3242Text 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 0.010 223.6);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.016 223.6);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.023 223.6);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.030 223.6);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.036 223.6);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.039 223.6);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.039 223.6);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.036 223.6);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.033 223.6);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.027 223.6);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.021 223.6);
}

Colors that work with #cbecf9

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#F4F9FA
Tinted page background
Border#C0E0ED
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B849B
Captions on the surface
Accent#BA1512
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#0D5672
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#E8F7FC
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#142024
Dark-mode background
Hover#ABE0F5
One step down in lightness
Pressed#8BD4F2
Two steps down
Disabled#F3F6F7
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#D8F2FD
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 #cbecf9

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 #0D5672
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #189CD0

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#F9D8CB
Analogous left#CBF9EF
Analogous right#CBD5F9
Split-complement 1#F9CBD5
Split-complement 2#F9EFCB
Triadic 1#F9CBEC
Triadic 2#ECF9CB
Tetradic#EFCBF9
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°197°

#cbecf9 sits at 197°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red79.6%
Green92.5%
Blue97.6%
R · 0–255
203
0xcb
G · 0–255
236
0xec
B · 0–255
249
0xf9

CMYK percentages

Cyan18.5%
Magenta5.2%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)2.4%

Total ink coverage is 26%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#cbecf9 text on a black background

contrast 16.91:1

Card sample

#cbecf9 text on a white background

contrast 1.24:1

Card sample

#cbecf9 on grey

1.13:1

#cbecf9 on its own surface

1.17:1

#cbecf9 on its dark surface

13.40:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #cbecf9;
Background color
Panel with #cbecf9 background
background-color: #cbecf9;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #cbecf9;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(203, 236, 249, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(203, 236, 249, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #cbecf9;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #cbecf9, #CBCDF9);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #cbecf9, #D4CBF9);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #cbecf9;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #cbecf9;
caret-color: #cbecf9;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #cbecf9;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #E8F7FC;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #cbecf9;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#cbecf9 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #cbecf9 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(203, 236, 249, 0.5)
rgb(203 236 249 / 50%)
#cbecf980
hsl(197 79% 89% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #cbecf9 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#cbecf91a#FAFDFE
20%#cbecf933#F5FBFE
40%#cbecf966#EAF7FD
60%#cbecf999#E0F4FB
80%#cbecf9cc#D5F0FA

Gradients from #cbecf9

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, #EDF8FD, #cbecf9 45%, #0D5672);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #cbecf9, #B2AFF6);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #cbecf9, #F9D8CB);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #F1FAFD 0%, #cbecf9 45%, #0D5672 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F4F9FA, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #F9FEFD 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #E6E9FC 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #0D5672 0%, transparent 65%), #cbecf9;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #cbecf9

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.

#cbecf9 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 16.91:1.

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.

#cbecf9, answered

What color is #cbecf9?

#cbecf9 is a pale electric cyan, closest to Light Blue (ΔE2000 5.5). It sits at 197° on the hue wheel with 79% saturation and 89% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #cbecf9?

rgb(203, 236, 249) — 203 red, 236 green and 249 blue out of 255, or 79.6% / 92.5% / 97.6% by channel.

What is #cbecf9 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(197, 79%, 89%) and hsv(197, 18%, 98%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #cbecf9 a light or a dark color?

It is a light color. Relative luminance is 0.7953 and perceived brightness is 89%, so black text on it reaches 16.91:1.

Should I use black or white text on #cbecf9?

Black. It scores 16.91:1 against #cbecf9, versus 1.24:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #cbecf9 accessible on a white background?

#cbecf9 on white scores 1.24:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #137DA7 to reach 4.5:1, or #0F5F7E for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #cbecf9?

#F9D8CB sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #F9CBD5 and #F9EFCB, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #cbecf9?

For interface work: #F4F9FA as the surface, #C0E0ED for borders, #4B849B for secondary text, #BA1512 as an accent and #0D5672 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #CBF9EF and #CBD5F9 stays calm, while #F9D8CB is the loudest partner.

What is #cbecf9 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(19%, 5%, 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 #cbecf9 warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 95 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #CBF9F5; nudged cooler, #CAE3FA.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #cbecf9?

The cyan family — its 500 step is #06b6d4, ΔE2000 20.4 away. That is a visible difference, so define #cbecf9 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #cbecf9 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#cbecf9] or text-[#cbecf9], 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 #cbecf9 with 50% opacity?

rgba(203, 236, 249, 0.5), or #cbecf980 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #E5F6FC; over black, #66767D.

Is #cbecf9 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #CCFFFF, ΔE2000 8.7 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #cbecf9 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 #cbecf9?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #EDF8FD, #cbecf9 45%, #0D5672). For more colour, a short hue run to #B2AFF6 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #cbecf9 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #cbecf9 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.