Skip to content
cyan · cool

#cbf3f8

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

Token name suggestion: Whisper Teal

RGB
203, 243, 248
HSL
187°, 76%, 88%
CMYK
18, 2, 0, 3
Luminance
0.8358

#cbf3f8 is a pale electric cyan, 187° on the wheel and 90/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (17.72:1). As text it scores 1.19:1 on white — use #13808D instead. Nearest name is Light Cyan, nearest Tailwind family is cyan.

hsl(187 76% 88%)rgb(203 243 248)Base step 200AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #cbf3f8 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#cbf3f8
Hue
187°
cyan
Saturation
76%
electric
Lightness
88%
pale
Brightness
97%
HSV value
Perceived
91%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.8358
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
90/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Electric
Best ink
Black
17.72:1
Closest name
Light Cyan
ΔE2000 3.9
Chroma
13.6
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.938
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
cyan
500 · ΔE 21
Web-safe
#CCFFFF
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue187° of 360°
Saturation76%
Lightness88%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #cbf3f8.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool90% 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
Red15%
Green77%
Blue8%

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

Every format

HEX#cbf3f8
HEX (8-digit)#cbf3f8ff
RGBrgb(203, 243, 248)
RGBArgba(203, 243, 248, 1)
HSLhsl(187, 76%, 88%)
HSV / HSBhsv(187, 18%, 97%)
HWBhwb(187 80% 3%)
CMYKcmyk(18%, 2%, 0%, 3%)
LABlab(93.3 -11.8 -6.7)
LCHlch(93.3 13.6 209.6)
OKLCHoklch(0.938 0.042 205.7)
XYZ (D65)xyz(73.62, 83.57, 101.04)
Decimal13366264
Display P3color(display-p3 0.796 0.953 0.973)
Web-safe#CCFFFF

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #cbf3f8;
background-color: #cbf3f8;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #cbf3f8;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#cbf3f8] bg-[#cbf3f8]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #cbf3f8;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.796, green: 0.953, blue: 0.973)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.796, green: 0.953, blue: 0.973, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#CBF3F8</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFCBF3F8)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFCBF3F8)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(248, 243, 203)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(203, 243, 248)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(203, 243, 248)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 203, 243, 248)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.7961f, 0.9529f, 0.9725f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{203,243,248}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #cbf3f8 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #cbf3f8 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#0F6670, #D3EBEE);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #cbf3f8 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: #F3FBFC;
  --brand-100: #E7F7F9;
  --brand-200: #cbf3f8;
  --brand-300: #9CE8F2;
  --brand-400: #6BDDEB;
  --brand-500: #39D1E4;
  --brand-600: #1DC3D8;
  --brand-700: #18A2B4;
  --brand-800: #138290;
  --brand-900: #125F68;
  --brand-950: #0B3B41;
  --brand: #cbf3f8;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F4FAFA;
  --brand-border: #C0E8ED;
  --brand-hover: #ABECF4;
  --brand-pressed: #8CE4F0;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #142324;
    --brand-ink: #D3EBEE;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F3FBFC',
        100: '#E7F7F9',
        200: '#cbf3f8',
        300: '#9CE8F2',
        400: '#6BDDEB',
        500: '#39D1E4',
        600: '#1DC3D8',
        700: '#18A2B4',
        800: '#138290',
        900: '#125F68',
        950: '#0B3B41',
        DEFAULT: '#cbf3f8',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F3FBFC,
  '100': #E7F7F9,
  '200': #cbf3f8,
  '300': #9CE8F2,
  '400': #6BDDEB,
  '500': #39D1E4,
  '600': #1DC3D8,
  '700': #18A2B4,
  '800': #138290,
  '900': #125F68,
  '950': #0B3B41,
);
$brand-base: #cbf3f8;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F3FBFC", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#E7F7F9", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#cbf3f8", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#9CE8F2", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#6BDDEB", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#39D1E4", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#1DC3D8", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#18A2B4", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#138290", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#125F68", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#0B3B41", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #cbf3f8 · 17.72:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 1.19:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 17.72:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #cbf3f8 as text scores 1.19:1 on white and 17.72:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #0F6670 at 5.62:1.

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
#13808D · 4.67:1
AA on white−57% L
#13808D
The quick fox
#0E5F69 · 7.34:1
AAA on white−65% L
#0E5F69
The quick fox
#cbf3f8 · 17.72:1
AA on blackalready passes
#cbf3f8
The quick fox
#cbf3f8 · 17.72:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#cbf3f8

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #18A0B1 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
#cbf3f8 on white: 1.19:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#cbf3f8 on black: 17.72:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #cbf3f8 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #cbf3f8.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White1.19:1AaAa
Slate 501.13:1AaAa
Slate 1001.08:1AaAa
Slate 2001.04:1AaAa
Slate 3001.25:1AaAa
Slate 4002.16:1AaAa
Slate 5004.01:1AaAa
Slate 6006.39:1AaAa
Slate 7008.73:1AaAa
Slate 80012.34:1AaAa
Slate 90015.06:1AaAa
Black17.72:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #ECEFF8
deuteranopia · #E4E9F8
tritanopia · #BEF7F4

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. #cbf3f8 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.

#F3FBFC
#E7F7F9
#cbf3f8
#9CE8F2
#6BDDEB
#39D1E4
#1DC3D8
#18A2B4
#138290
#125F68
#0B3B41
Base = 200Lightest = 50 · #F3FBFCDarkest = 950 · #0B3B41Text 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 0.010 205.7);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.017 205.7);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.025 205.7);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.033 205.7);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.038 205.7);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.042 205.7);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.042 205.7);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.039 205.7);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.035 205.7);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.029 205.7);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.023 205.7);
}

Colors that work with #cbf3f8

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#C0E8ED
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B929B
Captions on the surface
Accent#B7152A
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#0F6670
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#E9FAFC
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#142324
Dark-mode background
Hover#ABECF4
One step down in lightness
Pressed#8CE4F0
Two steps down
Disabled#F3F7F7
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#D9F8FC
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 #cbf3f8

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 #0F6670
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #18A0B1

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
  • Weight12/100
  • 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#F8D0CB
Analogous left#CBF8E6
Analogous right#CBDCF8
Split-complement 1#F8CBDC
Split-complement 2#F8E6CB
Triadic 1#F8CBF3
Triadic 2#F3F8CB
Tetradic#E6CBF8
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°187°

#cbf3f8 sits at 187°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red79.6%
Green95.3%
Blue97.3%
R · 0–255
203
0xcb
G · 0–255
243
0xf3
B · 0–255
248
0xf8

CMYK percentages

Cyan18.1%
Magenta2.0%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)2.7%

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

Color previews

#cbf3f8 text on a black background

contrast 17.72:1

Card sample

#cbf3f8 text on a white background

contrast 1.19:1

Card sample

#cbf3f8 on grey

1.08:1

#cbf3f8 on its own surface

1.12:1

#cbf3f8 on its dark surface

13.67:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #cbf3f8;
Background color
Panel with #cbf3f8 background
background-color: #cbf3f8;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #cbf3f8;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(203, 243, 248, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(203, 243, 248, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #cbf3f8;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #cbf3f8, #CBD5F8);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #cbf3f8, #CCCBF8);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #cbf3f8;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #cbf3f8;
caret-color: #cbf3f8;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #cbf3f8;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #E9FAFC;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #cbf3f8;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#cbf3f8 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #cbf3f8 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, 243, 248, 0.5)
rgb(203 243 248 / 50%)
#cbf3f880
hsl(187 76% 88% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #cbf3f8 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#cbf3f81a#FAFEFE
20%#cbf3f833#F5FDFE
40%#cbf3f866#EAFAFC
60%#cbf3f899#E0F8FB
80%#cbf3f8cc#D5F5F9

Gradients from #cbf3f8

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, #EDFBFD, #cbf3f8 45%, #0F6670);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #cbf3f8, #B0B9F4);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #cbf3f8, #F8D0CB);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #F2FCFD 0%, #cbf3f8 45%, #0F6670 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%, #F8FEFB 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #E6ECFC 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #0F6670 0%, transparent 65%), #cbf3f8;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #cbf3f8

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.

#cbf3f8 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 17.72:1.

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.

#cbf3f8, answered

What color is #cbf3f8?

#cbf3f8 is a pale electric cyan, closest to Light Cyan (ΔE2000 3.9). It sits at 187° on the hue wheel with 76% saturation and 88% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #cbf3f8?

rgb(203, 243, 248) — 203 red, 243 green and 248 blue out of 255, or 79.6% / 95.3% / 97.3% by channel.

What is #cbf3f8 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(187, 76%, 88%) and hsv(187, 18%, 97%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #cbf3f8 a light or a dark color?

It is a light color. Relative luminance is 0.8358 and perceived brightness is 91%, so black text on it reaches 17.72:1.

Should I use black or white text on #cbf3f8?

Black. It scores 17.72:1 against #cbf3f8, versus 1.19:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #cbf3f8 accessible on a white background?

#cbf3f8 on white scores 1.19:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #13808D to reach 4.5:1, or #0E5F69 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #cbf3f8?

#F8D0CB sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #F8CBDC and #F8E6CB, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #cbf3f8?

For interface work: #F4FAFA as the surface, #C0E8ED for borders, #4B929B for secondary text, #B7152A as an accent and #0F6670 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #CBF8E6 and #CBDCF8 stays calm, while #F8D0CB is the loudest partner.

What is #cbf3f8 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(18%, 2%, 0%, 3%). 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 #cbf3f8 warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 90 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #CBF8EC; nudged cooler, #CAE4F9.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #cbf3f8?

The cyan family — its 500 step is #06b6d4, ΔE2000 21 away. That is a visible difference, so define #cbf3f8 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #cbf3f8 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#cbf3f8] or text-[#cbf3f8], 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 #cbf3f8 with 50% opacity?

rgba(203, 243, 248, 0.5), or #cbf3f880 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #E5F9FC; over black, #667A7C.

Is #cbf3f8 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #CCFFFF, ΔE2000 4.2 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #cbf3f8 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 #cbf3f8?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #EDFBFD, #cbf3f8 45%, #0F6670). For more colour, a short hue run to #B0B9F4 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #cbf3f8 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #cbf3f8 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.