Skip to content
cyan · cool

#cddedc

a light, soft cyan · cool · closest name: Azure

Token name suggestion: Morning Reef

RGB
205, 222, 220
HSL
173°, 21%, 84%
CMYK
8, 0, 1, 13
Luminance
0.7039

#cddedc is a light soft cyan, 173° on the wheel and 70/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (15.08:1). As text it scores 1.39:1 on white — use #537D78 instead. Nearest name is Azure, nearest Tailwind family is cyan.

hsl(173 21% 84%)rgb(205 222 220)Base step 200AAA inkCool

At a glance

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

Hex
#cddedc
Hue
173°
cyan
Saturation
21%
soft
Lightness
84%
light
Brightness
87%
HSV value
Perceived
85%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.7039
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
70/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Soft
Best ink
Black
15.08:1
Closest name
Azure
ΔE2000 7.3
Chroma
6.1
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.887
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
cyan
500 · ΔE 22.3
Web-safe
#CCCCCC
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue173° of 360°
Saturation21%
Lightness84%
Saturation × lightness field

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

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool70% 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
Red18%
Green74%
Blue7%

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

Every format

HEX#cddedc
HEX (8-digit)#cddedcff
RGBrgb(205, 222, 220)
RGBArgba(205, 222, 220, 1)
HSLhsl(173, 21%, 84%)
HSV / HSBhsv(173, 8%, 87%)
HWBhwb(173 80% 13%)
CMYKcmyk(8%, 0%, 1%, 13%)
LABlab(87.2 -6.0 -1.0)
LCHlch(87.2 6.1 189.1)
OKLCHoklch(0.887 0.018 188.3)
XYZ (D65)xyz(64.21, 70.39, 77.90)
Decimal13491932
Display P3color(display-p3 0.804 0.871 0.863)
Web-safe#CCCCCC

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #cddedc;
background-color: #cddedc;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #cddedc;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#cddedc] bg-[#cddedc]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #cddedc;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.804, green: 0.871, blue: 0.863)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.804, green: 0.871, blue: 0.863, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#CDDEDC</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFCDDEDC)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFCDDEDC)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(220, 222, 205)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(205, 222, 220)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(205, 222, 220)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 205, 222, 220)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.8039f, 0.8706f, 0.8627f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{205,222,220}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #cddedc 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #cddedc 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#334D4A, #DAE7E5);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #cddedc 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: #F6F9F8;
  --brand-100: #EDF2F2;
  --brand-200: #cddedc;
  --brand-300: #BBD2D0;
  --brand-400: #9ABCB8;
  --brand-500: #78A6A0;
  --brand-600: #61938E;
  --brand-700: #517B76;
  --brand-800: #41625E;
  --brand-900: #324946;
  --brand-950: #1F2D2C;
  --brand: #cddedc;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F6F9F9;
  --brand-border: #CEDFDD;
  --brand-hover: #B7D0CD;
  --brand-pressed: #A2C2BE;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #162220;
    --brand-ink: #DAE7E5;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F6F9F8',
        100: '#EDF2F2',
        200: '#cddedc',
        300: '#BBD2D0',
        400: '#9ABCB8',
        500: '#78A6A0',
        600: '#61938E',
        700: '#517B76',
        800: '#41625E',
        900: '#324946',
        950: '#1F2D2C',
        DEFAULT: '#cddedc',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F6F9F8,
  '100': #EDF2F2,
  '200': #cddedc,
  '300': #BBD2D0,
  '400': #9ABCB8,
  '500': #78A6A0,
  '600': #61938E,
  '700': #517B76,
  '800': #41625E,
  '900': #324946,
  '950': #1F2D2C,
);
$brand-base: #cddedc;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F6F9F8", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#EDF2F2", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#cddedc", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#BBD2D0", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#9ABCB8", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#78A6A0", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#61938E", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#517B76", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#41625E", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#324946", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#1F2D2C", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #cddedc · 15.08:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 1.39:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 15.08:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #cddedc as text scores 1.39:1 on white and 15.08:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #334D4A at 6.55:1.

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
#537D78 · 4.59:1
AA on white−43% L
#537D78
The quick fox
#3E5E5B · 7.10:1
AAA on white−53% L
#3E5E5B
The quick fox
#cddedc · 15.08:1
AA on blackalready passes
#cddedc
The quick fox
#cddedc · 15.08:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#cddedc

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #6B9D97 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
#cddedc on white: 1.39:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#cddedc on black: 15.08:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

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

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White1.39:1AaAa
Slate 501.33:1AaAa
Slate 1001.27:1AaAa
Slate 2001.13:1AaAa
Slate 3001.07:1AaAa
Slate 4001.84:1AaAa
Slate 5003.42:1AaAa
Slate 6005.44:1AaAa
Slate 7007.43:1AaAa
Slate 80010.50:1AaAa
Slate 90012.82:1AaAa
Black15.08:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #DCDCDC
deuteranopia · #D8D9DC
tritanopia · #C9DFDD

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. #cddedc 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.

#F6F9F8
#EDF2F2
#cddedc
#BBD2D0
#9ABCB8
#78A6A0
#61938E
#517B76
#41625E
#324946
#1F2D2C
Base = 200Lightest = 50 · #F6F9F8Darkest = 950 · #1F2D2CText 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 0.005 188.3);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.007 188.3);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.011 188.3);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.014 188.3);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.017 188.3);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.018 188.3);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.018 188.3);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.017 188.3);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.015 188.3);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.013 188.3);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.010 188.3);
}

Colors that work with #cddedc

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#F6F9F9
Tinted page background
Border#CEDFDD
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#5B8A85
Captions on the surface
Accent#804C60
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#334D4A
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#F0F5F4
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#162220
Dark-mode background
Hover#B7D0CD
One step down in lightness
Pressed#A2C2BE
Two steps down
Disabled#F3F7F6
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#D6E9E7
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 #cddedc

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

Works well for
  • Text and icons on dark surfaces
  • Charts, tags and secondary 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 #334D4A
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #6B9D97

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.

The muted chroma softens the association — it reads considered rather than loud, which suits long-form and data-heavy screens. 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
  • EnergyMedium
  • Weight16/100
  • 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#DECDCF
Analogous left#CDDED3
Analogous right#CDD7DE
Split-complement 1#DECDD7
Split-complement 2#DED3CD
Triadic 1#DCCDDE
Triadic 2#DEDCCD
Tetradic#D3CDDE
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°173°

#cddedc sits at 173°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red80.4%
Green87.1%
Blue86.3%
R · 0–255
205
0xcd
G · 0–255
222
0xde
B · 0–255
220
0xdc

CMYK percentages

Cyan7.7%
Magenta0.0%
Yellow0.9%
Key (black)12.9%

Total ink coverage is 22%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#cddedc text on a black background

contrast 15.08:1

Card sample

#cddedc text on a white background

contrast 1.39:1

Card sample

#cddedc on grey

1.27:1

#cddedc on its own surface

1.32:1

#cddedc on its dark surface

11.74:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

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

Glowing headline

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

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(205, 222, 220, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(205, 222, 220, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #cddedc;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #cddedc, #CDD5DE);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #cddedc, #CDD0DE);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #cddedc;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #cddedc;
caret-color: #cddedc;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #cddedc;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #F0F5F4;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #cddedc;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#cddedc 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #cddedc 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(205, 222, 220, 0.5)
rgb(205 222 220 / 50%)
#cddedc80
hsl(173 21% 84% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #cddedc 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#cddedc1a#FAFCFC
20%#cddedc33#F5F8F8
40%#cddedc66#EBF2F1
60%#cddedc99#E1EBEA
80%#cddedccc#D7E5E3

Gradients from #cddedc

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, #F2F6F6, #cddedc 45%, #334D4A);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #cddedc, #BAC3D2);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #cddedc, #DECDCF);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #F6F9F9 0%, #cddedc 45%, #334D4A 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F6F9F9, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #ECF2EE 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #DFE5EA 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #334D4A 0%, transparent 65%), #cddedc;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #cddedc

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.

#cddedc 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

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 15.08:1.

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.

#cddedc, answered

What color is #cddedc?

#cddedc is a light soft cyan, closest to Azure (ΔE2000 7.3). It sits at 173° on the hue wheel with 21% saturation and 84% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #cddedc?

rgb(205, 222, 220) — 205 red, 222 green and 220 blue out of 255, or 80.4% / 87.1% / 86.3% by channel.

What is #cddedc in HSL and HSV?

hsl(173, 21%, 84%) and hsv(173, 8%, 87%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #cddedc a light or a dark color?

It is a light color. Relative luminance is 0.7039 and perceived brightness is 85%, so black text on it reaches 15.08:1.

Should I use black or white text on #cddedc?

Black. It scores 15.08:1 against #cddedc, versus 1.39:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #cddedc accessible on a white background?

#cddedc on white scores 1.39:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #537D78 to reach 4.5:1, or #3E5E5B for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #cddedc?

#DECDCF sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #DECDD7 and #DED3CD, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #cddedc?

For interface work: #F6F9F9 as the surface, #CEDFDD for borders, #5B8A85 for secondary text, #804C60 as an accent and #334D4A for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #CDDED3 and #CDD7DE stays calm, while #DECDCF is the loudest partner.

What is #cddedc in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(8%, 0%, 1%, 13%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #cddedc warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 70 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #CDDED6; nudged cooler, #CCDADF.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #cddedc?

The cyan family — its 500 step is #06b6d4, ΔE2000 22.3 away. That is a visible difference, so define #cddedc as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #cddedc in Tailwind CSS?

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

rgba(205, 222, 220, 0.5), or #cddedc80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #E6EFEE; over black, #676F6E.

Is #cddedc a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #CCCCCC, ΔE2000 8.3 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #cddedc mean?

As a cyan, it reads clean, technical, fresh. Cyan reads as water, air and infrastructure: cool, hygienic, engineered. At this moderate chroma the association is present but not shouted.

What gradient works with #cddedc?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #F2F6F6, #cddedc 45%, #334D4A). For more colour, a short hue run to #BAC3D2 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #cddedc in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

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