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cyan · cool

#daeaef

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

Token name suggestion: Mist Reef

RGB
218, 234, 239
HSL
194°, 40%, 90%
CMYK
9, 2, 0, 6
Luminance
0.7998

#daeaef is a pale soft cyan, 194° on the wheel and 93/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (17.00:1). As text it scores 1.24:1 on white — use #3F7D91 instead. Nearest name is Azure, nearest Tailwind family is cyan.

hsl(194 40% 90%)rgb(218 234 239)Base step 200AAA inkCool

At a glance

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

Hex
#daeaef
Hue
194°
cyan
Saturation
40%
soft
Lightness
90%
pale
Brightness
94%
HSV value
Perceived
90%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.7998
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
93/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Soft
Best ink
Black
17.00:1
Closest name
Azure
ΔE2000 4.9
Chroma
6.1
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.927
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
cyan
500 · ΔE 23.5
Web-safe
#CCFFFF
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue194° of 360°
Saturation40%
Lightness90%
Saturation × lightness field

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

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool93% 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
Red19%
Green74%
Blue8%

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

Every format

HEX#daeaef
HEX (8-digit)#daeaefff
RGBrgb(218, 234, 239)
RGBArgba(218, 234, 239, 1)
HSLhsl(194, 40%, 90%)
HSV / HSBhsv(194, 9%, 94%)
HWBhwb(194 85% 6%)
CMYKcmyk(9%, 2%, 0%, 6%)
LABlab(91.7 -4.3 -4.2)
LCHlch(91.7 6.1 224.4)
OKLCHoklch(0.927 0.018 218.4)
XYZ (D65)xyz(73.91, 79.98, 93.19)
Decimal14346991
Display P3color(display-p3 0.855 0.918 0.937)
Web-safe#CCFFFF

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #daeaef;
background-color: #daeaef;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #daeaef;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#daeaef] bg-[#daeaef]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #daeaef;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.855, green: 0.918, blue: 0.937)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.855, green: 0.918, blue: 0.937, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#DAEAEF</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFDAEAEF)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFDAEAEF)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(239, 234, 218)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(218, 234, 239)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(218, 234, 239)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 218, 234, 239)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.8549f, 0.9176f, 0.9373f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{218,234,239}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #daeaef 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #daeaef 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#274D59, #D4E7ED);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #daeaef 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: #F5F9FA;
  --brand-100: #EBF2F4;
  --brand-200: #daeaef;
  --brand-300: #B1D3DD;
  --brand-400: #8ABCCC;
  --brand-500: #62A6BB;
  --brand-600: #4A94AB;
  --brand-700: #3E7B8E;
  --brand-800: #316372;
  --brand-900: #274953;
  --brand-950: #182E34;
  --brand: #daeaef;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F4F9FA;
  --brand-border: #C6DFE6;
  --brand-hover: #C1DCE4;
  --brand-pressed: #A8CED9;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #142024;
    --brand-ink: #D4E7ED;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F5F9FA',
        100: '#EBF2F4',
        200: '#daeaef',
        300: '#B1D3DD',
        400: '#8ABCCC',
        500: '#62A6BB',
        600: '#4A94AB',
        700: '#3E7B8E',
        800: '#316372',
        900: '#274953',
        950: '#182E34',
        DEFAULT: '#daeaef',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F5F9FA,
  '100': #EBF2F4,
  '200': #daeaef,
  '300': #B1D3DD,
  '400': #8ABCCC,
  '500': #62A6BB,
  '600': #4A94AB,
  '700': #3E7B8E,
  '800': #316372,
  '900': #274953,
  '950': #182E34,
);
$brand-base: #daeaef;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F5F9FA", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#EBF2F4", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#daeaef", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#B1D3DD", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#8ABCCC", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#62A6BB", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#4A94AB", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#3E7B8E", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#316372", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#274953", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#182E34", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #daeaef · 17.00:1
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 · 17.00:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #daeaef as text scores 1.24:1 on white and 17.00:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #274D59 at 7.42:1.

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
#3F7D91 · 4.61:1
AA on white−49% L
#3F7D91
The quick fox
#2F5E6D · 7.14:1
AAA on white−59% L
#2F5E6D
The quick fox
#daeaef · 17.00:1
AA on blackalready passes
#daeaef
The quick fox
#daeaef · 17.00:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#daeaef

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #539DB4 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
#daeaef on white: 1.24:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#daeaef on black: 17.00:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

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

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White1.24:1AaAa
Slate 501.18:1AaAa
Slate 1001.13:1AaAa
Slate 2001.00:1AaAa
Slate 3001.20:1AaAa
Slate 4002.08:1AaAa
Slate 5003.85:1AaAa
Slate 6006.13:1AaAa
Slate 7008.38:1AaAa
Slate 80011.84:1AaAa
Slate 90014.45:1AaAa
Black17.00:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #E7E9EF
deuteranopia · #E3E6EF
tritanopia · #D5ECEB

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. #daeaef 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.

#F5F9FA
#EBF2F4
#daeaef
#B1D3DD
#8ABCCC
#62A6BB
#4A94AB
#3E7B8E
#316372
#274953
#182E34
Base = 200Lightest = 50 · #F5F9FADarkest = 950 · #182E34Text 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 0.005 218.4);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.007 218.4);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.011 218.4);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.014 218.4);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.017 218.4);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.018 218.4);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.018 218.4);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.017 218.4);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.015 218.4);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.013 218.4);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.010 218.4);
}

Colors that work with #daeaef

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#C6DFE6
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B889B
Captions on the surface
Accent#923A3A
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#274D59
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#EDF5F7
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#142024
Dark-mode background
Hover#C1DCE4
One step down in lightness
Pressed#A8CED9
Two steps down
Disabled#F3F6F7
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#E0F0F5
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 #daeaef

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 #274D59
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #539DB4

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 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
  • FormalityMedium
  • EnergyMedium
  • Weight10/100
  • 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#EFDFDA
Analogous left#DAEFE9
Analogous right#DADFEF
Split-complement 1#EFDADF
Split-complement 2#EFE9DA
Triadic 1#EFDAEA
Triadic 2#EAEFDA
Tetradic#E9DAEF
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°194°

#daeaef sits at 194°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red85.5%
Green91.8%
Blue93.7%
R · 0–255
218
0xda
G · 0–255
234
0xea
B · 0–255
239
0xef

CMYK percentages

Cyan8.8%
Magenta2.1%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)6.3%

Total ink coverage is 17%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#daeaef text on a black background

contrast 17.00:1

Card sample

#daeaef text on a white background

contrast 1.24:1

Card sample

#daeaef on grey

1.13:1

#daeaef on its own surface

1.16:1

#daeaef on its dark surface

13.47:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

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

Glowing headline

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

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(218, 234, 239, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(218, 234, 239, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #daeaef;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #daeaef, #DADCEF);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

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

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #daeaef;
caret-color: #daeaef;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #daeaef;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #EDF5F7;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #daeaef;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#daeaef 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #daeaef 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(218, 234, 239, 0.5)
rgb(218 234 239 / 50%)
#daeaef80
hsl(194 40% 90% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #daeaef 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#daeaef1a#FBFDFD
20%#daeaef33#F8FBFC
40%#daeaef66#F0F7F9
60%#daeaef99#E9F2F5
80%#daeaefcc#E1EEF2

Gradients from #daeaef

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, #F1F7F9, #daeaef 45%, #274D59);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #daeaef, #C5C5E6);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #daeaef, #EFDFDA);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #F4F9FA 0%, #daeaef 45%, #274D59 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%, #FEFEFE 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #EFF1F8 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #274D59 0%, transparent 65%), #daeaef;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #daeaef

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.

#daeaef 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

Very light tints can drop out on uncoated stock; check it at 100% size before signing off.

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 17.00:1.

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.

#daeaef, answered

What color is #daeaef?

#daeaef is a pale soft cyan, closest to Azure (ΔE2000 4.9). It sits at 194° on the hue wheel with 40% saturation and 90% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #daeaef?

rgb(218, 234, 239) — 218 red, 234 green and 239 blue out of 255, or 85.5% / 91.8% / 93.7% by channel.

What is #daeaef in HSL and HSV?

hsl(194, 40%, 90%) and hsv(194, 9%, 94%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #daeaef a light or a dark color?

It is a light color. Relative luminance is 0.7998 and perceived brightness is 90%, so black text on it reaches 17.00:1.

Should I use black or white text on #daeaef?

Black. It scores 17.00:1 against #daeaef, versus 1.24:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #daeaef accessible on a white background?

#daeaef on white scores 1.24:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #3F7D91 to reach 4.5:1, or #2F5E6D for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #daeaef?

#EFDFDA sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #EFDADF and #EFE9DA, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #daeaef?

For interface work: #F4F9FA as the surface, #C6DFE6 for borders, #4B889B for secondary text, #923A3A as an accent and #274D59 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #DAEFE9 and #DADFEF stays calm, while #EFDFDA is the loudest partner.

What is #daeaef in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(9%, 2%, 0%, 6%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #daeaef warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 93 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #DAEFEC; nudged cooler, #D9E4F0.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #daeaef?

The cyan family — its 500 step is #06b6d4, ΔE2000 23.5 away. That is a visible difference, so define #daeaef as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #daeaef in Tailwind CSS?

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

rgba(218, 234, 239, 0.5), or #daeaef80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #EDF5F7; over black, #6D7578.

Is #daeaef a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #CCFFFF, ΔE2000 10.8 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #daeaef 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 #daeaef?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #F1F7F9, #daeaef 45%, #274D59). For more colour, a short hue run to #C5C5E6 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #daeaef in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

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