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cyan · cool

#dcfef5

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

Token name suggestion: Frost Reef

RGB
220, 254, 245
HSL
164°, 94%, 93%
CMYK
13, 0, 4, 0
Luminance
0.9269

#dcfef5 is a pale electric cyan, 164° on the wheel and 81/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (19.54:1). As text it scores 1.07:1 on white — use #048563 instead. Nearest name is Light Cyan, nearest Tailwind family is teal.

hsl(164 94% 93%)rgb(220 254 245)Base step 100AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #dcfef5 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#dcfef5
Hue
164°
cyan
Saturation
94%
electric
Lightness
93%
pale
Brightness
100%
HSV value
Perceived
95%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.9269
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
81/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Electric
Best ink
Black
19.54:1
Closest name
Light Cyan
ΔE2000 4.1
Chroma
12.6
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.970
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
teal
500 · ΔE 24.4
Web-safe
#CCFFFF
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue164° of 360°
Saturation94%
Lightness93%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #dcfef5.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool81% 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%
Green76%
Blue7%

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

Every format

HEX#dcfef5
HEX (8-digit)#dcfef5ff
RGBrgb(220, 254, 245)
RGBArgba(220, 254, 245, 1)
HSLhsl(164, 94%, 93%)
HSV / HSBhsv(164, 13%, 100%)
HWBhwb(164 86% 0%)
CMYKcmyk(13%, 0%, 4%, 0%)
LABlab(97.1 -12.6 0.6)
LCHlch(97.1 12.6 177.2)
OKLCHoklch(0.970 0.037 177.8)
XYZ (D65)xyz(81.43, 92.69, 99.97)
Decimal14483189
Display P3color(display-p3 0.863 0.996 0.961)
Web-safe#CCFFFF

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #dcfef5;
background-color: #dcfef5;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #dcfef5;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#dcfef5] bg-[#dcfef5]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #dcfef5;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.863, green: 0.996, blue: 0.961)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.863, green: 0.996, blue: 0.961, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#DCFEF5</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFDCFEF5)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFDCFEF5)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(245, 254, 220)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(220, 254, 245)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(220, 254, 245)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 220, 254, 245)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.8627f, 0.9961f, 0.9608f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{220,254,245}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #dcfef5 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #dcfef5 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#047C5C, #D3EEE7);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #dcfef5 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: #F2FDFA;
  --brand-100: #dcfef5;
  --brand-200: #C2FAEB;
  --brand-300: #92FCE0;
  --brand-400: #5BFAD0;
  --brand-500: #25F9C1;
  --brand-600: #07EEB1;
  --brand-700: #06C693;
  --brand-800: #059F76;
  --brand-900: #087256;
  --brand-950: #054736;
  --brand: #dcfef5;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F4FAF9;
  --brand-border: #C0EDE1;
  --brand-hover: #B9FDEB;
  --brand-pressed: #96FCE1;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #142420;
    --brand-ink: #D3EEE7;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F2FDFA',
        100: '#dcfef5',
        200: '#C2FAEB',
        300: '#92FCE0',
        400: '#5BFAD0',
        500: '#25F9C1',
        600: '#07EEB1',
        700: '#06C693',
        800: '#059F76',
        900: '#087256',
        950: '#054736',
        DEFAULT: '#dcfef5',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F2FDFA,
  '100': #dcfef5,
  '200': #C2FAEB,
  '300': #92FCE0,
  '400': #5BFAD0,
  '500': #25F9C1,
  '600': #07EEB1,
  '700': #06C693,
  '800': #059F76,
  '900': #087256,
  '950': #054736,
);
$brand-base: #dcfef5;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F2FDFA", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#dcfef5", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#C2FAEB", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#92FCE0", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#5BFAD0", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#25F9C1", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#07EEB1", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#06C693", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#059F76", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#087256", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#054736", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #dcfef5 · 19.54:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 1.07:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 19.54:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #dcfef5 as text scores 1.07:1 on white and 19.54:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #047C5C at 4.83:1.

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
#048563 · 4.63:1
AA on white−66% L
#048563
The quick fox
#036349 · 7.28:1
AAA on white−73% L
#036349
The quick fox
#dcfef5 · 19.54:1
AA on blackalready passes
#dcfef5
The quick fox
#dcfef5 · 19.54:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#dcfef5

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #05A87D 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
#dcfef5 on white: 1.07:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#dcfef5 on black: 19.54:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #dcfef5 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #dcfef5.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White1.07:1AaAa
Slate 501.03:1AaAa
Slate 1001.02:1AaAa
Slate 2001.15:1AaAa
Slate 3001.38:1AaAa
Slate 4002.39:1AaAa
Slate 5004.43:1AaAa
Slate 6007.05:1AaAa
Slate 7009.63:1AaAa
Slate 80013.61:1AaAa
Slate 90016.61:1AaAa
Black19.54:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #FBFAF5
deuteranopia · #F4F5F6
tritanopia · #D4FFFB

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. #dcfef5 is pinned to step 100; the rest hold its hue and let saturation ease off at the extremes so the pale end never turns neon.

#F2FDFA
#dcfef5
#C2FAEB
#92FCE0
#5BFAD0
#25F9C1
#07EEB1
#06C693
#059F76
#087256
#054736
Base = 100Lightest = 50 · #F2FDFADarkest = 950 · #054736Text step on white = 900
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 0.009 177.8);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.015 177.8);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.022 177.8);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.029 177.8);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.034 177.8);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.037 177.8);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.037 177.8);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.035 177.8);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.031 177.8);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.026 177.8);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.020 177.8);
}

Colors that work with #dcfef5

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#F4FAF9
Tinted page background
Border#C0EDE1
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B9B86
Captions on the surface
Accent#CC0066
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#047C5C
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#E6FEF8
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#142420
Dark-mode background
Hover#B9FDEB
One step down in lightness
Pressed#96FCE1
Two steps down
Disabled#F3F7F6
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#D6FFF4
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 #dcfef5

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 #047C5C
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #05A87D

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
  • Weight7/100
  • 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#FEDCE5
Analogous left#DCFEE4
Analogous right#DCF6FE
Split-complement 1#FEDCF6
Split-complement 2#FEE4DC
Triadic 1#F5DCFE
Triadic 2#FEF5DC
Tetradic#E4DCFE
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°164°

#dcfef5 sits at 164°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red86.3%
Green99.6%
Blue96.1%
R · 0–255
220
0xdc
G · 0–255
254
0xfe
B · 0–255
245
0xf5

CMYK percentages

Cyan13.4%
Magenta0.0%
Yellow3.5%
Key (black)0.4%

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

Color previews

#dcfef5 text on a black background

contrast 19.54:1

Card sample

#dcfef5 text on a white background

contrast 1.07:1

Card sample

#dcfef5 on grey

1.02:1

#dcfef5 on its own surface

1.02:1

#dcfef5 on its dark surface

15.00:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #dcfef5;
Background color
Panel with #dcfef5 background
background-color: #dcfef5;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #dcfef5;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(220, 254, 245, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(220, 254, 245, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #dcfef5;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #dcfef5, #DCF0FE);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #dcfef5, #DCE8FE);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #dcfef5;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #dcfef5;
caret-color: #dcfef5;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #dcfef5;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #E6FEF8;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #dcfef5;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#dcfef5 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #dcfef5 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(220, 254, 245, 0.5)
rgb(220 254 245 / 50%)
#dcfef580
hsl(164 94% 93% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #dcfef5 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#dcfef51a#FCFFFE
20%#dcfef533#F8FFFD
40%#dcfef566#F1FFFB
60%#dcfef599#EAFEF9
80%#dcfef5cc#E3FEF7

Gradients from #dcfef5

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, #EBFEF9, #dcfef5 45%, #047C5C);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #dcfef5, #BEDFFD);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #dcfef5, #FEDCE5);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #F0FFFB 0%, #dcfef5 45%, #047C5C 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F4FAF9, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #FFFFFF 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #FAFDFF 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #047C5C 0%, transparent 65%), #dcfef5;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #dcfef5

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.

#dcfef5 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

Very light values are indistinguishable from white on a dim phone screen outdoors. Give it a border if the boundary matters.

In dark mode

Usable as-is on a dark surface at 19.54:1.

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.

#dcfef5, answered

What color is #dcfef5?

#dcfef5 is a pale electric cyan, closest to Light Cyan (ΔE2000 4.1). It sits at 164° on the hue wheel with 94% saturation and 93% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #dcfef5?

rgb(220, 254, 245) — 220 red, 254 green and 245 blue out of 255, or 86.3% / 99.6% / 96.1% by channel.

What is #dcfef5 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(164, 94%, 93%) and hsv(164, 13%, 100%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #dcfef5 a light or a dark color?

It is a light color. Relative luminance is 0.9269 and perceived brightness is 95%, so black text on it reaches 19.54:1.

Should I use black or white text on #dcfef5?

Black. It scores 19.54:1 against #dcfef5, versus 1.07:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #dcfef5 accessible on a white background?

#dcfef5 on white scores 1.07:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #048563 to reach 4.5:1, or #036349 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #dcfef5?

#FEDCE5 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #FEDCF6 and #FEE4DC, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #dcfef5?

For interface work: #F4FAF9 as the surface, #C0EDE1 for borders, #4B9B86 for secondary text, #CC0066 as an accent and #047C5C for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #DCFEE4 and #DCF6FE stays calm, while #FEDCE5 is the loudest partner.

What is #dcfef5 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(13%, 0%, 4%, 0%). 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 #dcfef5 warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 81 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #DCFEE8; nudged cooler, #DBFBFE.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #dcfef5?

The teal family — its 500 step is #14b8a6, ΔE2000 24.4 away. That is a visible difference, so define #dcfef5 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #dcfef5 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#dcfef5] or text-[#dcfef5], 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 #dcfef5 with 50% opacity?

rgba(220, 254, 245, 0.5), or #dcfef580 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #EEFFFA; over black, #6E7F7B.

Is #dcfef5 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #CCFFFF, ΔE2000 5 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #dcfef5 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 #dcfef5?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #EBFEF9, #dcfef5 45%, #047C5C). For more colour, a short hue run to #BEDFFD keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #dcfef5 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #dcfef5 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.