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cyan · cool

#a5dfed

a light, vivid cyan · cool · closest name: Powder Blue

Token name suggestion: Linen Teal

RGB
165, 223, 237
HSL
192°, 67%, 79%
CMYK
30, 6, 0, 7
Luminance
0.6689

#a5dfed is a light vivid cyan, 192° on the wheel and 92/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (14.38:1). As text it scores 1.46:1 on white — use #1E8098 instead. Nearest name is Powder Blue, nearest Tailwind family is cyan.

hsl(192 67% 79%)rgb(165 223 237)Base step 300AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #a5dfed is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#a5dfed
Hue
192°
cyan
Saturation
67%
vivid
Lightness
79%
light
Brightness
93%
HSV value
Perceived
82%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.6689
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
92/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Vivid
Best ink
Black
14.38:1
Closest name
Powder Blue
ΔE2000 3.1
Chroma
19.8
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.869
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
cyan
500 · ΔE 14.7
Web-safe
#99CCFF
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue192° of 360°
Saturation67%
Lightness79%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #a5dfed.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool92% 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
Red12%
Green79%
Blue9%

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

Every format

HEX#a5dfed
HEX (8-digit)#a5dfedff
RGBrgb(165, 223, 237)
RGBArgba(165, 223, 237, 1)
HSLhsl(192, 67%, 79%)
HSV / HSBhsv(192, 30%, 93%)
HWBhwb(192 65% 7%)
CMYKcmyk(30%, 6%, 0%, 7%)
LABlab(85.5 -15.2 -12.8)
LCHlch(85.5 19.8 220.2)
OKLCHoklch(0.869 0.062 214.3)
XYZ (D65)xyz(57.19, 66.89, 90.00)
Decimal10870765
Display P3color(display-p3 0.647 0.875 0.929)
Web-safe#99CCFF

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #a5dfed;
background-color: #a5dfed;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #a5dfed;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#a5dfed] bg-[#a5dfed]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #a5dfed;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.647, green: 0.875, blue: 0.929)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.647, green: 0.875, blue: 0.929, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#A5DFED</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFA5DFED)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFA5DFED)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(237, 223, 165)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(165, 223, 237)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(165, 223, 237)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 165, 223, 237)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.6471f, 0.8745f, 0.9294f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{165,223,237}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #a5dfed 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #a5dfed 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#155A6A, #D3E9EE);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #a5dfed 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: #F3FAFB;
  --brand-100: #E8F5F8;
  --brand-200: #CAEAF1;
  --brand-300: #a5dfed;
  --brand-400: #73CDE3;
  --brand-500: #44BCDA;
  --brand-600: #29ACCC;
  --brand-700: #2290AA;
  --brand-800: #1B7388;
  --brand-900: #185463;
  --brand-950: #0F353E;
  --brand: #a5dfed;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F4F9FA;
  --brand-border: #C0E4ED;
  --brand-hover: #87D4E7;
  --brand-pressed: #69CAE1;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #142124;
    --brand-ink: #D3E9EE;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F3FAFB',
        100: '#E8F5F8',
        200: '#CAEAF1',
        300: '#a5dfed',
        400: '#73CDE3',
        500: '#44BCDA',
        600: '#29ACCC',
        700: '#2290AA',
        800: '#1B7388',
        900: '#185463',
        950: '#0F353E',
        DEFAULT: '#a5dfed',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F3FAFB,
  '100': #E8F5F8,
  '200': #CAEAF1,
  '300': #a5dfed,
  '400': #73CDE3,
  '500': #44BCDA,
  '600': #29ACCC,
  '700': #2290AA,
  '800': #1B7388,
  '900': #185463,
  '950': #0F353E,
);
$brand-base: #a5dfed;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F3FAFB", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#E8F5F8", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#CAEAF1", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#a5dfed", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#73CDE3", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#44BCDA", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#29ACCC", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#2290AA", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#1B7388", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#185463", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#0F353E", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #a5dfed · 14.38:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 1.46:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 14.38:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #a5dfed as text scores 1.46:1 on white and 14.38:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #155A6A at 5.32:1.

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
#1E8098 · 4.57:1
AA on white−43% L
#1E8098
The quick fox
#176072 · 7.11:1
AAA on white−52% L
#176072
The quick fox
#a5dfed · 14.38:1
AA on blackalready passes
#a5dfed
The quick fox
#a5dfed · 14.38:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#a5dfed

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #26A1BE 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
#a5dfed on white: 1.46:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#a5dfed on black: 14.38:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #a5dfed as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #a5dfed.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White1.46:1AaAa
Slate 501.40:1AaAa
Slate 1001.33:1AaAa
Slate 2001.18:1AaAa
Slate 3001.02:1AaAa
Slate 4001.76:1AaAa
Slate 5003.26:1AaAa
Slate 6005.19:1AaAa
Slate 7007.09:1AaAa
Slate 80010.02:1AaAa
Slate 90012.22:1AaAa
Black14.38:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #D4DBEE
deuteranopia · #C8D2ED
tritanopia · #8DE5E3

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. #a5dfed is pinned to step 300; the rest hold its hue and let saturation ease off at the extremes so the pale end never turns neon.

#F3FAFB
#E8F5F8
#CAEAF1
#a5dfed
#73CDE3
#44BCDA
#29ACCC
#2290AA
#1B7388
#185463
#0F353E
Base = 300Lightest = 50 · #F3FAFBDarkest = 950 · #0F353EText 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 0.016 214.3);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.025 214.3);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.037 214.3);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.048 214.3);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.057 214.3);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.062 214.3);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.062 214.3);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.058 214.3);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.052 214.3);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.043 214.3);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.034 214.3);
}

Colors that work with #a5dfed

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#C0E4ED
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B8B9B
Captions on the surface
Accent#AE1E26
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#155A6A
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#EAF7FB
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#142124
Dark-mode background
Hover#87D4E7
One step down in lightness
Pressed#69CAE1
Two steps down
Disabled#F3F6F7
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#B1E8F5
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 #a5dfed

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 #155A6A
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #26A1BE

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.

This is a confident chroma: strong enough to lead a brand, restrained enough to live in an interface all day. 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-high
  • Weight21/100
  • 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#EDB3A5
Analogous left#A5EDD7
Analogous right#A5BBED
Split-complement 1#EDA5BB
Split-complement 2#EDD7A5
Triadic 1#EDA5DF
Triadic 2#DFEDA5
Tetradic#D7A5ED
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°192°

#a5dfed sits at 192°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red64.7%
Green87.5%
Blue92.9%
R · 0–255
165
0xa5
G · 0–255
223
0xdf
B · 0–255
237
0xed

CMYK percentages

Cyan30.4%
Magenta5.9%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)7.1%

Total ink coverage is 43%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#a5dfed text on a black background

contrast 14.38:1

Card sample

#a5dfed text on a white background

contrast 1.46:1

Card sample

#a5dfed on grey

1.33:1

#a5dfed on its own surface

1.38:1

#a5dfed on its dark surface

11.30:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #a5dfed;
Background color
Panel with #a5dfed background
background-color: #a5dfed;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #a5dfed;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(165, 223, 237, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(165, 223, 237, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #a5dfed;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #a5dfed, #A5AFED);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #a5dfed, #ADA5ED);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #a5dfed;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #a5dfed;
caret-color: #a5dfed;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #a5dfed;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #EAF7FB;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #a5dfed;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#a5dfed 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #a5dfed 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(165, 223, 237, 0.5)
rgb(165 223 237 / 50%)
#a5dfed80
hsl(192 67% 79% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #a5dfed 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#a5dfed1a#F6FCFD
20%#a5dfed33#EDF9FB
40%#a5dfed66#DBF2F8
60%#a5dfed99#C9ECF4
80%#a5dfedcc#B7E5F1

Gradients from #a5dfed

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, #D8F1F7, #a5dfed 45%, #155A6A);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #a5dfed, #8B90E8);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #a5dfed, #EDB3A5);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #F1FAFC 0%, #a5dfed 45%, #155A6A 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%, #CFF5E7 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #BECAF2 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #155A6A 0%, transparent 65%), #a5dfed;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #a5dfed

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.

#a5dfed 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 14.38:1.

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.

#a5dfed, answered

What color is #a5dfed?

#a5dfed is a light vivid cyan, closest to Powder Blue (ΔE2000 3.1). It sits at 192° on the hue wheel with 67% saturation and 79% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #a5dfed?

rgb(165, 223, 237) — 165 red, 223 green and 237 blue out of 255, or 64.7% / 87.5% / 92.9% by channel.

What is #a5dfed in HSL and HSV?

hsl(192, 67%, 79%) and hsv(192, 30%, 93%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #a5dfed a light or a dark color?

It is a light color. Relative luminance is 0.6689 and perceived brightness is 82%, so black text on it reaches 14.38:1.

Should I use black or white text on #a5dfed?

Black. It scores 14.38:1 against #a5dfed, versus 1.46:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #a5dfed accessible on a white background?

#a5dfed on white scores 1.46:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #1E8098 to reach 4.5:1, or #176072 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #a5dfed?

#EDB3A5 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #EDA5BB and #EDD7A5, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #a5dfed?

For interface work: #F4F9FA as the surface, #C0E4ED for borders, #4B8B9B for secondary text, #AE1E26 as an accent and #155A6A for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #A5EDD7 and #A5BBED stays calm, while #EDB3A5 is the loudest partner.

What is #a5dfed in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(30%, 6%, 0%, 7%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #a5dfed warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 92 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #A5EDE1; nudged cooler, #A4CEEE.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #a5dfed?

The cyan family — its 500 step is #06b6d4, ΔE2000 14.7 away. That is a visible difference, so define #a5dfed as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #a5dfed in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#a5dfed] or text-[#a5dfed], 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 #a5dfed with 50% opacity?

rgba(165, 223, 237, 0.5), or #a5dfed80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #D2EFF6; over black, #537077.

Is #a5dfed a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #99CCFF, ΔE2000 13 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #a5dfed 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 #a5dfed?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #D8F1F7, #a5dfed 45%, #155A6A). For more colour, a short hue run to #8B90E8 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #a5dfed in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #a5dfed at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.