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cyan · cool

#adefe4

a light, vivid cyan · cool · closest name: Pale Turquoise

Token name suggestion: Morning Teal

RGB
173, 239, 228
HSL
170°, 67%, 81%
CMYK
28, 0, 5, 6
Luminance
0.7622

#adefe4 is a light vivid cyan, 170° on the wheel and 83/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (16.24:1). As text it scores 1.29:1 on white — use #1A8372 instead. Nearest name is Pale Turquoise, nearest Tailwind family is teal.

hsl(170 67% 81%)rgb(173 239 228)Base step 300AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #adefe4 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#adefe4
Hue
170°
cyan
Saturation
67%
vivid
Lightness
81%
light
Brightness
94%
HSV value
Perceived
86%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.7622
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
83/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Vivid
Best ink
Black
16.24:1
Closest name
Pale Turquoise
ΔE2000 4.3
Chroma
22.9
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.905
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
teal
500 · ΔE 17.7
Web-safe
#99FFCC
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue170° of 360°
Saturation67%
Lightness81%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #adefe4.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool83% 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%
Green81%
Blue7%

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

Every format

HEX#adefe4
HEX (8-digit)#adefe4ff
RGBrgb(173, 239, 228)
RGBArgba(173, 239, 228, 1)
HSLhsl(170, 67%, 81%)
HSV / HSBhsv(170, 28%, 94%)
HWBhwb(170 68% 6%)
CMYKcmyk(28%, 0%, 5%, 6%)
LABlab(90.0 -22.9 -1.3)
LCHlch(90.0 22.9 183.4)
OKLCHoklch(0.905 0.068 183.3)
XYZ (D65)xyz(62.10, 76.22, 84.82)
Decimal11399140
Display P3color(display-p3 0.678 0.937 0.894)
Web-safe#99FFCC

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #adefe4;
background-color: #adefe4;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #adefe4;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#adefe4] bg-[#adefe4]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #adefe4;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.678, green: 0.937, blue: 0.894)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.678, green: 0.937, blue: 0.894, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#ADEFE4</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFADEFE4)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFADEFE4)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(228, 239, 173)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(173, 239, 228)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(173, 239, 228)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 173, 239, 228)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.6784f, 0.9373f, 0.8941f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{173,239,228}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #adefe4 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #adefe4 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#156B5C, #D3EEEA);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #adefe4 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: #F3FBFA;
  --brand-100: #E8F8F5;
  --brand-200: #CAF1EB;
  --brand-300: #adefe4;
  --brand-400: #72E3D1;
  --brand-500: #43DAC1;
  --brand-600: #28CDB1;
  --brand-700: #21AB94;
  --brand-800: #1B8976;
  --brand-900: #176356;
  --brand-950: #0F3E36;
  --brand: #adefe4;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F4FAF9;
  --brand-border: #C0EDE5;
  --brand-hover: #8FE9DA;
  --brand-pressed: #71E3D0;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #142422;
    --brand-ink: #D3EEEA;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F3FBFA',
        100: '#E8F8F5',
        200: '#CAF1EB',
        300: '#adefe4',
        400: '#72E3D1',
        500: '#43DAC1',
        600: '#28CDB1',
        700: '#21AB94',
        800: '#1B8976',
        900: '#176356',
        950: '#0F3E36',
        DEFAULT: '#adefe4',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F3FBFA,
  '100': #E8F8F5,
  '200': #CAF1EB,
  '300': #adefe4,
  '400': #72E3D1,
  '500': #43DAC1,
  '600': #28CDB1,
  '700': #21AB94,
  '800': #1B8976,
  '900': #176356,
  '950': #0F3E36,
);
$brand-base: #adefe4;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F3FBFA", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#E8F8F5", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#CAF1EB", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#adefe4", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#72E3D1", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#43DAC1", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#28CDB1", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#21AB94", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#1B8976", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#176356", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#0F3E36", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #adefe4 · 16.24:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 1.29:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 16.24:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #adefe4 as text scores 1.29:1 on white and 16.24:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #156B5C at 4.94:1.

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
#1A8372 · 4.63:1
AA on white−50% L
#1A8372
The quick fox
#136154 · 7.33:1
AAA on white−58% L
#136154
The quick fox
#adefe4 · 16.24:1
AA on blackalready passes
#adefe4
The quick fox
#adefe4 · 16.24:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#adefe4

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #20A68F 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
#adefe4 on white: 1.29:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#adefe4 on black: 16.24:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #adefe4 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #adefe4.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White1.29:1AaAa
Slate 501.24:1AaAa
Slate 1001.18:1AaAa
Slate 2001.05:1AaAa
Slate 3001.15:1AaAa
Slate 4001.98:1AaAa
Slate 5003.68:1AaAa
Slate 6005.86:1AaAa
Slate 7008.01:1AaAa
Slate 80011.32:1AaAa
Slate 90013.81:1AaAa
Black16.24:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #E9E8E4
deuteranopia · #DDDFE5
tritanopia · #99F2EB

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. #adefe4 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.

#F3FBFA
#E8F8F5
#CAF1EB
#adefe4
#72E3D1
#43DAC1
#28CDB1
#21AB94
#1B8976
#176356
#0F3E36
Base = 300Lightest = 50 · #F3FBFADarkest = 950 · #0F3E36Text 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 0.017 183.3);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.027 183.3);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.041 183.3);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.053 183.3);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.062 183.3);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.068 183.3);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.068 183.3);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.064 183.3);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.057 183.3);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.047 183.3);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.037 183.3);
}

Colors that work with #adefe4

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#C0EDE5
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B9B8E
Captions on the surface
Accent#AF1D5A
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#156B5C
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#EAFBF8
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#142422
Dark-mode background
Hover#8FE9DA
One step down in lightness
Pressed#71E3D0
Two steps down
Disabled#F3F7F6
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#BAF6EC
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 #adefe4

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 #156B5C
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #20A68F

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
  • Weight19/100
  • 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#EFADB8
Analogous left#ADEFC3
Analogous right#ADD9EF
Split-complement 1#EFADD9
Split-complement 2#EFC3AD
Triadic 1#E4ADEF
Triadic 2#EFE4AD
Tetradic#C3ADEF
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°170°

#adefe4 sits at 170°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red67.8%
Green93.7%
Blue89.4%
R · 0–255
173
0xad
G · 0–255
239
0xef
B · 0–255
228
0xe4

CMYK percentages

Cyan27.6%
Magenta0.0%
Yellow4.6%
Key (black)6.3%

Total ink coverage is 39%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#adefe4 text on a black background

contrast 16.24:1

Card sample

#adefe4 text on a white background

contrast 1.29:1

Card sample

#adefe4 on grey

1.18:1

#adefe4 on its own surface

1.22:1

#adefe4 on its dark surface

12.45:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #adefe4;
Background color
Panel with #adefe4 background
background-color: #adefe4;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #adefe4;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(173, 239, 228, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(173, 239, 228, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #adefe4;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #adefe4, #ADCEEF);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #adefe4, #ADBEEF);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #adefe4;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #adefe4;
caret-color: #adefe4;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #adefe4;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #EAFBF8;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #adefe4;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#adefe4 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #adefe4 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(173, 239, 228, 0.5)
rgb(173 239 228 / 50%)
#adefe480
hsl(170 67% 81% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #adefe4 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#adefe41a#F7FDFC
20%#adefe433#EFFCFA
40%#adefe466#DEF9F4
60%#adefe499#CEF5EF
80%#adefe4cc#BDF2E9

Gradients from #adefe4

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, #E0F9F5, #adefe4 45%, #156B5C);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #adefe4, #93B8EA);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #adefe4, #EFADB8);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #F2FCFB 0%, #adefe4 45%, #156B5C 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%, #D8F7E0 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #C7E1F4 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #156B5C 0%, transparent 65%), #adefe4;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #adefe4

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.

#adefe4 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 16.24:1.

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.

#adefe4, answered

What color is #adefe4?

#adefe4 is a light vivid cyan, closest to Pale Turquoise (ΔE2000 4.3). It sits at 170° on the hue wheel with 67% saturation and 81% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #adefe4?

rgb(173, 239, 228) — 173 red, 239 green and 228 blue out of 255, or 67.8% / 93.7% / 89.4% by channel.

What is #adefe4 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(170, 67%, 81%) and hsv(170, 28%, 94%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #adefe4 a light or a dark color?

It is a light color. Relative luminance is 0.7622 and perceived brightness is 86%, so black text on it reaches 16.24:1.

Should I use black or white text on #adefe4?

Black. It scores 16.24:1 against #adefe4, versus 1.29:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #adefe4 accessible on a white background?

#adefe4 on white scores 1.29:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #1A8372 to reach 4.5:1, or #136154 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #adefe4?

#EFADB8 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #EFADD9 and #EFC3AD, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #adefe4?

For interface work: #F4FAF9 as the surface, #C0EDE5 for borders, #4B9B8E for secondary text, #AF1D5A as an accent and #156B5C for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #ADEFC3 and #ADD9EF stays calm, while #EFADB8 is the loudest partner.

What is #adefe4 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(28%, 0%, 5%, 6%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #adefe4 warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 83 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #ADEFCC; nudged cooler, #ACE2F0.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #adefe4?

The teal family — its 500 step is #14b8a6, ΔE2000 17.7 away. That is a visible difference, so define #adefe4 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #adefe4 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#adefe4] or text-[#adefe4], 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 #adefe4 with 50% opacity?

rgba(173, 239, 228, 0.5), or #adefe480 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #D6F7F2; over black, #577872.

Is #adefe4 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #99FFCC, ΔE2000 11.9 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #adefe4 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 #adefe4?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #E0F9F5, #adefe4 45%, #156B5C). For more colour, a short hue run to #93B8EA keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #adefe4 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #adefe4 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.