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cyan · cool

#adfdfa

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

Token name suggestion: Drift Glacier

RGB
173, 253, 250
HSL
178°, 95%, 84%
CMYK
32, 0, 1, 1
Luminance
0.8604

#adfdfa is a light electric cyan, 178° on the wheel and 87/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (18.21:1). As text it scores 1.15:1 on white — use #03847F instead. Nearest name is Pale Turquoise, nearest Tailwind family is teal.

hsl(178 95% 84%)rgb(173 253 250)Base step 200AAA inkCool

At a glance

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

Hex
#adfdfa
Hue
178°
cyan
Saturation
95%
electric
Lightness
84%
light
Brightness
99%
HSV value
Perceived
91%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.8604
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
87/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Electric
Best ink
Black
18.21:1
Closest name
Pale Turquoise
ΔE2000 3.9
Chroma
25.7
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.942
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
teal
500 · ΔE 20.1
Web-safe
#99FFFF
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue178° of 360°
Saturation95%
Lightness84%
Saturation × lightness field

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

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool87% 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
Red10%
Green82%
Blue8%

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

Every format

HEX#adfdfa
HEX (8-digit)#adfdfaff
RGBrgb(173, 253, 250)
RGBArgba(173, 253, 250, 1)
HSLhsl(178, 95%, 84%)
HSV / HSBhsv(178, 32%, 99%)
HWBhwb(178 68% 1%)
CMYKcmyk(32%, 0%, 1%, 1%)
LABlab(94.3 -24.9 -6.3)
LCHlch(94.3 25.7 194.3)
OKLCHoklch(0.942 0.078 192.9)
XYZ (D65)xyz(69.61, 86.03, 103.36)
Decimal11402746
Display P3color(display-p3 0.678 0.992 0.980)
Web-safe#99FFFF

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #adfdfa;
background-color: #adfdfa;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #adfdfa;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#adfdfa] bg-[#adfdfa]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #adfdfa;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.678, green: 0.992, blue: 0.980)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.678, green: 0.992, blue: 0.980, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#ADFDFA</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFADFDFA)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFADFDFA)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(250, 253, 173)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(173, 253, 250)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(173, 253, 250)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 173, 253, 250)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.6784f, 0.9922f, 0.9804f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{173,253,250}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #adfdfa 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #adfdfa 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#037C78, #D3EEED);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #adfdfa 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: #F1FDFD;
  --brand-100: #E4FCFB;
  --brand-200: #adfdfa;
  --brand-300: #91FCF8;
  --brand-400: #5BFBF5;
  --brand-500: #24FAF2;
  --brand-600: #06EFE6;
  --brand-700: #05C7C0;
  --brand-800: #049F9A;
  --brand-900: #08736F;
  --brand-950: #054845;
  --brand: #adfdfa;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F4FAFA;
  --brand-border: #C0EDEB;
  --brand-hover: #8AFCF8;
  --brand-pressed: #67FBF6;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #142424;
    --brand-ink: #D3EEED;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F1FDFD',
        100: '#E4FCFB',
        200: '#adfdfa',
        300: '#91FCF8',
        400: '#5BFBF5',
        500: '#24FAF2',
        600: '#06EFE6',
        700: '#05C7C0',
        800: '#049F9A',
        900: '#08736F',
        950: '#054845',
        DEFAULT: '#adfdfa',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F1FDFD,
  '100': #E4FCFB,
  '200': #adfdfa,
  '300': #91FCF8,
  '400': #5BFBF5,
  '500': #24FAF2,
  '600': #06EFE6,
  '700': #05C7C0,
  '800': #049F9A,
  '900': #08736F,
  '950': #054845,
);
$brand-base: #adfdfa;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F1FDFD", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#E4FCFB", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#adfdfa", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#91FCF8", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#5BFBF5", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#24FAF2", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#06EFE6", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#05C7C0", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#049F9A", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#08736F", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#054845", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #adfdfa · 18.21:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 1.15:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 18.21:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #adfdfa as text scores 1.15:1 on white and 18.21:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #037C78 at 4.38:1.

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
#03847F · 4.55:1
AA on white−57% L
#03847F
The quick fox
#02615E · 7.31:1
AAA on white−64% L
#02615E
The quick fox
#adfdfa · 18.21:1
AA on blackalready passes
#adfdfa
The quick fox
#adfdfa · 18.21:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#adfdfa

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #04A29C 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
#adfdfa on white: 1.15:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#adfdfa on black: 18.21:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

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

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White1.15:1AaAa
Slate 501.10:1AaAa
Slate 1001.05:1AaAa
Slate 2001.07:1AaAa
Slate 3001.29:1AaAa
Slate 4002.22:1AaAa
Slate 5004.13:1AaAa
Slate 6006.57:1AaAa
Slate 7008.98:1AaAa
Slate 80012.68:1AaAa
Slate 90015.48:1AaAa
Black18.21:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #F4F5FA
deuteranopia · #E5EAFB
tritanopia · #90FFFC

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. #adfdfa 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.

#F1FDFD
#E4FCFB
#adfdfa
#91FCF8
#5BFBF5
#24FAF2
#06EFE6
#05C7C0
#049F9A
#08736F
#054845
Base = 200Lightest = 50 · #F1FDFDDarkest = 950 · #054845Text 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 0.019 192.9);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.031 192.9);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.047 192.9);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.061 192.9);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.072 192.9);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.078 192.9);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.078 192.9);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.073 192.9);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.066 192.9);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.055 192.9);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.043 192.9);
}

Colors that work with #adfdfa

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#F4FAFA
Tinted page background
Border#C0EDEB
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B9B98
Captions on the surface
Accent#CC003A
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#037C78
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#E6FEFD
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#142424
Dark-mode background
Hover#8AFCF8
One step down in lightness
Pressed#67FBF6
Two steps down
Disabled#F3F7F7
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#BFFFFD
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 #adfdfa

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 #037C78
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #04A29C

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 lightness keeps it airy and approachable.

Worth knowing

At high lightness it disappears into white surfaces and thin strokes vanish entirely.

Reads as
  • FormalityLow
  • EnergyHigh
  • Weight17/100
  • 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#FDADB0
Analogous left#ADFDD2
Analogous right#ADD8FD
Split-complement 1#FDADD8
Split-complement 2#FDD2AD
Triadic 1#FAADFD
Triadic 2#FDFAAD
Tetradic#D2ADFD
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°178°

#adfdfa sits at 178°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red67.8%
Green99.2%
Blue98.0%
R · 0–255
173
0xad
G · 0–255
253
0xfd
B · 0–255
250
0xfa

CMYK percentages

Cyan31.6%
Magenta0.0%
Yellow1.2%
Key (black)0.8%

Total ink coverage is 34%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#adfdfa text on a black background

contrast 18.21:1

Card sample

#adfdfa text on a white background

contrast 1.15:1

Card sample

#adfdfa on grey

1.05:1

#adfdfa on its own surface

1.09:1

#adfdfa on its dark surface

13.92:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

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

Glowing headline

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

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(173, 253, 250, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(173, 253, 250, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #adfdfa;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #adfdfa, #ADCBFD);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #adfdfa, #ADB6FD);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #adfdfa;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #adfdfa;
caret-color: #adfdfa;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #adfdfa;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #E6FEFD;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #adfdfa;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#adfdfa 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #adfdfa 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, 253, 250, 0.5)
rgb(173 253 250 / 50%)
#adfdfa80
hsl(178 95% 84% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #adfdfa 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#adfdfa1a#F7FFFF
20%#adfdfa33#EFFFFE
40%#adfdfa66#DEFEFD
60%#adfdfa99#CEFEFC
80%#adfdfacc#BDFDFB

Gradients from #adfdfa

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, #E9FEFE, #adfdfa 45%, #037C78);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #adfdfa, #8FAEFC);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #adfdfa, #FDADB0);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #F0FFFE 0%, #adfdfa 45%, #037C78 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F4FAFA, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #DFFEEB 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #CBE2FE 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #037C78 0%, transparent 65%), #adfdfa;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #adfdfa

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.

#adfdfa 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 18.21:1.

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.

#adfdfa, answered

What color is #adfdfa?

#adfdfa is a light electric cyan, closest to Pale Turquoise (ΔE2000 3.9). It sits at 178° on the hue wheel with 95% saturation and 84% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #adfdfa?

rgb(173, 253, 250) — 173 red, 253 green and 250 blue out of 255, or 67.8% / 99.2% / 98% by channel.

What is #adfdfa in HSL and HSV?

hsl(178, 95%, 84%) and hsv(178, 32%, 99%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #adfdfa a light or a dark color?

It is a light color. Relative luminance is 0.8604 and perceived brightness is 91%, so black text on it reaches 18.21:1.

Should I use black or white text on #adfdfa?

Black. It scores 18.21:1 against #adfdfa, versus 1.15:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #adfdfa accessible on a white background?

#adfdfa on white scores 1.15:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #03847F to reach 4.5:1, or #02615E for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #adfdfa?

#FDADB0 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #FDADD8 and #FDD2AD, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #adfdfa?

For interface work: #F4FAFA as the surface, #C0EDEB for borders, #4B9B98 for secondary text, #CC003A as an accent and #037C78 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #ADFDD2 and #ADD8FD stays calm, while #FDADB0 is the loudest partner.

What is #adfdfa in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(32%, 0%, 1%, 1%). 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 #adfdfa warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 87 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #ADFDDD; nudged cooler, #ACE3FE.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #adfdfa?

The teal family — its 500 step is #14b8a6, ΔE2000 20.1 away. That is a visible difference, so define #adfdfa as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #adfdfa in Tailwind CSS?

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

rgba(173, 253, 250, 0.5), or #adfdfa80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #D6FEFD; over black, #577F7D.

Is #adfdfa a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #99FFFF, ΔE2000 2.7 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #adfdfa 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 #adfdfa?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #E9FEFE, #adfdfa 45%, #037C78). For more colour, a short hue run to #8FAEFC keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #adfdfa in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

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