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cyan · cool

#aef0fd

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

Token name suggestion: Linen Lagoon

RGB
174, 240, 253
HSL
190°, 95%, 84%
CMYK
31, 5, 0, 1
Luminance
0.7841

#aef0fd is a light electric cyan, 190° on the wheel and 92/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (16.68:1). As text it scores 1.26:1 on white — use #048099 instead. Nearest name is Powder Blue, nearest Tailwind family is cyan.

hsl(190 95% 84%)rgb(174 240 253)Base step 200AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #aef0fd is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#aef0fd
Hue
190°
cyan
Saturation
95%
electric
Lightness
84%
light
Brightness
99%
HSV value
Perceived
88%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.7841
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
92/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Electric
Best ink
Black
16.68:1
Closest name
Powder Blue
ΔE2000 4.6
Chroma
21.8
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.915
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
cyan
500 · ΔE 17.4
Web-safe
#99FFFF
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue190° 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 #aef0fd.

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
Red11%
Green79%
Blue9%

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

Every format

HEX#aef0fd
HEX (8-digit)#aef0fdff
RGBrgb(174, 240, 253)
RGBArgba(174, 240, 253, 1)
HSLhsl(190, 95%, 84%)
HSV / HSBhsv(190, 31%, 99%)
HWBhwb(190 68% 1%)
CMYKcmyk(31%, 5%, 0%, 1%)
LABlab(91.0 -17.5 -12.9)
LCHlch(91.0 21.8 216.3)
OKLCHoklch(0.915 0.068 211.1)
XYZ (D65)xyz(66.34, 78.41, 104.55)
Decimal11464957
Display P3color(display-p3 0.682 0.941 0.992)
Web-safe#99FFFF

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #aef0fd;
background-color: #aef0fd;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #aef0fd;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#aef0fd] bg-[#aef0fd]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #aef0fd;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.682, green: 0.941, blue: 0.992)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.682, green: 0.941, blue: 0.992, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#AEF0FD</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFAEF0FD)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFAEF0FD)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(253, 240, 174)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(174, 240, 253)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(174, 240, 253)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 174, 240, 253)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.6824f, 0.9412f, 0.9922f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{174,240,253}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #aef0fd 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #aef0fd 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#03687C, #D3EAEE);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #aef0fd 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: #F1FBFD;
  --brand-100: #E4F8FC;
  --brand-200: #aef0fd;
  --brand-300: #91EBFC;
  --brand-400: #5BE1FB;
  --brand-500: #24D6FA;
  --brand-600: #06C8EF;
  --brand-700: #05A7C7;
  --brand-800: #04869F;
  --brand-900: #086173;
  --brand-950: #053D48;
  --brand: #aef0fd;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F4F9FA;
  --brand-border: #C0E5ED;
  --brand-hover: #8BE9FC;
  --brand-pressed: #68E3FB;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #142224;
    --brand-ink: #D3EAEE;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F1FBFD',
        100: '#E4F8FC',
        200: '#aef0fd',
        300: '#91EBFC',
        400: '#5BE1FB',
        500: '#24D6FA',
        600: '#06C8EF',
        700: '#05A7C7',
        800: '#04869F',
        900: '#086173',
        950: '#053D48',
        DEFAULT: '#aef0fd',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F1FBFD,
  '100': #E4F8FC,
  '200': #aef0fd,
  '300': #91EBFC,
  '400': #5BE1FB,
  '500': #24D6FA,
  '600': #06C8EF,
  '700': #05A7C7,
  '800': #04869F,
  '900': #086173,
  '950': #053D48,
);
$brand-base: #aef0fd;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F1FBFD", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#E4F8FC", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#aef0fd", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#91EBFC", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#5BE1FB", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#24D6FA", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#06C8EF", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#05A7C7", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#04869F", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#086173", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#053D48", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #aef0fd · 16.68:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 1.26:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 16.68:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #aef0fd as text scores 1.26:1 on white and 16.68:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #03687C at 5.09:1.

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
#048099 · 4.61:1
AA on white−53% L
#048099
The quick fox
#035F71 · 7.29:1
AAA on white−61% L
#035F71
The quick fox
#aef0fd · 16.68:1
AA on blackalready passes
#aef0fd
The quick fox
#aef0fd · 16.68:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#aef0fd

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #05A2C1 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
#aef0fd on white: 1.26:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#aef0fd on black: 16.68:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #aef0fd as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #aef0fd.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White1.26:1AaAa
Slate 501.20:1AaAa
Slate 1001.15:1AaAa
Slate 2001.02:1AaAa
Slate 3001.18:1AaAa
Slate 4002.04:1AaAa
Slate 5003.78:1AaAa
Slate 6006.02:1AaAa
Slate 7008.23:1AaAa
Slate 80011.62:1AaAa
Slate 90014.18:1AaAa
Black16.68:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #E5EBFE
deuteranopia · #D7E1FD
tritanopia · #92F6F4

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. #aef0fd 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.

#F1FBFD
#E4F8FC
#aef0fd
#91EBFC
#5BE1FB
#24D6FA
#06C8EF
#05A7C7
#04869F
#086173
#053D48
Base = 200Lightest = 50 · #F1FBFDDarkest = 950 · #053D48Text 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 0.017 211.1);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.027 211.1);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.041 211.1);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.053 211.1);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.063 211.1);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.068 211.1);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.068 211.1);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.064 211.1);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.057 211.1);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.048 211.1);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.037 211.1);
}

Colors that work with #aef0fd

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#C0E5ED
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B8E9B
Captions on the surface
Accent#CC0011
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#03687C
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#E6FAFE
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#142224
Dark-mode background
Hover#8BE9FC
One step down in lightness
Pressed#68E3FB
Two steps down
Disabled#F3F6F7
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#C0F5FF
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 #aef0fd

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 #03687C
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #05A2C1

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
  • Weight16/100
  • 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#FDBBAE
Analogous left#AEFDE2
Analogous right#AEC8FD
Split-complement 1#FDAEC8
Split-complement 2#FDE2AE
Triadic 1#FDAEF0
Triadic 2#F0FDAE
Tetradic#E2AEFD
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°190°

#aef0fd sits at 190°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red68.2%
Green94.1%
Blue99.2%
R · 0–255
174
0xae
G · 0–255
240
0xf0
B · 0–255
253
0xfd

CMYK percentages

Cyan31.2%
Magenta5.1%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)0.8%

Total ink coverage is 37%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#aef0fd text on a black background

contrast 16.68:1

Card sample

#aef0fd text on a white background

contrast 1.26:1

Card sample

#aef0fd on grey

1.15:1

#aef0fd on its own surface

1.19:1

#aef0fd on its dark surface

12.99:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #aef0fd;
Background color
Panel with #aef0fd background
background-color: #aef0fd;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #aef0fd;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(174, 240, 253, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(174, 240, 253, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #aef0fd;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #aef0fd, #AEBBFD);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #aef0fd, #B4AEFD);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #aef0fd;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #aef0fd;
caret-color: #aef0fd;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #aef0fd;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #E6FAFE;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #aef0fd;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#aef0fd 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #aef0fd 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(174, 240, 253, 0.5)
rgb(174 240 253 / 50%)
#aef0fd80
hsl(190 95% 84% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #aef0fd 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#aef0fd1a#F7FEFF
20%#aef0fd33#EFFCFF
40%#aef0fd66#DFF9FE
60%#aef0fd99#CEF6FE
80%#aef0fdcc#BEF3FD

Gradients from #aef0fd

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, #EAFBFE, #aef0fd 45%, #03687C);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #aef0fd, #9099FC);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #aef0fd, #FDBBAE);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #F0FCFF 0%, #aef0fd 45%, #03687C 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%, #E0FEF1 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #CCD8FE 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #03687C 0%, transparent 65%), #aef0fd;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #aef0fd

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.

#aef0fd 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

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 16.68:1.

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.

#aef0fd, answered

What color is #aef0fd?

#aef0fd is a light electric cyan, closest to Powder Blue (ΔE2000 4.6). It sits at 190° on the hue wheel with 95% saturation and 84% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #aef0fd?

rgb(174, 240, 253) — 174 red, 240 green and 253 blue out of 255, or 68.2% / 94.1% / 99.2% by channel.

What is #aef0fd in HSL and HSV?

hsl(190, 95%, 84%) and hsv(190, 31%, 99%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #aef0fd a light or a dark color?

It is a light color. Relative luminance is 0.7841 and perceived brightness is 88%, so black text on it reaches 16.68:1.

Should I use black or white text on #aef0fd?

Black. It scores 16.68:1 against #aef0fd, versus 1.26:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #aef0fd accessible on a white background?

#aef0fd on white scores 1.26:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #048099 to reach 4.5:1, or #035F71 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #aef0fd?

#FDBBAE sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #FDAEC8 and #FDE2AE, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #aef0fd?

For interface work: #F4F9FA as the surface, #C0E5ED for borders, #4B8E9B for secondary text, #CC0011 as an accent and #03687C for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #AEFDE2 and #AEC8FD stays calm, while #FDBBAE is the loudest partner.

What is #aef0fd in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(31%, 5%, 0%, 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 #aef0fd 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 #AEFDED; nudged cooler, #ADDCFE.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #aef0fd?

The cyan family — its 500 step is #06b6d4, ΔE2000 17.4 away. That is a visible difference, so define #aef0fd as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #aef0fd in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#aef0fd] or text-[#aef0fd], 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 #aef0fd with 50% opacity?

rgba(174, 240, 253, 0.5), or #aef0fd80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #D7F8FE; over black, #57787F.

Is #aef0fd a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #99FFFF, ΔE2000 7.8 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #aef0fd 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 #aef0fd?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #EAFBFE, #aef0fd 45%, #03687C). For more colour, a short hue run to #9099FC keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #aef0fd in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #aef0fd at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.