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cyan · cool

#afeff6

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

Token name suggestion: Drift Teal

RGB
175, 239, 246
HSL
186°, 80%, 83%
CMYK
29, 3, 0, 4
Luminance
0.7750

#afeff6 is a light electric cyan, 186° on the wheel and 90/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (16.50:1). As text it scores 1.27:1 on white — use #10808C instead. Nearest name is Pale Turquoise, nearest Tailwind family is cyan.

hsl(186 80% 83%)rgb(175 239 246)Base step 200AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #afeff6 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#afeff6
Hue
186°
cyan
Saturation
80%
electric
Lightness
83%
light
Brightness
96%
HSV value
Perceived
87%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.7750
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
90/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Electric
Best ink
Black
16.50:1
Closest name
Pale Turquoise
ΔE2000 2.8
Chroma
20.8
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.911
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
cyan
500 · ΔE 17.8
Web-safe
#99FFFF
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue186° of 360°
Saturation80%
Lightness83%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #afeff6.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool90% 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%
Green80%
Blue9%

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

Every format

HEX#afeff6
HEX (8-digit)#afeff6ff
RGBrgb(175, 239, 246)
RGBArgba(175, 239, 246, 1)
HSLhsl(186, 80%, 83%)
HSV / HSBhsv(186, 29%, 96%)
HWBhwb(186 69% 4%)
CMYKcmyk(29%, 3%, 0%, 4%)
LABlab(90.5 -18.4 -9.8)
LCHlch(90.5 20.8 208.2)
OKLCHoklch(0.911 0.065 204.6)
XYZ (D65)xyz(65.17, 77.50, 98.70)
Decimal11530230
Display P3color(display-p3 0.686 0.937 0.965)
Web-safe#99FFFF

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #afeff6;
background-color: #afeff6;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #afeff6;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#afeff6] bg-[#afeff6]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #afeff6;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.686, green: 0.937, blue: 0.965)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.686, green: 0.937, blue: 0.965, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#AFEFF6</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFAFEFF6)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFAFEFF6)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(246, 239, 175)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(175, 239, 246)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(175, 239, 246)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 175, 239, 246)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.6863f, 0.9373f, 0.9647f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{175,239,246}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #afeff6 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #afeff6 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#0D6973, #D3EBEE);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #afeff6 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: #F3FBFC;
  --brand-100: #E6F7F9;
  --brand-200: #afeff6;
  --brand-300: #9AEBF4;
  --brand-400: #68E1EE;
  --brand-500: #35D7E8;
  --brand-600: #19C9DC;
  --brand-700: #15A7B7;
  --brand-800: #108693;
  --brand-900: #10616A;
  --brand-950: #0A3D42;
  --brand: #afeff6;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F4FAFA;
  --brand-border: #C0E8ED;
  --brand-hover: #8FE9F2;
  --brand-pressed: #6FE2EF;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #142324;
    --brand-ink: #D3EBEE;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F3FBFC',
        100: '#E6F7F9',
        200: '#afeff6',
        300: '#9AEBF4',
        400: '#68E1EE',
        500: '#35D7E8',
        600: '#19C9DC',
        700: '#15A7B7',
        800: '#108693',
        900: '#10616A',
        950: '#0A3D42',
        DEFAULT: '#afeff6',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F3FBFC,
  '100': #E6F7F9,
  '200': #afeff6,
  '300': #9AEBF4,
  '400': #68E1EE,
  '500': #35D7E8,
  '600': #19C9DC,
  '700': #15A7B7,
  '800': #108693,
  '900': #10616A,
  '950': #0A3D42,
);
$brand-base: #afeff6;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F3FBFC", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#E6F7F9", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#afeff6", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#9AEBF4", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#68E1EE", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#35D7E8", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#19C9DC", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#15A7B7", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#108693", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#10616A", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#0A3D42", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #afeff6 · 16.50:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 1.27:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 16.50:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #afeff6 as text scores 1.27:1 on white and 16.50:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #0D6973 at 5.02:1.

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
#10808C · 4.68:1
AA on white−52% L
#10808C
The quick fox
#0C626C · 7.05:1
AAA on white−59% L
#0C626C
The quick fox
#afeff6 · 16.50:1
AA on blackalready passes
#afeff6
The quick fox
#afeff6 · 16.50:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#afeff6

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #14A1B1 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
#afeff6 on white: 1.27:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#afeff6 on black: 16.50:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #afeff6 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #afeff6.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White1.27:1AaAa
Slate 501.22:1AaAa
Slate 1001.16:1AaAa
Slate 2001.03:1AaAa
Slate 3001.17:1AaAa
Slate 4002.01:1AaAa
Slate 5003.74:1AaAa
Slate 6005.95:1AaAa
Slate 7008.14:1AaAa
Slate 80011.49:1AaAa
Slate 90014.03:1AaAa
Black16.50:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #E5EAF7
deuteranopia · #D8E0F6
tritanopia · #97F4F1

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. #afeff6 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.

#F3FBFC
#E6F7F9
#afeff6
#9AEBF4
#68E1EE
#35D7E8
#19C9DC
#15A7B7
#108693
#10616A
#0A3D42
Base = 200Lightest = 50 · #F3FBFCDarkest = 950 · #0A3D42Text 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 0.016 204.6);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.026 204.6);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.039 204.6);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.050 204.6);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.060 204.6);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.065 204.6);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.065 204.6);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.061 204.6);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.054 204.6);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.045 204.6);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.036 204.6);
}

Colors that work with #afeff6

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#C0E8ED
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B939B
Captions on the surface
Accent#BC1029
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#0D6973
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#E8FAFC
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#142324
Dark-mode background
Hover#8FE9F2
One step down in lightness
Pressed#6FE2EF
Two steps down
Disabled#F3F7F7
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#BEF5FB
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 #afeff6

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 #0D6973
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #14A1B1

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
  • Weight18/100
  • 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#F6B6AF
Analogous left#AFF6D9
Analogous right#AFCBF6
Split-complement 1#F6AFCB
Split-complement 2#F6D9AF
Triadic 1#F6AFEF
Triadic 2#EFF6AF
Tetradic#D9AFF6
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°186°

#afeff6 sits at 186°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red68.6%
Green93.7%
Blue96.5%
R · 0–255
175
0xaf
G · 0–255
239
0xef
B · 0–255
246
0xf6

CMYK percentages

Cyan28.9%
Magenta2.8%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)3.5%

Total ink coverage is 35%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#afeff6 text on a black background

contrast 16.50:1

Card sample

#afeff6 text on a white background

contrast 1.27:1

Card sample

#afeff6 on grey

1.16:1

#afeff6 on its own surface

1.21:1

#afeff6 on its dark surface

12.74:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #afeff6;
Background color
Panel with #afeff6 background
background-color: #afeff6;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #afeff6;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(175, 239, 246, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(175, 239, 246, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #afeff6;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #afeff6, #AFC0F6);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #afeff6, #B0AFF6);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #afeff6;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #afeff6;
caret-color: #afeff6;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #afeff6;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #E8FAFC;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #afeff6;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#afeff6 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #afeff6 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(175, 239, 246, 0.5)
rgb(175 239 246 / 50%)
#afeff680
hsl(186 80% 83% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #afeff6 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#afeff61a#F7FDFE
20%#afeff633#EFFCFD
40%#afeff666#DFF9FB
60%#afeff699#CFF5FA
80%#afeff6cc#BFF2F8

Gradients from #afeff6

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, #E6FAFC, #afeff6 45%, #0D6973);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #afeff6, #93A2F3);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #afeff6, #F6B6AF);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #F1FCFD 0%, #afeff6 45%, #0D6973 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%, #DDFBEC 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #CAD9F9 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #0D6973 0%, transparent 65%), #afeff6;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #afeff6

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.

#afeff6 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 16.50:1.

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.

#afeff6, answered

What color is #afeff6?

#afeff6 is a light electric cyan, closest to Pale Turquoise (ΔE2000 2.8). It sits at 186° on the hue wheel with 80% saturation and 83% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #afeff6?

rgb(175, 239, 246) — 175 red, 239 green and 246 blue out of 255, or 68.6% / 93.7% / 96.5% by channel.

What is #afeff6 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(186, 80%, 83%) and hsv(186, 29%, 96%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #afeff6 a light or a dark color?

It is a light color. Relative luminance is 0.7750 and perceived brightness is 87%, so black text on it reaches 16.50:1.

Should I use black or white text on #afeff6?

Black. It scores 16.50:1 against #afeff6, versus 1.27:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #afeff6 accessible on a white background?

#afeff6 on white scores 1.27:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #10808C to reach 4.5:1, or #0C626C for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #afeff6?

#F6B6AF sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #F6AFCB and #F6D9AF, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #afeff6?

For interface work: #F4FAFA as the surface, #C0E8ED for borders, #4B939B for secondary text, #BC1029 as an accent and #0D6973 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #AFF6D9 and #AFCBF6 stays calm, while #F6B6AF is the loudest partner.

What is #afeff6 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(29%, 3%, 0%, 4%). 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 #afeff6 warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 90 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #AFF6E3; nudged cooler, #AED9F7.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #afeff6?

The cyan family — its 500 step is #06b6d4, ΔE2000 17.8 away. That is a visible difference, so define #afeff6 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #afeff6 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#afeff6] or text-[#afeff6], 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 #afeff6 with 50% opacity?

rgba(175, 239, 246, 0.5), or #afeff680 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #D7F7FB; over black, #58787B.

Is #afeff6 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #99FFFF, ΔE2000 6.5 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #afeff6 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 #afeff6?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #E6FAFC, #afeff6 45%, #0D6973). For more colour, a short hue run to #93A2F3 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #afeff6 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #afeff6 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.