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cyan · cool

#aff3df

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

Token name suggestion: Meadow Teal

RGB
175, 243, 223
HSL
162°, 74%, 82%
CMYK
28, 0, 8, 5
Luminance
0.7854

#aff3df is a light vivid cyan, 162° on the wheel and 80/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (16.71:1). As text it scores 1.26:1 on white — use #148564 instead. Nearest name is Pale Turquoise, nearest Tailwind family is teal.

hsl(162 74% 82%)rgb(175 243 223)Base step 300AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #aff3df is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#aff3df
Hue
162°
cyan
Saturation
74%
vivid
Lightness
82%
light
Brightness
95%
HSV value
Perceived
87%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.7854
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
80/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Vivid
Best ink
Black
16.71:1
Closest name
Pale Turquoise
ΔE2000 7.5
Chroma
25.4
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.913
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
teal
500 · ΔE 18.1
Web-safe
#99FFCC
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue162° of 360°
Saturation74%
Lightness82%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #aff3df.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool80% 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%
Green82%
Blue7%

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

Every format

HEX#aff3df
HEX (8-digit)#aff3dfff
RGBrgb(175, 243, 223)
RGBArgba(175, 243, 223, 1)
HSLhsl(162, 74%, 82%)
HSV / HSBhsv(162, 28%, 95%)
HWBhwb(162 69% 5%)
CMYKcmyk(28%, 0%, 8%, 5%)
LABlab(91.0 -25.3 2.8)
LCHlch(91.0 25.4 173.6)
OKLCHoklch(0.913 0.073 174.4)
XYZ (D65)xyz(63.04, 78.54, 81.64)
Decimal11531231
Display P3color(display-p3 0.686 0.953 0.875)
Web-safe#99FFCC

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #aff3df;
background-color: #aff3df;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #aff3df;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#aff3df] bg-[#aff3df]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #aff3df;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.686, green: 0.953, blue: 0.875)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.686, green: 0.953, blue: 0.875, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#AFF3DF</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFAFF3DF)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFAFF3DF)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(223, 243, 175)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(175, 243, 223)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(175, 243, 223)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 175, 243, 223)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.6863f, 0.9529f, 0.8745f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{175,243,223}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #aff3df 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #aff3df 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#116F53, #D3EEE6);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #aff3df 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: #F3FCF9;
  --brand-100: #E7F9F3;
  --brand-200: #C8F3E7;
  --brand-300: #aff3df;
  --brand-400: #6DE9C5;
  --brand-500: #3CE2B1;
  --brand-600: #20D5A0;
  --brand-700: #1BB185;
  --brand-800: #158E6B;
  --brand-900: #14674E;
  --brand-950: #0C4031;
  --brand: #aff3df;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F4FAF9;
  --brand-border: #C0EDDF;
  --brand-hover: #90EED3;
  --brand-pressed: #71EAC6;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #142420;
    --brand-ink: #D3EEE6;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F3FCF9',
        100: '#E7F9F3',
        200: '#C8F3E7',
        300: '#aff3df',
        400: '#6DE9C5',
        500: '#3CE2B1',
        600: '#20D5A0',
        700: '#1BB185',
        800: '#158E6B',
        900: '#14674E',
        950: '#0C4031',
        DEFAULT: '#aff3df',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F3FCF9,
  '100': #E7F9F3,
  '200': #C8F3E7,
  '300': #aff3df,
  '400': #6DE9C5,
  '500': #3CE2B1,
  '600': #20D5A0,
  '700': #1BB185,
  '800': #158E6B,
  '900': #14674E,
  '950': #0C4031,
);
$brand-base: #aff3df;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F3FCF9", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#E7F9F3", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#C8F3E7", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#aff3df", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#6DE9C5", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#3CE2B1", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#20D5A0", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#1BB185", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#158E6B", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#14674E", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#0C4031", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #aff3df · 16.71:1
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 · 16.71:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #aff3df as text scores 1.26:1 on white and 16.71:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #116F53 at 4.88:1.

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
#148564 · 4.60:1
AA on white−52% L
#148564
The quick fox
#0F6249 · 7.33:1
AAA on white−60% L
#0F6249
The quick fox
#aff3df · 16.71:1
AA on blackalready passes
#aff3df
The quick fox
#aff3df · 16.71:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#aff3df

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #19A47B 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
#aff3df on white: 1.26:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#aff3df on black: 16.71:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #aff3df as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #aff3df.

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 5003.79:1AaAa
Slate 6006.03:1AaAa
Slate 7008.24:1AaAa
Slate 80011.64:1AaAa
Slate 90014.20:1AaAa
Black16.71:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #EEEBDE
deuteranopia · #E2E2E0
tritanopia · #9DF5ED

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. #aff3df 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.

#F3FCF9
#E7F9F3
#C8F3E7
#aff3df
#6DE9C5
#3CE2B1
#20D5A0
#1BB185
#158E6B
#14674E
#0C4031
Base = 300Lightest = 50 · #F3FCF9Darkest = 950 · #0C4031Text 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 0.018 174.4);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.029 174.4);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.044 174.4);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.057 174.4);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.067 174.4);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.073 174.4);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.073 174.4);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.069 174.4);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.062 174.4);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.051 174.4);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.040 174.4);
}

Colors that work with #aff3df

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#C0EDDF
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B9B83
Captions on the surface
Accent#B6166D
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#116F53
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#E9FCF6
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#142420
Dark-mode background
Hover#90EED3
One step down in lightness
Pressed#71EAC6
Two steps down
Disabled#F3F7F6
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#BDF9E8
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 #aff3df

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 #116F53
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #19A47B

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
  • 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#F3AFC3
Analogous left#AFF3BD
Analogous right#AFE5F3
Split-complement 1#F3AFE5
Split-complement 2#F3BDAF
Triadic 1#DFAFF3
Triadic 2#F3DFAF
Tetradic#BDAFF3
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°162°

#aff3df sits at 162°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red68.6%
Green95.3%
Blue87.5%
R · 0–255
175
0xaf
G · 0–255
243
0xf3
B · 0–255
223
0xdf

CMYK percentages

Cyan28.0%
Magenta0.0%
Yellow8.2%
Key (black)4.7%

Total ink coverage is 41%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#aff3df text on a black background

contrast 16.71:1

Card sample

#aff3df text on a white background

contrast 1.26:1

Card sample

#aff3df on grey

1.15:1

#aff3df on its own surface

1.19:1

#aff3df on its dark surface

12.82:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #aff3df;
Background color
Panel with #aff3df background
background-color: #aff3df;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #aff3df;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(175, 243, 223, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(175, 243, 223, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #aff3df;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #aff3df, #AFDAF3);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #aff3df, #AFC9F3);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #aff3df;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #aff3df;
caret-color: #aff3df;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #aff3df;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #E9FCF6;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #aff3df;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#aff3df 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #aff3df 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, 243, 223, 0.5)
rgb(175 243 223 / 50%)
#aff3df80
hsl(162 74% 82% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #aff3df 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#aff3df1a#F7FEFC
20%#aff3df33#EFFDF9
40%#aff3df66#DFFAF2
60%#aff3df99#CFF8EC
80%#aff3dfcc#BFF5E5

Gradients from #aff3df

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, #E4FBF4, #aff3df 45%, #116F53);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #aff3df, #95C6EF);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #aff3df, #F3AFC3);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #F2FDFA 0%, #aff3df 45%, #116F53 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%, #DCFADF 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #CAEAF7 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #116F53 0%, transparent 65%), #aff3df;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #aff3df

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.

#aff3df 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 16.71:1.

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.

#aff3df, answered

What color is #aff3df?

#aff3df is a light vivid cyan, closest to Pale Turquoise (ΔE2000 7.5). It sits at 162° on the hue wheel with 74% saturation and 82% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #aff3df?

rgb(175, 243, 223) — 175 red, 243 green and 223 blue out of 255, or 68.6% / 95.3% / 87.5% by channel.

What is #aff3df in HSL and HSV?

hsl(162, 74%, 82%) and hsv(162, 28%, 95%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #aff3df a light or a dark color?

It is a light color. Relative luminance is 0.7854 and perceived brightness is 87%, so black text on it reaches 16.71:1.

Should I use black or white text on #aff3df?

Black. It scores 16.71:1 against #aff3df, versus 1.26:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #aff3df accessible on a white background?

#aff3df on white scores 1.26:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #148564 to reach 4.5:1, or #0F6249 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #aff3df?

#F3AFC3 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #F3AFE5 and #F3BDAF, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #aff3df?

For interface work: #F4FAF9 as the surface, #C0EDDF for borders, #4B9B83 for secondary text, #B6166D as an accent and #116F53 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #AFF3BD and #AFE5F3 stays calm, while #F3AFC3 is the loudest partner.

What is #aff3df in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(28%, 0%, 8%, 5%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #aff3df warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 80 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #AFF3C6; nudged cooler, #AEEFF4.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #aff3df?

The teal family — its 500 step is #14b8a6, ΔE2000 18.1 away. That is a visible difference, so define #aff3df as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #aff3df in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#aff3df] or text-[#aff3df], 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 #aff3df with 50% opacity?

rgba(175, 243, 223, 0.5), or #aff3df80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #D7F9EF; over black, #587A70.

Is #aff3df a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #99FFCC, ΔE2000 8.8 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #aff3df 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 #aff3df?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #E4FBF4, #aff3df 45%, #116F53). For more colour, a short hue run to #95C6EF keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #aff3df in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #aff3df at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.