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cyan · cool

#b9cfcc

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

Token name suggestion: Morning Teal

RGB
185, 207, 204
HSL
172°, 19%, 77%
CMYK
11, 0, 1, 19
Luminance
0.5930

#b9cfcc is a light soft cyan, 172° on the wheel and 68/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (12.86:1). As text it scores 1.63:1 on white — use #557C76 instead. Nearest name is Powder Blue, nearest Tailwind family is cyan.

hsl(172 19% 77%)rgb(185 207 204)Base step 300AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #b9cfcc is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#b9cfcc
Hue
172°
cyan
Saturation
19%
soft
Lightness
77%
light
Brightness
81%
HSV value
Perceived
79%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.5930
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
68/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Soft
Best ink
Black
12.86:1
Closest name
Powder Blue
ΔE2000 7.6
Chroma
8.0
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.837
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
cyan
500 · ΔE 19.5
Web-safe
#CCCCCC
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue172° of 360°
Saturation19%
Lightness77%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #b9cfcc.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool68% 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
Red17%
Green75%
Blue7%

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

Every format

HEX#b9cfcc
HEX (8-digit)#b9cfccff
RGBrgb(185, 207, 204)
RGBArgba(185, 207, 204, 1)
HSLhsl(172, 19%, 77%)
HSV / HSBhsv(172, 11%, 81%)
HWBhwb(172 73% 19%)
CMYKcmyk(11%, 0%, 1%, 19%)
LABlab(81.5 -8.0 -1.0)
LCHlch(81.5 8.0 187.4)
OKLCHoklch(0.837 0.024 186.8)
XYZ (D65)xyz(53.22, 59.30, 65.76)
Decimal12177356
Display P3color(display-p3 0.725 0.812 0.800)
Web-safe#CCCCCC

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #b9cfcc;
background-color: #b9cfcc;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #b9cfcc;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#b9cfcc] bg-[#b9cfcc]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #b9cfcc;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.725, green: 0.812, blue: 0.800)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.725, green: 0.812, blue: 0.800, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#B9CFCC</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFB9CFCC)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFB9CFCC)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(204, 207, 185)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(185, 207, 204)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(185, 207, 204)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 185, 207, 204)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.7255f, 0.8118f, 0.8000f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{185,207,204}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #b9cfcc 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #b9cfcc 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#344C48, #DBE6E5);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #b9cfcc 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: #F6F8F8;
  --brand-100: #EDF2F1;
  --brand-200: #D8E3E2;
  --brand-300: #b9cfcc;
  --brand-400: #9BBBB6;
  --brand-500: #7AA49E;
  --brand-600: #64918B;
  --brand-700: #537974;
  --brand-800: #42615D;
  --brand-900: #334845;
  --brand-950: #202D2B;
  --brand: #b9cfcc;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F6F9F8;
  --brand-border: #CFDEDC;
  --brand-hover: #A4C1BD;
  --brand-pressed: #8FB2AD;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #172120;
    --brand-ink: #DBE6E5;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F6F8F8',
        100: '#EDF2F1',
        200: '#D8E3E2',
        300: '#b9cfcc',
        400: '#9BBBB6',
        500: '#7AA49E',
        600: '#64918B',
        700: '#537974',
        800: '#42615D',
        900: '#334845',
        950: '#202D2B',
        DEFAULT: '#b9cfcc',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F6F8F8,
  '100': #EDF2F1,
  '200': #D8E3E2,
  '300': #b9cfcc,
  '400': #9BBBB6,
  '500': #7AA49E,
  '600': #64918B,
  '700': #537974,
  '800': #42615D,
  '900': #334845,
  '950': #202D2B,
);
$brand-base: #b9cfcc;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F6F8F8", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#EDF2F1", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#D8E3E2", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#b9cfcc", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#9BBBB6", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#7AA49E", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#64918B", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#537974", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#42615D", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#334845", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#202D2B", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #b9cfcc · 12.86:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 1.63:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 12.86:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #b9cfcc as text scores 1.63:1 on white and 12.86:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #344C48 at 5.66:1.

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
#557C76 · 4.63:1
AA on white−36% L
#557C76
The quick fox
#405D59 · 7.17:1
AAA on white−46% L
#405D59
The quick fox
#b9cfcc · 12.86:1
AA on blackalready passes
#b9cfcc
The quick fox
#b9cfcc · 12.86:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#b9cfcc

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #719D97 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
#b9cfcc on white: 1.63:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#b9cfcc on black: 12.86:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #b9cfcc as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #b9cfcc.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White1.63:1AaAa
Slate 501.56:1AaAa
Slate 1001.49:1AaAa
Slate 2001.32:1AaAa
Slate 3001.10:1AaAa
Slate 4001.57:1AaAa
Slate 5002.91:1AaAa
Slate 6004.64:1AaAa
Slate 7006.34:1AaAa
Slate 8008.96:1AaAa
Slate 90010.93:1AaAa
Black12.86:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #CCCCCC
deuteranopia · #C8C9CC
tritanopia · #B3D0CE

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. #b9cfcc 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.

#F6F8F8
#EDF2F1
#D8E3E2
#b9cfcc
#9BBBB6
#7AA49E
#64918B
#537974
#42615D
#334845
#202D2B
Base = 300Lightest = 50 · #F6F8F8Darkest = 950 · #202D2BText step on white = 700
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 0.006 186.8);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.010 186.8);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.014 186.8);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.019 186.8);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.022 186.8);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.024 186.8);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.024 186.8);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.023 186.8);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.020 186.8);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.017 186.8);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.013 186.8);
}

Colors that work with #b9cfcc

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#F6F9F8
Tinted page background
Border#CFDEDC
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#5D8882
Captions on the surface
Accent#7C5061
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#344C48
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#F0F5F4
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#172120
Dark-mode background
Hover#A4C1BD
One step down in lightness
Pressed#8FB2AD
Two steps down
Disabled#F3F7F6
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#C0DCD8
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 #b9cfcc

Derived from its contrast, chroma and lightness — not from taste.

Works well for
  • Text and icons on dark surfaces
  • Charts, tags and secondary surfaces
  • Card and section backgrounds
  • Brand accents, badges and data highlights
Use with care
  • Text of any size on white — fails WCAG AA
  • 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 #344C48
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #719D97

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.

The muted chroma softens the association — it reads considered rather than loud, which suits long-form and data-heavy screens. 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
  • Weight23/100
  • 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#CFB9BC
Analogous left#B9CFC1
Analogous right#B9C7CF
Split-complement 1#CFB9C7
Split-complement 2#CFC1B9
Triadic 1#CCB9CF
Triadic 2#CFCCB9
Tetradic#C1B9CF
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°172°

#b9cfcc sits at 172°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red72.5%
Green81.2%
Blue80.0%
R · 0–255
185
0xb9
G · 0–255
207
0xcf
B · 0–255
204
0xcc

CMYK percentages

Cyan10.6%
Magenta0.0%
Yellow1.4%
Key (black)18.8%

Total ink coverage is 31%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#b9cfcc text on a black background

contrast 12.86:1

Card sample

#b9cfcc text on a white background

contrast 1.63:1

Card sample

#b9cfcc on grey

1.49:1

#b9cfcc on its own surface

1.54:1

#b9cfcc on its dark surface

10.09:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #b9cfcc;
Background color
Panel with #b9cfcc background
background-color: #b9cfcc;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #b9cfcc;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(185, 207, 204, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(185, 207, 204, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #b9cfcc;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #b9cfcc, #B9C3CF);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #b9cfcc, #B9BECF);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #b9cfcc;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #b9cfcc;
caret-color: #b9cfcc;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #b9cfcc;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #F0F5F4;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #b9cfcc;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#b9cfcc 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #b9cfcc 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(185, 207, 204, 0.5)
rgb(185 207 204 / 50%)
#b9cfcc80
hsl(172 19% 77% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #b9cfcc 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#b9cfcc1a#F8FAFA
20%#b9cfcc33#F1F5F5
40%#b9cfcc66#E3ECEB
60%#b9cfcc99#D5E2E0
80%#b9cfcccc#C7D9D6

Gradients from #b9cfcc

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, #DDE8E7, #b9cfcc 45%, #344C48);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #b9cfcc, #A7B2C3);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #b9cfcc, #CFB9BC);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #F0F4F4 0%, #b9cfcc 45%, #344C48 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F6F9F8, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #D7E4DB 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #CBD4DC 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #344C48 0%, transparent 65%), #b9cfcc;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #b9cfcc

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.

#b9cfcc 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 12.86:1.

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.

#b9cfcc, answered

What color is #b9cfcc?

#b9cfcc is a light soft cyan, closest to Powder Blue (ΔE2000 7.6). It sits at 172° on the hue wheel with 19% saturation and 77% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #b9cfcc?

rgb(185, 207, 204) — 185 red, 207 green and 204 blue out of 255, or 72.5% / 81.2% / 80% by channel.

What is #b9cfcc in HSL and HSV?

hsl(172, 19%, 77%) and hsv(172, 11%, 81%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #b9cfcc a light or a dark color?

It is a light color. Relative luminance is 0.5930 and perceived brightness is 79%, so black text on it reaches 12.86:1.

Should I use black or white text on #b9cfcc?

Black. It scores 12.86:1 against #b9cfcc, versus 1.63:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #b9cfcc accessible on a white background?

#b9cfcc on white scores 1.63:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #557C76 to reach 4.5:1, or #405D59 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #b9cfcc?

#CFB9BC sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #CFB9C7 and #CFC1B9, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #b9cfcc?

For interface work: #F6F9F8 as the surface, #CFDEDC for borders, #5D8882 for secondary text, #7C5061 as an accent and #344C48 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #B9CFC1 and #B9C7CF stays calm, while #CFB9BC is the loudest partner.

What is #b9cfcc in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(11%, 0%, 1%, 19%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #b9cfcc warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 68 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #B9CFC4; nudged cooler, #B8CBD0.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #b9cfcc?

The cyan family — its 500 step is #06b6d4, ΔE2000 19.5 away. That is a visible difference, so define #b9cfcc as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #b9cfcc in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#b9cfcc] or text-[#b9cfcc], 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 #b9cfcc with 50% opacity?

rgba(185, 207, 204, 0.5), or #b9cfcc80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #DCE7E6; over black, #5D6866.

Is #b9cfcc a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #CCCCCC, ΔE2000 9.4 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #b9cfcc mean?

As a cyan, it reads clean, technical, fresh. Cyan reads as water, air and infrastructure: cool, hygienic, engineered. At this moderate chroma the association is present but not shouted.

What gradient works with #b9cfcc?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #DDE8E7, #b9cfcc 45%, #344C48). For more colour, a short hue run to #A7B2C3 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #b9cfcc in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #b9cfcc at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.