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blue · cool

#bae3fd

a pale, electric blue · cool · closest name: Light Blue

Token name suggestion: Frost Sapphire

RGB
186, 227, 253
HSL
203°, 94%, 86%
CMYK
27, 10, 0, 1
Luminance
0.7247

#bae3fd is a pale electric blue, 203° on the wheel and 97/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (15.49:1). As text it scores 1.36:1 on white — use #0679C2 instead. Nearest name is Light Blue, nearest Tailwind family is cyan.

hsl(203 94% 86%)rgb(186 227 253)Base step 200AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #bae3fd is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#bae3fd
Hue
203°
blue
Saturation
94%
electric
Lightness
86%
pale
Brightness
99%
HSV value
Perceived
86%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.7247
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
97/100 cool
Color family
Blue
Tone
Electric
Best ink
Black
15.49:1
Closest name
Light Blue
ΔE2000 5.7
Chroma
18.6
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.895
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
cyan
500 · ΔE 18.1
Web-safe
#CCCCFF
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue203° of 360°
Saturation94%
Lightness86%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #bae3fd.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool97% 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
Red14%
Green76%
Blue10%

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

Every format

HEX#bae3fd
HEX (8-digit)#bae3fdff
RGBrgb(186, 227, 253)
RGBArgba(186, 227, 253, 1)
HSLhsl(203, 94%, 86%)
HSV / HSBhsv(203, 26%, 99%)
HWBhwb(203 73% 1%)
CMYKcmyk(27%, 10%, 0%, 1%)
LABlab(88.2 -7.6 -17.0)
LCHlch(88.2 18.6 245.9)
OKLCHoklch(0.895 0.056 236.1)
XYZ (D65)xyz(65.44, 72.47, 103.45)
Decimal12248061
Display P3color(display-p3 0.729 0.890 0.992)
Web-safe#CCCCFF

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #bae3fd;
background-color: #bae3fd;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #bae3fd;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#bae3fd] bg-[#bae3fd]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #bae3fd;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.729, green: 0.890, blue: 0.992)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.729, green: 0.890, blue: 0.992, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#BAE3FD</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFBAE3FD)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFBAE3FD)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(253, 227, 186)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(186, 227, 253)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(186, 227, 253)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 186, 227, 253)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.7294f, 0.8902f, 0.9922f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{186,227,253}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #bae3fd 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #bae3fd 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#044D7C, #D3E3EE);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #bae3fd 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: #F2F9FD;
  --brand-100: #E4F2FB;
  --brand-200: #bae3fd;
  --brand-300: #92D3FC;
  --brand-400: #5BBDFA;
  --brand-500: #25A6F9;
  --brand-600: #0794EE;
  --brand-700: #067CC6;
  --brand-800: #05639F;
  --brand-900: #084972;
  --brand-950: #052E47;
  --brand: #bae3fd;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F4F8FA;
  --brand-border: #C0DBED;
  --brand-hover: #97D5FC;
  --brand-pressed: #75C7FB;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #141E24;
    --brand-ink: #D3E3EE;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F2F9FD',
        100: '#E4F2FB',
        200: '#bae3fd',
        300: '#92D3FC',
        400: '#5BBDFA',
        500: '#25A6F9',
        600: '#0794EE',
        700: '#067CC6',
        800: '#05639F',
        900: '#084972',
        950: '#052E47',
        DEFAULT: '#bae3fd',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F2F9FD,
  '100': #E4F2FB,
  '200': #bae3fd,
  '300': #92D3FC,
  '400': #5BBDFA,
  '500': #25A6F9,
  '600': #0794EE,
  '700': #067CC6,
  '800': #05639F,
  '900': #084972,
  '950': #052E47,
);
$brand-base: #bae3fd;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F2F9FD", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#E4F2FB", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#bae3fd", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#92D3FC", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#5BBDFA", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#25A6F9", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#0794EE", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#067CC6", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#05639F", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#084972", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#052E47", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #bae3fd · 15.49:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 1.36:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 15.49:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #bae3fd as text scores 1.36:1 on white and 15.49:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #044D7C at 6.57:1.

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
#0679C2 · 4.64:1
AA on white−47% L
#0679C2
The quick fox
#045A90 · 7.32:1
AAA on white−57% L
#045A90
The quick fox
#bae3fd · 15.49:1
AA on blackalready passes
#bae3fd
The quick fox
#bae3fd · 15.49:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#bae3fd

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #0798F3 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
#bae3fd on white: 1.36:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#bae3fd on black: 15.49:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #bae3fd as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #bae3fd.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White1.36:1AaAa
Slate 501.30:1AaAa
Slate 1001.24:1AaAa
Slate 2001.10:1AaAa
Slate 3001.10:1AaAa
Slate 4001.89:1AaAa
Slate 5003.51:1AaAa
Slate 6005.59:1AaAa
Slate 7007.64:1AaAa
Slate 80010.79:1AaAa
Slate 90013.17:1AaAa
Black15.49:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #D7E2FE
deuteranopia · #CEDAFD
tritanopia · #A6EAEB

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. #bae3fd 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.

#F2F9FD
#E4F2FB
#bae3fd
#92D3FC
#5BBDFA
#25A6F9
#0794EE
#067CC6
#05639F
#084972
#052E47
Base = 200Lightest = 50 · #F2F9FDDarkest = 950 · #052E47Text step on white = 800
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 0.014 236.1);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.022 236.1);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.033 236.1);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.044 236.1);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.051 236.1);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.056 236.1);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.056 236.1);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.052 236.1);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.047 236.1);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.039 236.1);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.031 236.1);
}

Colors that work with #bae3fd

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#F4F8FA
Tinted page background
Border#C0DBED
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B7C9B
Captions on the surface
Accent#C91D03
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#044D7C
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#E6F5FE
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#141E24
Dark-mode background
Hover#97D5FC
One step down in lightness
Pressed#75C7FB
Two steps down
Disabled#F3F5F7
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#CDEBFF
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 #bae3fd

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
  • 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 #044D7C
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #0798F3

Meaning and mood

What a colour in this family tends to signal, and how this particular chroma and lightness change the reading.

trustedcalmcompetentcorporate

The default of institutions for a reason: blue is read as stable and safe across nearly every culture that has been surveyed.

At this chroma the association is amplified — it will dominate anything placed beside it, so give it space and use it sparingly. The high lightness makes it recede — a surface colour rather than a statement.

Worth knowing

It is also the most crowded hue on the web. Distinctiveness has to come from your other choices.

Reads as
  • FormalityLow
  • EnergyHigh
  • Weight14/100
  • 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#FDD4BA
Analogous left#BAFDF6
Analogous right#BAC2FD
Split-complement 1#FDBAC2
Split-complement 2#FDF6BA
Triadic 1#FDBAE3
Triadic 2#E3FDBA
Tetradic#F6BAFD
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°203°

#bae3fd sits at 203°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red72.9%
Green89.0%
Blue99.2%
R · 0–255
186
0xba
G · 0–255
227
0xe3
B · 0–255
253
0xfd

CMYK percentages

Cyan26.5%
Magenta10.3%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)0.8%

Total ink coverage is 38%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#bae3fd text on a black background

contrast 15.49:1

Card sample

#bae3fd text on a white background

contrast 1.36:1

Card sample

#bae3fd on grey

1.24:1

#bae3fd on its own surface

1.27:1

#bae3fd on its dark surface

12.49:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #bae3fd;
Background color
Panel with #bae3fd background
background-color: #bae3fd;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #bae3fd;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(186, 227, 253, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(186, 227, 253, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #bae3fd;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #bae3fd, #BEBAFD);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #bae3fd, #CFBAFD);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #bae3fd;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #bae3fd;
caret-color: #bae3fd;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #bae3fd;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #E6F5FE;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #bae3fd;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#bae3fd 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #bae3fd 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(186, 227, 253, 0.5)
rgb(186 227 253 / 50%)
#bae3fd80
hsl(203 94% 86% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #bae3fd 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#bae3fd1a#F8FCFF
20%#bae3fd33#F1F9FF
40%#bae3fd66#E3F4FE
60%#bae3fd99#D6EEFE
80%#bae3fdcc#C8E9FD

Gradients from #bae3fd

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, #EBF7FE, #bae3fd 45%, #044D7C);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #bae3fd, #AA9CFC);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #bae3fd, #FDD4BA);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #F0F9FF 0%, #bae3fd 45%, #044D7C 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F4F8FA, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #ECFEFB 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #D8D9FE 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #044D7C 0%, transparent 65%), #bae3fd;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #bae3fd

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.

#bae3fd in the real world

Where a color in this family tends to land, and the interface roles it is usually asked to play.

Industries
TechnologyFinanceHealthcareEnterprise SaaS
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 15.49:1.

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.

#bae3fd, answered

What color is #bae3fd?

#bae3fd is a pale electric blue, closest to Light Blue (ΔE2000 5.7). It sits at 203° on the hue wheel with 94% saturation and 86% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #bae3fd?

rgb(186, 227, 253) — 186 red, 227 green and 253 blue out of 255, or 72.9% / 89% / 99.2% by channel.

What is #bae3fd in HSL and HSV?

hsl(203, 94%, 86%) and hsv(203, 26%, 99%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #bae3fd a light or a dark color?

It is a light color. Relative luminance is 0.7247 and perceived brightness is 86%, so black text on it reaches 15.49:1.

Should I use black or white text on #bae3fd?

Black. It scores 15.49:1 against #bae3fd, versus 1.36:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #bae3fd accessible on a white background?

#bae3fd on white scores 1.36:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #0679C2 to reach 4.5:1, or #045A90 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #bae3fd?

#FDD4BA sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #FDBAC2 and #FDF6BA, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #bae3fd?

For interface work: #F4F8FA as the surface, #C0DBED for borders, #4B7C9B for secondary text, #C91D03 as an accent and #044D7C for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #BAFDF6 and #BAC2FD stays calm, while #FDD4BA is the loudest partner.

What is #bae3fd in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(27%, 10%, 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 #bae3fd warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 97 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #BAFCFD; nudged cooler, #B9DCFE.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #bae3fd?

The cyan family — its 500 step is #06b6d4, ΔE2000 18.1 away. That is a visible difference, so define #bae3fd as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #bae3fd in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#bae3fd] or text-[#bae3fd], 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 #bae3fd with 50% opacity?

rgba(186, 227, 253, 0.5), or #bae3fd80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #DDF1FE; over black, #5D727F.

Is #bae3fd a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #CCCCFF, ΔE2000 15.4 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #bae3fd mean?

As a blue, it reads trusted, calm, competent. The default of institutions for a reason: blue is read as stable and safe across nearly every culture that has been surveyed. At this chroma the effect is amplified — it will dominate whatever sits beside it.

What gradient works with #bae3fd?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #EBF7FE, #bae3fd 45%, #044D7C). For more colour, a short hue run to #AA9CFC keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #bae3fd in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #bae3fd at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.