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cyan · cool

#bcfef9

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

Token name suggestion: Frost Reef

RGB
188, 254, 249
HSL
176°, 97%, 87%
CMYK
26, 0, 2, 0
Luminance
0.8841

#bcfef9 is a pale electric cyan, 176° on the wheel and 86/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (18.68:1). As text it scores 1.12:1 on white — use #028178 instead. Nearest name is Pale Turquoise, nearest Tailwind family is teal.

hsl(176 97% 87%)rgb(188 254 249)Base step 200AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #bcfef9 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#bcfef9
Hue
176°
cyan
Saturation
97%
electric
Lightness
87%
pale
Brightness
100%
HSV value
Perceived
92%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.8841
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
86/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Electric
Best ink
Black
18.68:1
Closest name
Pale Turquoise
ΔE2000 3.8
Chroma
21.8
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.952
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
teal
500 · ΔE 21.1
Web-safe
#CCFFFF
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue176° of 360°
Saturation97%
Lightness87%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #bcfef9.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool86% 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%
Blue8%

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

Every format

HEX#bcfef9
HEX (8-digit)#bcfef9ff
RGBrgb(188, 254, 249)
RGBArgba(188, 254, 249, 1)
HSLhsl(176, 97%, 87%)
HSV / HSBhsv(175, 26%, 100%)
HWBhwb(176 74% 0%)
CMYKcmyk(26%, 0%, 2%, 0%)
LABlab(95.3 -21.4 -4.3)
LCHlch(95.3 21.8 191.2)
OKLCHoklch(0.952 0.066 190.3)
XYZ (D65)xyz(73.27, 88.41, 102.81)
Decimal12386041
Display P3color(display-p3 0.737 0.996 0.976)
Web-safe#CCFFFF

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #bcfef9;
background-color: #bcfef9;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #bcfef9;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#bcfef9] bg-[#bcfef9]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #bcfef9;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.737, green: 0.996, blue: 0.976)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.737, green: 0.996, blue: 0.976, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#BCFEF9</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFBCFEF9)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFBCFEF9)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(249, 254, 188)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(188, 254, 249)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(188, 254, 249)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 188, 254, 249)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.7373f, 0.9961f, 0.9765f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{188,254,249}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #bcfef9 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #bcfef9 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#027E74, #D3EEEC);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #bcfef9 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: #F1FDFC;
  --brand-100: #E4FCFA;
  --brand-200: #bcfef9;
  --brand-300: #90FDF5;
  --brand-400: #59FDF0;
  --brand-500: #22FCEB;
  --brand-600: #04F1DF;
  --brand-700: #03C9BA;
  --brand-800: #02A195;
  --brand-900: #07746C;
  --brand-950: #044843;
  --brand: #bcfef9;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F4FAFA;
  --brand-border: #C0EDE9;
  --brand-hover: #99FDF6;
  --brand-pressed: #76FDF3;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #142423;
    --brand-ink: #D3EEEC;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F1FDFC',
        100: '#E4FCFA',
        200: '#bcfef9',
        300: '#90FDF5',
        400: '#59FDF0',
        500: '#22FCEB',
        600: '#04F1DF',
        700: '#03C9BA',
        800: '#02A195',
        900: '#07746C',
        950: '#044843',
        DEFAULT: '#bcfef9',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F1FDFC,
  '100': #E4FCFA,
  '200': #bcfef9,
  '300': #90FDF5,
  '400': #59FDF0,
  '500': #22FCEB,
  '600': #04F1DF,
  '700': #03C9BA,
  '800': #02A195,
  '900': #07746C,
  '950': #044843,
);
$brand-base: #bcfef9;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F1FDFC", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#E4FCFA", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#bcfef9", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#90FDF5", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#59FDF0", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#22FCEB", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#04F1DF", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#03C9BA", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#02A195", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#07746C", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#044843", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #bcfef9 · 18.68:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 1.12:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 18.68:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #bcfef9 as text scores 1.12:1 on white and 18.68:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #027E74 at 4.41:1.

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
#028178 · 4.76:1
AA on white−61% L
#028178
The quick fox
#01635C · 7.14:1
AAA on white−67% L
#01635C
The quick fox
#bcfef9 · 18.68:1
AA on blackalready passes
#bcfef9
The quick fox
#bcfef9 · 18.68:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#bcfef9

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #02A498 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
#bcfef9 on white: 1.12:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#bcfef9 on black: 18.68:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #bcfef9 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #bcfef9.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White1.12:1AaAa
Slate 501.07:1AaAa
Slate 1001.03:1AaAa
Slate 2001.10:1AaAa
Slate 3001.32:1AaAa
Slate 4002.28:1AaAa
Slate 5004.23:1AaAa
Slate 6006.74:1AaAa
Slate 7009.21:1AaAa
Slate 80013.01:1AaAa
Slate 90015.88:1AaAa
Black18.68:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #F6F7F9
deuteranopia · #EAEEFA
tritanopia · #A7FFFC

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. #bcfef9 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.

#F1FDFC
#E4FCFA
#bcfef9
#90FDF5
#59FDF0
#22FCEB
#04F1DF
#03C9BA
#02A195
#07746C
#044843
Base = 200Lightest = 50 · #F1FDFCDarkest = 950 · #044843Text 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 0.017 190.3);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.026 190.3);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.040 190.3);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.051 190.3);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.061 190.3);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.066 190.3);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.066 190.3);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.062 190.3);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.055 190.3);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.046 190.3);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.036 190.3);
}

Colors that work with #bcfef9

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#C0EDE9
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B9B95
Captions on the surface
Accent#CC0042
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#027E74
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#E6FFFD
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#142423
Dark-mode background
Hover#99FDF6
One step down in lightness
Pressed#76FDF3
Two steps down
Disabled#F3F7F7
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#D0FFFB
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 #bcfef9

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 #027E74
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #02A498

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 high lightness makes it recede — a surface colour rather than a statement.

Worth knowing

At high lightness it disappears into white surfaces and thin strokes vanish entirely.

Reads as
  • FormalityLow
  • EnergyHigh
  • Weight13/100
  • 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#FEBCC1
Analogous left#BCFED8
Analogous right#BCE2FE
Split-complement 1#FEBCE2
Split-complement 2#FED8BC
Triadic 1#F9BCFE
Triadic 2#FEF9BC
Tetradic#D8BCFE
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°176°

#bcfef9 sits at 176°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red73.7%
Green99.6%
Blue97.6%
R · 0–255
188
0xbc
G · 0–255
254
0xfe
B · 0–255
249
0xf9

CMYK percentages

Cyan26.0%
Magenta0.0%
Yellow2.0%
Key (black)0.4%

Total ink coverage is 28%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#bcfef9 text on a black background

contrast 18.68:1

Card sample

#bcfef9 text on a white background

contrast 1.12:1

Card sample

#bcfef9 on grey

1.03:1

#bcfef9 on its own surface

1.07:1

#bcfef9 on its dark surface

14.30:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #bcfef9;
Background color
Panel with #bcfef9 background
background-color: #bcfef9;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #bcfef9;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(188, 254, 249, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(188, 254, 249, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #bcfef9;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #bcfef9, #BCD7FE);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #bcfef9, #BCC7FE);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #bcfef9;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #bcfef9;
caret-color: #bcfef9;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #bcfef9;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #E6FFFD;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #bcfef9;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#bcfef9 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #bcfef9 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(188, 254, 249, 0.5)
rgb(188 254 249 / 50%)
#bcfef980
hsl(176 97% 87% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #bcfef9 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#bcfef91a#F8FFFE
20%#bcfef933#F2FFFE
40%#bcfef966#E4FFFD
60%#bcfef999#D7FEFB
80%#bcfef9cc#C9FEFA

Gradients from #bcfef9

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, #EBFFFD, #bcfef9 45%, #027E74);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #bcfef9, #9EBDFE);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #bcfef9, #FEBCC1);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #F0FFFE 0%, #bcfef9 45%, #027E74 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%, #EEFFF4 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #DAECFE 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #027E74 0%, transparent 65%), #bcfef9;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #bcfef9

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.

#bcfef9 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

Very light values are indistinguishable from white on a dim phone screen outdoors. Give it a border if the boundary matters.

In dark mode

Usable as-is on a dark surface at 18.68:1.

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.

#bcfef9, answered

What color is #bcfef9?

#bcfef9 is a pale electric cyan, closest to Pale Turquoise (ΔE2000 3.8). It sits at 176° on the hue wheel with 97% saturation and 87% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #bcfef9?

rgb(188, 254, 249) — 188 red, 254 green and 249 blue out of 255, or 73.7% / 99.6% / 97.6% by channel.

What is #bcfef9 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(176, 97%, 87%) and hsv(175, 26%, 100%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #bcfef9 a light or a dark color?

It is a light color. Relative luminance is 0.8841 and perceived brightness is 92%, so black text on it reaches 18.68:1.

Should I use black or white text on #bcfef9?

Black. It scores 18.68:1 against #bcfef9, versus 1.12:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #bcfef9 accessible on a white background?

#bcfef9 on white scores 1.12:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #028178 to reach 4.5:1, or #01635C for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #bcfef9?

#FEBCC1 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #FEBCE2 and #FED8BC, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #bcfef9?

For interface work: #F4FAFA as the surface, #C0EDE9 for borders, #4B9B95 for secondary text, #CC0042 as an accent and #027E74 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #BCFED8 and #BCE2FE stays calm, while #FEBCC1 is the loudest partner.

What is #bcfef9 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(26%, 0%, 2%, 0%). 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 #bcfef9 warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 86 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #BCFEE1; nudged cooler, #BBEBFF.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #bcfef9?

The teal family — its 500 step is #14b8a6, ΔE2000 21.1 away. That is a visible difference, so define #bcfef9 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #bcfef9 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#bcfef9] or text-[#bcfef9], 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 #bcfef9 with 50% opacity?

rgba(188, 254, 249, 0.5), or #bcfef980 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #DEFFFC; over black, #5E7F7D.

Is #bcfef9 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #CCFFFF, ΔE2000 3.7 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #bcfef9 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 #bcfef9?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #EBFFFD, #bcfef9 45%, #027E74). For more colour, a short hue run to #9EBDFE keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #bcfef9 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #bcfef9 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.