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cyan · cool

#dbf9f3

a pale, vivid cyan · cool · closest name: Light Cyan

Token name suggestion: Mist Glacier

RGB
219, 249, 243
HSL
168°, 71%, 92%
CMYK
12, 0, 2, 2
Luminance
0.8928

#dbf9f3 is a pale vivid cyan, 168° on the wheel and 83/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (18.86:1). As text it scores 1.11:1 on white — use #16826D instead. Nearest name is Light Cyan, nearest Tailwind family is teal.

hsl(168 71% 92%)rgb(219 249 243)Base step 100AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #dbf9f3 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#dbf9f3
Hue
168°
cyan
Saturation
71%
vivid
Lightness
92%
pale
Brightness
98%
HSV value
Perceived
94%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.8928
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
83/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Vivid
Best ink
Black
18.86:1
Closest name
Light Cyan
ΔE2000 2.9
Chroma
10.8
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.959
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
teal
500 · ΔE 24.4
Web-safe
#CCFFFF
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue168° of 360°
Saturation71%
Lightness92%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #dbf9f3.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool83% 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%
Green76%
Blue7%

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

Every format

HEX#dbf9f3
HEX (8-digit)#dbf9f3ff
RGBrgb(219, 249, 243)
RGBArgba(219, 249, 243, 1)
HSLhsl(168, 71%, 92%)
HSV / HSBhsv(168, 12%, 98%)
HWBhwb(168 86% 2%)
CMYKcmyk(12%, 0%, 2%, 2%)
LABlab(95.7 -10.8 -0.4)
LCHlch(95.7 10.8 182.2)
OKLCHoklch(0.959 0.032 182.2)
XYZ (D65)xyz(79.26, 89.28, 97.83)
Decimal14416371
Display P3color(display-p3 0.859 0.976 0.953)
Web-safe#CCFFFF

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #dbf9f3;
background-color: #dbf9f3;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #dbf9f3;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#dbf9f3] bg-[#dbf9f3]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #dbf9f3;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.859, green: 0.976, blue: 0.953)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.859, green: 0.976, blue: 0.953, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#DBF9F3</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFDBF9F3)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFDBF9F3)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(243, 249, 219)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(219, 249, 243)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(219, 249, 243)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 219, 249, 243)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.8588f, 0.9765f, 0.9529f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{219,249,243}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #dbf9f3 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #dbf9f3 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#126D5B, #D3EEE9);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #dbf9f3 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: #F3FCFA;
  --brand-100: #dbf9f3;
  --brand-200: #C9F3EA;
  --brand-300: #9FEFDF;
  --brand-400: #6FE7CF;
  --brand-500: #3FDFBF;
  --brand-600: #23D2AF;
  --brand-700: #1DAF92;
  --brand-800: #178C75;
  --brand-900: #156555;
  --brand-950: #0D3F35;
  --brand: #dbf9f3;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F4FAF9;
  --brand-border: #C0EDE4;
  --brand-hover: #BDF4E9;
  --brand-pressed: #9EEFDF;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #142421;
    --brand-ink: #D3EEE9;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F3FCFA',
        100: '#dbf9f3',
        200: '#C9F3EA',
        300: '#9FEFDF',
        400: '#6FE7CF',
        500: '#3FDFBF',
        600: '#23D2AF',
        700: '#1DAF92',
        800: '#178C75',
        900: '#156555',
        950: '#0D3F35',
        DEFAULT: '#dbf9f3',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F3FCFA,
  '100': #dbf9f3,
  '200': #C9F3EA,
  '300': #9FEFDF,
  '400': #6FE7CF,
  '500': #3FDFBF,
  '600': #23D2AF,
  '700': #1DAF92,
  '800': #178C75,
  '900': #156555,
  '950': #0D3F35,
);
$brand-base: #dbf9f3;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F3FCFA", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#dbf9f3", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#C9F3EA", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#9FEFDF", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#6FE7CF", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#3FDFBF", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#23D2AF", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#1DAF92", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#178C75", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#156555", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#0D3F35", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #dbf9f3 · 18.86:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 1.11:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 18.86:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #dbf9f3 as text scores 1.11:1 on white and 18.86:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #126D5B at 5.60:1.

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
#16826D · 4.72:1
AA on white−62% L
#16826D
The quick fox
#116453 · 7.07:1
AAA on white−69% L
#116453
The quick fox
#dbf9f3 · 18.86:1
AA on blackalready passes
#dbf9f3
The quick fox
#dbf9f3 · 18.86:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#dbf9f3

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #1CA58A 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
#dbf9f3 on white: 1.11:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#dbf9f3 on black: 18.86:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #dbf9f3 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #dbf9f3.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White1.11:1AaAa
Slate 501.06:1AaAa
Slate 1001.02:1AaAa
Slate 2001.11:1AaAa
Slate 3001.33:1AaAa
Slate 4002.30:1AaAa
Slate 5004.27:1AaAa
Slate 6006.80:1AaAa
Slate 7009.30:1AaAa
Slate 80013.14:1AaAa
Slate 90016.03:1AaAa
Black18.86:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #F6F5F3
deuteranopia · #F0F1F4
tritanopia · #D4FAF7

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. #dbf9f3 is pinned to step 100; the rest hold its hue and let saturation ease off at the extremes so the pale end never turns neon.

#F3FCFA
#dbf9f3
#C9F3EA
#9FEFDF
#6FE7CF
#3FDFBF
#23D2AF
#1DAF92
#178C75
#156555
#0D3F35
Base = 100Lightest = 50 · #F3FCFADarkest = 950 · #0D3F35Text 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 0.008 182.2);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.013 182.2);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.019 182.2);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.025 182.2);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.030 182.2);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.032 182.2);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.032 182.2);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.030 182.2);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.027 182.2);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.023 182.2);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.018 182.2);
}

Colors that work with #dbf9f3

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#C0EDE4
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B9B8B
Captions on the surface
Accent#B41861
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#126D5B
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#E9FBF8
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#142421
Dark-mode background
Hover#BDF4E9
One step down in lightness
Pressed#9EEFDF
Two steps down
Disabled#F3F7F6
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#DAFBF5
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 #dbf9f3

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 #126D5B
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #1CA58A

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 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
  • FormalityMedium
  • EnergyMedium-high
  • Weight8/100
  • 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#F9DBE1
Analogous left#DBF9E4
Analogous right#DBF0F9
Split-complement 1#F9DBF0
Split-complement 2#F9E4DB
Triadic 1#F3DBF9
Triadic 2#F9F3DB
Tetradic#E4DBF9
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°168°

#dbf9f3 sits at 168°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red85.9%
Green97.6%
Blue95.3%
R · 0–255
219
0xdb
G · 0–255
249
0xf9
B · 0–255
243
0xf3

CMYK percentages

Cyan12.0%
Magenta0.0%
Yellow2.4%
Key (black)2.4%

Total ink coverage is 17%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#dbf9f3 text on a black background

contrast 18.86:1

Card sample

#dbf9f3 text on a white background

contrast 1.11:1

Card sample

#dbf9f3 on grey

1.02:1

#dbf9f3 on its own surface

1.05:1

#dbf9f3 on its dark surface

14.46:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #dbf9f3;
Background color
Panel with #dbf9f3 background
background-color: #dbf9f3;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #dbf9f3;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(219, 249, 243, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(219, 249, 243, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #dbf9f3;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #dbf9f3, #DBEBF9);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #dbf9f3, #DBE4F9);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #dbf9f3;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #dbf9f3;
caret-color: #dbf9f3;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #dbf9f3;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #E9FBF8;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #dbf9f3;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#dbf9f3 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #dbf9f3 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(219, 249, 243, 0.5)
rgb(219 249 243 / 50%)
#dbf9f380
hsl(168 71% 92% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #dbf9f3 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#dbf9f31a#FBFEFE
20%#dbf9f333#F8FEFD
40%#dbf9f366#F1FDFA
60%#dbf9f399#E9FBF8
80%#dbf9f3cc#E2FAF5

Gradients from #dbf9f3

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, #EEFCF9, #dbf9f3 45%, #126D5B);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #dbf9f3, #C1D8F5);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #dbf9f3, #F9DBE1);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #F2FDFB 0%, #dbf9f3 45%, #126D5B 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%, #FFFFFF 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #F5FAFD 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #126D5B 0%, transparent 65%), #dbf9f3;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #dbf9f3

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.

#dbf9f3 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

Very light tints can drop out on uncoated stock; check it at 100% size before signing off.

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 18.86:1.

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.

#dbf9f3, answered

What color is #dbf9f3?

#dbf9f3 is a pale vivid cyan, closest to Light Cyan (ΔE2000 2.9). It sits at 168° on the hue wheel with 71% saturation and 92% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #dbf9f3?

rgb(219, 249, 243) — 219 red, 249 green and 243 blue out of 255, or 85.9% / 97.6% / 95.3% by channel.

What is #dbf9f3 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(168, 71%, 92%) and hsv(168, 12%, 98%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #dbf9f3 a light or a dark color?

It is a light color. Relative luminance is 0.8928 and perceived brightness is 94%, so black text on it reaches 18.86:1.

Should I use black or white text on #dbf9f3?

Black. It scores 18.86:1 against #dbf9f3, versus 1.11:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #dbf9f3 accessible on a white background?

#dbf9f3 on white scores 1.11:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #16826D to reach 4.5:1, or #116453 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #dbf9f3?

#F9DBE1 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #F9DBF0 and #F9E4DB, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #dbf9f3?

For interface work: #F4FAF9 as the surface, #C0EDE4 for borders, #4B9B8B for secondary text, #B41861 as an accent and #126D5B for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #DBF9E4 and #DBF0F9 stays calm, while #F9DBE1 is the loudest partner.

What is #dbf9f3 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(12%, 0%, 2%, 2%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #dbf9f3 warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 83 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #DBF9E8; nudged cooler, #DBF4F9.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #dbf9f3?

The teal family — its 500 step is #14b8a6, ΔE2000 24.4 away. That is a visible difference, so define #dbf9f3 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #dbf9f3 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#dbf9f3] or text-[#dbf9f3], 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 #dbf9f3 with 50% opacity?

rgba(219, 249, 243, 0.5), or #dbf9f380 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #EDFCF9; over black, #6E7D7A.

Is #dbf9f3 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #CCFFFF, ΔE2000 5.3 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #dbf9f3 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 #dbf9f3?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #EEFCF9, #dbf9f3 45%, #126D5B). For more colour, a short hue run to #C1D8F5 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #dbf9f3 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #dbf9f3 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.