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cyan · cool

#ecf3f3

a pale, soft cyan · cool · closest name: White Smoke

Token name suggestion: Mist Teal

RGB
236, 243, 243
HSL
180°, 23%, 94%
CMYK
3, 0, 0, 5
Luminance
0.8841

#ecf3f3 is a pale soft cyan, 180° on the wheel and 74/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (18.68:1). As text it scores 1.12:1 on white — use #4F7D7D instead. Nearest name is White Smoke, nearest Tailwind family is cyan.

hsl(180 23% 94%)rgb(236 243 243)Base step 100AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #ecf3f3 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#ecf3f3
Hue
180°
cyan
Saturation
23%
soft
Lightness
94%
pale
Brightness
95%
HSV value
Perceived
94%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.8841
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
74/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Soft
Best ink
Black
18.68:1
Closest name
White Smoke
ΔE2000 3.4
Chroma
2.5
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.959
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
cyan
500 · ΔE 27.3
Web-safe
#FFFFFF
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue180° of 360°
Saturation23%
Lightness94%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #ecf3f3.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool74% 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
Red20%
Green73%
Blue7%

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

Every format

HEX#ecf3f3
HEX (8-digit)#ecf3f3ff
RGBrgb(236, 243, 243)
RGBArgba(236, 243, 243, 1)
HSLhsl(180, 23%, 94%)
HSV / HSBhsv(180, 3%, 95%)
HWBhwb(180 93% 5%)
CMYKcmyk(3%, 0%, 0%, 5%)
LABlab(95.3 -2.3 -0.8)
LCHlch(95.3 2.5 199.3)
OKLCHoklch(0.959 0.007 197.0)
XYZ (D65)xyz(82.82, 88.40, 97.48)
Decimal15528947
Display P3color(display-p3 0.925 0.953 0.953)
Web-safe#FFFFFF

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #ecf3f3;
background-color: #ecf3f3;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #ecf3f3;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#ecf3f3] bg-[#ecf3f3]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #ecf3f3;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.925, green: 0.953, blue: 0.953)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.925, green: 0.953, blue: 0.953, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#ECF3F3</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFECF3F3)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFECF3F3)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(243, 243, 236)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(236, 243, 243)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(236, 243, 243)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 236, 243, 243)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.9255f, 0.9529f, 0.9529f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{236,243,243}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #ecf3f3 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #ecf3f3 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#314E4E, #D9E7E7);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #ecf3f3 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: #F6F9F9;
  --brand-100: #ecf3f3;
  --brand-200: #D7E4E4;
  --brand-300: #BAD4D4;
  --brand-400: #98BEBE;
  --brand-500: #75A8A8;
  --brand-600: #5F9696;
  --brand-700: #4F7D7D;
  --brand-800: #3F6464;
  --brand-900: #304A4A;
  --brand-950: #1E2E2E;
  --brand: #ecf3f3;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F6F9F9;
  --brand-border: #CDDFDF;
  --brand-hover: #D6E5E5;
  --brand-pressed: #C0D7D7;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #162222;
    --brand-ink: #D9E7E7;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F6F9F9',
        100: '#ecf3f3',
        200: '#D7E4E4',
        300: '#BAD4D4',
        400: '#98BEBE',
        500: '#75A8A8',
        600: '#5F9696',
        700: '#4F7D7D',
        800: '#3F6464',
        900: '#304A4A',
        950: '#1E2E2E',
        DEFAULT: '#ecf3f3',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F6F9F9,
  '100': #ecf3f3,
  '200': #D7E4E4,
  '300': #BAD4D4,
  '400': #98BEBE,
  '500': #75A8A8,
  '600': #5F9696,
  '700': #4F7D7D,
  '800': #3F6464,
  '900': #304A4A,
  '950': #1E2E2E,
);
$brand-base: #ecf3f3;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F6F9F9", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#ecf3f3", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#D7E4E4", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#BAD4D4", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#98BEBE", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#75A8A8", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#5F9696", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#4F7D7D", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#3F6464", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#304A4A", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#1E2E2E", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #ecf3f3 · 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: #ecf3f3 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: #314E4E at 8.02:1.

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
#4F7D7D · 4.60:1
AA on white−54% L
#4F7D7D
The quick fox
#3B5D5D · 7.22:1
AAA on white−64% L
#3B5D5D
The quick fox
#ecf3f3 · 18.68:1
AA on blackalready passes
#ecf3f3
The quick fox
#ecf3f3 · 18.68:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#ecf3f3

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #659E9E 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
#ecf3f3 on white: 1.12:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#ecf3f3 on black: 18.68:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #ecf3f3 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #ecf3f3.

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 · #F2F2F3
deuteranopia · #F0F1F3
tritanopia · #EAF4F3

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. #ecf3f3 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.

#F6F9F9
#ecf3f3
#D7E4E4
#BAD4D4
#98BEBE
#75A8A8
#5F9696
#4F7D7D
#3F6464
#304A4A
#1E2E2E
Base = 100Lightest = 50 · #F6F9F9Darkest = 950 · #1E2E2EText 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 0.002 197.0);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.003 197.0);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.004 197.0);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.006 197.0);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.007 197.0);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.007 197.0);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.007 197.0);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.007 197.0);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.006 197.0);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.005 197.0);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.004 197.0);
}

Colors that work with #ecf3f3

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#F6F9F9
Tinted page background
Border#CDDFDF
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#598D8D
Captions on the surface
Accent#844856
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#314E4E
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#EFF5F5
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#162222
Dark-mode background
Hover#D6E5E5
One step down in lightness
Pressed#C0D7D7
Two steps down
Disabled#F3F7F7
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#E4F1F1
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 #ecf3f3

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 #314E4E
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #659E9E

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 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
  • Weight6/100
  • 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#F3ECEC
Analogous left#ECF3EF
Analogous right#ECEFF3
Split-complement 1#F3ECEF
Split-complement 2#F3EFEC
Triadic 1#F3ECF3
Triadic 2#F3F3EC
Tetradic#EFECF3
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°180°

#ecf3f3 sits at 180°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red92.5%
Green95.3%
Blue95.3%
R · 0–255
236
0xec
G · 0–255
243
0xf3
B · 0–255
243
0xf3

CMYK percentages

Cyan2.9%
Magenta0.0%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)4.7%

Total ink coverage is 8%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#ecf3f3 text on a black background

contrast 18.68:1

Card sample

#ecf3f3 text on a white background

contrast 1.12:1

Card sample

#ecf3f3 on grey

1.03:1

#ecf3f3 on its own surface

1.06:1

#ecf3f3 on its dark surface

14.53:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #ecf3f3;
Background color
Panel with #ecf3f3 background
background-color: #ecf3f3;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #ecf3f3;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(236, 243, 243, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(236, 243, 243, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #ecf3f3;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #ecf3f3, #ECEEF3);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #ecf3f3, #ECEDF3);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #ecf3f3;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #ecf3f3;
caret-color: #ecf3f3;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #ecf3f3;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #EFF5F5;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #ecf3f3;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#ecf3f3 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #ecf3f3 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(236, 243, 243, 0.5)
rgb(236 243 243 / 50%)
#ecf3f380
hsl(180 23% 94% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #ecf3f3 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#ecf3f31a#FDFEFE
20%#ecf3f333#FBFDFD
40%#ecf3f366#F7FAFA
60%#ecf3f399#F4F8F8
80%#ecf3f3cc#F0F5F5

Gradients from #ecf3f3

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, #F2F7F7, #ecf3f3 45%, #314E4E);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #ecf3f3, #D9DDE7);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #ecf3f3, #F3ECEC);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #F6F9F9 0%, #ecf3f3 45%, #314E4E 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F6F9F9, #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%, #FFFFFF 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #314E4E 0%, transparent 65%), #ecf3f3;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #ecf3f3

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.

#ecf3f3 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 18.68:1.

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.

#ecf3f3, answered

What color is #ecf3f3?

#ecf3f3 is a pale soft cyan, closest to White Smoke (ΔE2000 3.4). It sits at 180° on the hue wheel with 23% saturation and 94% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #ecf3f3?

rgb(236, 243, 243) — 236 red, 243 green and 243 blue out of 255, or 92.5% / 95.3% / 95.3% by channel.

What is #ecf3f3 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(180, 23%, 94%) and hsv(180, 3%, 95%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #ecf3f3 a light or a dark color?

It is a light color. Relative luminance is 0.8841 and perceived brightness is 94%, so black text on it reaches 18.68:1.

Should I use black or white text on #ecf3f3?

Black. It scores 18.68:1 against #ecf3f3, versus 1.12:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #ecf3f3 accessible on a white background?

#ecf3f3 on white scores 1.12:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #4F7D7D to reach 4.5:1, or #3B5D5D for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #ecf3f3?

#F3ECEC sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #F3ECEF and #F3EFEC, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #ecf3f3?

For interface work: #F6F9F9 as the surface, #CDDFDF for borders, #598D8D for secondary text, #844856 as an accent and #314E4E for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #ECF3EF and #ECEFF3 stays calm, while #F3ECEC is the loudest partner.

What is #ecf3f3 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(3%, 0%, 0%, 5%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #ecf3f3 warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 74 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #ECF3F0; nudged cooler, #ECF0F3.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #ecf3f3?

The cyan family — its 500 step is #06b6d4, ΔE2000 27.3 away. That is a visible difference, so define #ecf3f3 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #ecf3f3 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#ecf3f3] or text-[#ecf3f3], 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 #ecf3f3 with 50% opacity?

rgba(236, 243, 243, 0.5), or #ecf3f380 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #F6F9F9; over black, #767A7A.

Is #ecf3f3 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #FFFFFF, ΔE2000 4.3 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #ecf3f3 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 #ecf3f3?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #F2F7F7, #ecf3f3 45%, #314E4E). For more colour, a short hue run to #D9DDE7 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #ecf3f3 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #ecf3f3 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.