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cyan · cool

#ecf9fe

a pale, electric cyan · cool · closest name: Alice Blue

Token name suggestion: Chalk Glacier

RGB
236, 249, 254
HSL
197°, 90%, 96%
CMYK
7, 2, 0, 0
Luminance
0.9274

#ecf9fe is a pale electric cyan, 197° on the wheel and 94/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (19.55:1). As text it scores 1.07:1 on white — use #097DAA instead. Nearest name is Alice Blue, nearest Tailwind family is cyan.

hsl(197 90% 96%)rgb(236 249 254)Base step 50AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #ecf9fe is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#ecf9fe
Hue
197°
cyan
Saturation
90%
electric
Lightness
96%
pale
Brightness
100%
HSV value
Perceived
96%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.9274
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
94/100 cool
Color family
Cyan
Tone
Electric
Best ink
Black
19.55:1
Closest name
Alice Blue
ΔE2000 2.6
Chroma
5.1
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.974
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
cyan
500 · ΔE 26.4
Web-safe
#FFFFFF
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue197° of 360°
Saturation90%
Lightness96%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #ecf9fe.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool94% 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
Red19%
Green73%
Blue8%

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

Every format

HEX#ecf9fe
HEX (8-digit)#ecf9feff
RGBrgb(236, 249, 254)
RGBArgba(236, 249, 254, 1)
HSLhsl(197, 90%, 96%)
HSV / HSBhsv(197, 7%, 100%)
HWBhwb(197 93% 0%)
CMYKcmyk(7%, 2%, 0%, 0%)
LABlab(97.1 -3.3 -3.9)
LCHlch(97.1 5.1 229.2)
OKLCHoklch(0.974 0.015 222.7)
XYZ (D65)xyz(86.35, 92.74, 107.10)
Decimal15530494
Display P3color(display-p3 0.925 0.976 0.996)
Web-safe#FFFFFF

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #ecf9fe;
background-color: #ecf9fe;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #ecf9fe;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#ecf9fe] bg-[#ecf9fe]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #ecf9fe;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.925, green: 0.976, blue: 0.996)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.925, green: 0.976, blue: 0.996, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#ECF9FE</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFECF9FE)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFECF9FE)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(254, 249, 236)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(236, 249, 254)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(236, 249, 254)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 236, 249, 254)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.9255f, 0.9765f, 0.9961f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{236,249,254}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #ecf9fe 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #ecf9fe 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#065979, #D3E7EE);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #ecf9fe 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: #ecf9fe;
  --brand-100: #E5F5FB;
  --brand-200: #C3EAF8;
  --brand-300: #94DDF9;
  --brand-400: #5FCCF7;
  --brand-500: #2ABCF4;
  --brand-600: #0CABE9;
  --brand-700: #0A8FC2;
  --brand-800: #08729B;
  --brand-900: #0B5470;
  --brand-950: #073446;
  --brand: #ecf9fe;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F4F9FA;
  --brand-border: #C0E0ED;
  --brand-hover: #CAEEFC;
  --brand-pressed: #A8E4FA;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #142024;
    --brand-ink: #D3E7EE;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#ecf9fe',
        100: '#E5F5FB',
        200: '#C3EAF8',
        300: '#94DDF9',
        400: '#5FCCF7',
        500: '#2ABCF4',
        600: '#0CABE9',
        700: '#0A8FC2',
        800: '#08729B',
        900: '#0B5470',
        950: '#073446',
        DEFAULT: '#ecf9fe',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #ecf9fe,
  '100': #E5F5FB,
  '200': #C3EAF8,
  '300': #94DDF9,
  '400': #5FCCF7,
  '500': #2ABCF4,
  '600': #0CABE9,
  '700': #0A8FC2,
  '800': #08729B,
  '900': #0B5470,
  '950': #073446,
);
$brand-base: #ecf9fe;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#ecf9fe", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#E5F5FB", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#C3EAF8", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#94DDF9", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#5FCCF7", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#2ABCF4", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#0CABE9", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#0A8FC2", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#08729B", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#0B5470", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#073446", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #ecf9fe · 19.55:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 1.07:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 19.55:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #ecf9fe as text scores 1.07:1 on white and 19.55:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #065979 at 7.21:1.

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
#097DAA · 4.64:1
AA on white−61% L
#097DAA
The quick fox
#075D7E · 7.30:1
AAA on white−70% L
#075D7E
The quick fox
#ecf9fe · 19.55:1
AA on blackalready passes
#ecf9fe
The quick fox
#ecf9fe · 19.55:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#ecf9fe

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #0B9DD6 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
#ecf9fe on white: 1.07:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#ecf9fe on black: 19.55:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #ecf9fe as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #ecf9fe.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White1.07:1AaAa
Slate 501.03:1AaAa
Slate 1001.02:1AaAa
Slate 2001.15:1AaAa
Slate 3001.38:1AaAa
Slate 4002.39:1AaAa
Slate 5004.43:1AaAa
Slate 6007.05:1AaAa
Slate 7009.64:1AaAa
Slate 80013.62:1AaAa
Slate 90016.62:1AaAa
Black19.55:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #F6F8FE
deuteranopia · #F3F6FE
tritanopia · #E8FBFA

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. #ecf9fe is pinned to step 50; the rest hold its hue and let saturation ease off at the extremes so the pale end never turns neon.

#ecf9fe
#E5F5FB
#C3EAF8
#94DDF9
#5FCCF7
#2ABCF4
#0CABE9
#0A8FC2
#08729B
#0B5470
#073446
Base = 50Lightest = 50 · #ecf9feDarkest = 950 · #073446Text 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 0.004 222.7);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.006 222.7);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.009 222.7);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.012 222.7);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.014 222.7);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.015 222.7);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.015 222.7);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.014 222.7);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.013 222.7);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.011 222.7);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.008 222.7);
}

Colors that work with #ecf9fe

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#F4F9FA
Tinted page background
Border#C0E0ED
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B859B
Captions on the surface
Accent#C20A0A
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#065979
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#E7F7FE
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#142024
Dark-mode background
Hover#CAEEFC
One step down in lightness
Pressed#A8E4FA
Two steps down
Disabled#F3F6F7
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#D6F4FF
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 #ecf9fe

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 #065979
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #0B9DD6

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
  • Weight4/100
  • 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#FEF1EC
Analogous left#ECFEFA
Analogous right#ECF0FE
Split-complement 1#FEECF0
Split-complement 2#FEFAEC
Triadic 1#FEECF9
Triadic 2#F9FEEC
Tetradic#FAECFE
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°197°

#ecf9fe sits at 197°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red92.5%
Green97.6%
Blue99.6%
R · 0–255
236
0xec
G · 0–255
249
0xf9
B · 0–255
254
0xfe

CMYK percentages

Cyan7.1%
Magenta2.0%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)0.4%

Total ink coverage is 10%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#ecf9fe text on a black background

contrast 19.55:1

Card sample

#ecf9fe text on a white background

contrast 1.07:1

Card sample

#ecf9fe on grey

1.02:1

#ecf9fe on its own surface

1.01:1

#ecf9fe on its dark surface

15.49:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #ecf9fe;
Background color
Panel with #ecf9fe background
background-color: #ecf9fe;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #ecf9fe;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(236, 249, 254, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(236, 249, 254, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #ecf9fe;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #ecf9fe, #ECEDFE);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #ecf9fe, #F0ECFE);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #ecf9fe;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #ecf9fe;
caret-color: #ecf9fe;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #ecf9fe;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #E7F7FE;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #ecf9fe;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#ecf9fe 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #ecf9fe 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, 249, 254, 0.5)
rgb(236 249 254 / 50%)
#ecf9fe80
hsl(197 90% 96% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #ecf9fe 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#ecf9fe1a#FDFEFF
20%#ecf9fe33#FBFEFF
40%#ecf9fe66#F7FDFF
60%#ecf9fe99#F4FBFE
80%#ecf9fecc#F0FAFE

Gradients from #ecf9fe

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, #ECF9FE, #ecf9fe 45%, #065979);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #ecf9fe, #D0CFFC);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #ecf9fe, #FEF1EC);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #F0FAFE 0%, #ecf9fe 45%, #065979 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F4F9FA, #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%, #065979 0%, transparent 65%), #ecf9fe;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #ecf9fe

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.

#ecf9fe 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 19.55:1.

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.

#ecf9fe, answered

What color is #ecf9fe?

#ecf9fe is a pale electric cyan, closest to Alice Blue (ΔE2000 2.6). It sits at 197° on the hue wheel with 90% saturation and 96% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #ecf9fe?

rgb(236, 249, 254) — 236 red, 249 green and 254 blue out of 255, or 92.5% / 97.6% / 99.6% by channel.

What is #ecf9fe in HSL and HSV?

hsl(197, 90%, 96%) and hsv(197, 7%, 100%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #ecf9fe a light or a dark color?

It is a light color. Relative luminance is 0.9274 and perceived brightness is 96%, so black text on it reaches 19.55:1.

Should I use black or white text on #ecf9fe?

Black. It scores 19.55:1 against #ecf9fe, versus 1.07:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #ecf9fe accessible on a white background?

#ecf9fe on white scores 1.07:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #097DAA to reach 4.5:1, or #075D7E for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #ecf9fe?

#FEF1EC sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #FEECF0 and #FEFAEC, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #ecf9fe?

For interface work: #F4F9FA as the surface, #C0E0ED for borders, #4B859B for secondary text, #C20A0A as an accent and #065979 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #ECFEFA and #ECF0FE stays calm, while #FEF1EC is the loudest partner.

What is #ecf9fe in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(7%, 2%, 0%, 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 #ecf9fe warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 94 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #ECFEFC; nudged cooler, #ECF5FE.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #ecf9fe?

The cyan family — its 500 step is #06b6d4, ΔE2000 26.4 away. That is a visible difference, so define #ecf9fe as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #ecf9fe in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#ecf9fe] or text-[#ecf9fe], 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 #ecf9fe with 50% opacity?

rgba(236, 249, 254, 0.5), or #ecf9fe80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #F6FCFF; over black, #767D7F.

Is #ecf9fe a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #FFFFFF, ΔE2000 5.8 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #ecf9fe 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 #ecf9fe?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #ECF9FE, #ecf9fe 45%, #065979). For more colour, a short hue run to #D0CFFC keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #ecf9fe in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #ecf9fe at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.