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Aqua Nocturne Clear
Color detail

Aqua Nocturne Clear

Teal · Hue 180
Metrics
S 54% · L 20%
Contrast (WCAG)
on white9.3:1AAon black2.3:1Fail
Save to journalSign in to saveStart palette from thisRecent trail

About this color

Aqua Nocturne Clear (#174F4F) belongs to the teal family — hue 180°, 54% saturation, 20% lightness. Copy the hex, RGB, or HSL value above, or paste the CSS custom property below into your stylesheet to reference this color directly.

CSS
:root {
  --colorarchive-aqua-nocturne-clear: #174F4F;
  --colorarchive-aqua-nocturne-clear-hsl: hsl(180, 54%, 20%);
  --colorarchive-aqua-nocturne-clear-rgb: rgb(23, 79, 79);
}

AI Color Names

Let AI suggest alternative poetic names for this color in English and Chinese.

Design Context

DeepProfessionalStable
Common in

Corporate Software · Consulting · Marine

Pairs well with

White for sharp contrast, light coral for warmth, silver for tech

Design tip

Use as a dark theme primary or sidebar background. Deep teal is less harsh than pure black while maintaining professionalism.

Cultural context ▶

Deep teal evokes deep ocean waters — stability, depth, and hidden knowledge. Common in corporate and maritime contexts.

Color Origins

Teal family

The hue of patina, lagoons, and modern surgery.

Heritage

Teal — the blue-green range — is named after the Eurasian teal duck, which has a stripe of this color on its head. Egyptian blue and Egyptian green, both copper-based pigments, flank this region. The patina of weathered copper (the Statue of Liberty's color) sits here too; on the statue it is mostly basic copper sulfate. Phthalo turquoise is a 20th-century pigment.

Across cultures

In Persian and Central Asian Islamic architecture, teal-turquoise tile work is iconic — the domes of Samarkand and Isfahan are unmistakable. In ancient Egypt, faience (a kind of glazed ceramic in this color) was associated with the Nile, fertility, and rebirth. In the American Southwest, teal-turquoise is so deeply associated with Navajo and Pueblo silverwork that the color reads 'desert' there.

In the wild

Surgical scrubs are often green or teal, a choice usually explained by afterimages — staring at red tissue leaves green ghosts on white surfaces, which blend into blue-green cloth. Tiffany Blue, a robin's-egg blue-green, was trademarked in 1998 and later standardized with Pantone as '1837 Blue', after the company's founding year.

How it reads

Teal sits at one of the visually quietest points of the spectrum — it neither advances (like red) nor recedes (like blue). It reads as competent, calm, and slightly clinical. At low saturation it becomes a duck-egg or seafoam, soft and Scandinavian. At high saturation it becomes electric or tropical. Teal pairs particularly well with warm earth tones (terracotta, clay, beige).

This particular tone

A deep, weighted version of the hue — formal, considered, and pairs especially well with off-white and warm metallic accents.

Lightness band: At this depth the hue starts behaving like a neutral — it can substitute for black in many contexts while still carrying a faint chromatic temperature. It pairs especially well with off-whites and warm metallics.

Saturation band: The clear, mid-saturation register is a common identity sweet spot — saturated enough to register as a 'real' color, restrained enough not to fight typography or photography placed over it.

Brands using a similar color

Within the public brand-guidelines reference catalog, these are the closest matches to #174F4F.

  • Starbucksprimary
    Starbucks Green · #006241
    →
  • Airbnbneutral
    Hof Gray · #484848
    →
  • Xiaohongshu 小红书neutral
    Slate Text · #333333
    →

Cultures using a similar color

From the cultural-palette catalog, these regions feature a color close to #174F4F.

  • IndiaMughal Blue
    #1B4F72 · Indo-Persian miniature paintings
    →
  • England (London)Pub Tile Green
    #1F4D2E · Victorian pub interior dado tiling
    →
  • China (Traditional)Indigo Blue (青)
    #1A4378 · Persicaria tinctoria — Han textile dye
    →

Color guides

Go deeper on using teal and color in design.

Brand & MarketingStartup Brand Color: How to Build a Color Identity That ScalesColor SystemsDocumenting Color Systems: The Three Layers Every Design System NeedsDesign SystemsColor Token Architecture: Building Maintainable Design Token Systems

Tonal strip

All lightness levels at this hue and saturation. Click any to navigate.

Palette moves

Instead of stopping at one swatch, use nearby, opposite, and tonal neighbors to branch into a broader palette.

Lighter companion
Aqua Shadow Clear
#216E6E · hsl(180, 54%, 28%)
Darker companion
Aqua Ink Clear
#103737 · hsl(180, 54%, 14%)
Complementary counterpoint
Crimson Nocturne Clear
#4F1717 · hsl(0, 54%, 20%)
Analogous lead
Steel Nocturne Clear
#17384F · hsl(205, 54%, 20%)
Analogous echo
Teal Nocturne Clear
#174F3C · hsl(160, 54%, 20%)
Triadic +120°
Fuchsia Nocturne Clear
#4F174F · hsl(300, 54%, 20%)
Triadic +240°
Citrine Nocturne Clear
#4F4F17 · hsl(60, 54%, 20%)
Split-comp +150°
Blush Nocturne Clear
#4F1733 · hsl(330, 54%, 20%)
Split-comp +210°
Coral Nocturne Clear
#4F3317 · hsl(30, 54%, 20%)
Export preview
Base: Aqua Nocturne Clear #174F4F
Lighter companion: Aqua Shadow Clear #216E6E
Darker companion: Aqua Ink Clear #103737
Complementary counterpoint: Crimson Nocturne Clear #4F1717
Analogous lead: Steel Nocturne Clear #17384F
Analogous echo: Teal Nocturne Clear #174F3C
Triadic +120°: Fuchsia Nocturne Clear #4F174F
Triadic +240°: Citrine Nocturne Clear #4F4F17
Split-comp +150°: Blush Nocturne Clear #4F1733
Split-comp +210°: Coral Nocturne Clear #4F3317

Compare

See how Aqua Nocturne Clear compares side by side with related colors.

vsAqua Shadow ClearvsAqua Ink ClearvsCrimson Nocturne ClearvsSteel Nocturne ClearvsTeal Nocturne ClearvsFuchsia Nocturne Clear

Nearest neighbors

The closest archive matches by hue, saturation, and lightness.

Search by hex
Nearby match
Aqua Ink Clear
#103737 · hsl(180, 54%, 14%)
Nearby match
Cyan Nocturne Clear
#174F4A · hsl(175, 54%, 20%)
Nearby match
Aqua Shadow Clear
#216E6E · hsl(180, 54%, 28%)
Nearby match
Aqua Nocturne Soft
#224444 · hsl(180, 34%, 20%)
Nearby match
Aqua Nocturne Vivid
#0D5959 · hsl(180, 74%, 20%)
Nearby match
Cyan Ink Clear
#103734 · hsl(175, 54%, 14%)

Accessible pairings

Archive colors that meet WCAG contrast standards when paired with this color. Use as text-on-background or background-on-text.

Contrast checker
AAA8.8:1
Crimson Veil Faint
#FAF9F9
AAA8.8:1
Crimson Veil Muted
#FBF9F9
AAA8.8:1
Crimson Veil Dust
#FBF9F9
AAA8.8:1
Crimson Veil Soft
#FCF8F8
AAA8.7:1
Crimson Veil Clear
#FDF7F7
AAA8.7:1
Crimson Veil Vivid
#FEF6F6

Color Vision Simulation

How this color appears with different color vision deficiencies.

Full simulator
Deuteranopia
#34304F
Protanopia
#37384F
Tritanopia
#1D4F4F
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Saturation ladder

Same hue and lightness, from gray to pure

Search
Aqua Nocturne Faint#2E3838 · hsl(180, 10%, 20%)Aqua Nocturne Muted#2A3C3C · hsl(180, 18%, 20%)Aqua Nocturne Dust#264040 · hsl(180, 26%, 20%)Aqua Nocturne Soft#224444 · hsl(180, 34%, 20%)Aqua Nocturne Clear#174F4F · hsl(180, 54%, 20%)Aqua Nocturne Vivid#0D5959 · hsl(180, 74%, 20%)Aqua Nocturne Bright#085E5E · hsl(180, 84%, 20%)Aqua Nocturne Pure#046262 · hsl(180, 92%, 20%)
More from Teal →