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Aqua Nocturne Dust
Color detail

Aqua Nocturne Dust

Teal · Hue 180
Metrics
S 26% · L 20%
Contrast (WCAG)
on white11.1:1AAon black1.9:1Fail
Save to journalSign in to saveStart palette from thisRecent trail

About this color

Aqua Nocturne Dust (#264040) belongs to the teal family — hue 180°, 26% 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-dust: #264040;
  --colorarchive-aqua-nocturne-dust-hsl: hsl(180, 26%, 20%);
  --colorarchive-aqua-nocturne-dust-rgb: rgb(38, 64, 64);
}

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 dim, atmospheric reading — closer to a colored shadow than a stated hue. Excellent as a near-black on dark UI or as a moody background.

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 low saturation pulls this color toward earthen, vintage, or editorial palettes. It reads as confident and grown-up rather than playful, and it tolerates being used in large blocks without becoming visually noisy.

Brands using a similar color

Within the public brand-guidelines reference catalog, these are the closest matches to #264040.

  • Xiaohongshu 小红书neutral
    Slate Text · #333333
    →
  • JD.com 京东neutral
    Slate · #333333
    →
  • Taobao 淘宝neutral
    Slate · #333333
    →

Cultures using a similar color

From the cultural-palette catalog, these regions feature a color close to #264040.

  • England (London)Pub Tile Green
    #1F4D2E · Victorian pub interior dado tiling
    →
  • JapanIndigo (ai-iro 藍色)
    #22366E · Persicaria tinctoria fermentation dye
    →
  • China (Traditional)Indigo Blue (青)
    #1A4378 · Persicaria tinctoria — Han textile dye
    →

Color guides

Go deeper on using teal and color in design.

Color TheoryAnalogous Color Palettes: How to Build Harmonious Multi-Color SystemsDesign SystemsColor in Data Visualization: Encoding Information Without Misleading Your AudienceColor TheoryMonochromatic Color Palettes: A Designer's Complete Guide

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 Dust
#355A5A · hsl(180, 26%, 28%)
Darker companion
Aqua Ink Dust
#1A2D2D · hsl(180, 26%, 14%)
Complementary counterpoint
Crimson Nocturne Dust
#402626 · hsl(0, 26%, 20%)
Analogous lead
Steel Nocturne Dust
#263540 · hsl(205, 26%, 20%)
Analogous echo
Teal Nocturne Dust
#264037 · hsl(160, 26%, 20%)
Triadic +120°
Fuchsia Nocturne Dust
#402640 · hsl(300, 26%, 20%)
Triadic +240°
Citrine Nocturne Dust
#404026 · hsl(60, 26%, 20%)
Split-comp +150°
Blush Nocturne Dust
#402633 · hsl(330, 26%, 20%)
Split-comp +210°
Coral Nocturne Dust
#403326 · hsl(30, 26%, 20%)
Export preview
Base: Aqua Nocturne Dust #264040
Lighter companion: Aqua Shadow Dust #355A5A
Darker companion: Aqua Ink Dust #1A2D2D
Complementary counterpoint: Crimson Nocturne Dust #402626
Analogous lead: Steel Nocturne Dust #263540
Analogous echo: Teal Nocturne Dust #264037
Triadic +120°: Fuchsia Nocturne Dust #402640
Triadic +240°: Citrine Nocturne Dust #404026
Split-comp +150°: Blush Nocturne Dust #402633
Split-comp +210°: Coral Nocturne Dust #403326

Compare

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

vsAqua Shadow DustvsAqua Ink DustvsCrimson Nocturne DustvsSteel Nocturne DustvsTeal Nocturne DustvsFuchsia Nocturne Dust

Nearest neighbors

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

Search by hex
Nearby match
Aqua Nocturne Muted
#2A3C3C · hsl(180, 18%, 20%)
Nearby match
Aqua Nocturne Soft
#224444 · hsl(180, 34%, 20%)
Nearby match
Aqua Ink Dust
#1A2D2D · hsl(180, 26%, 14%)
Nearby match
Cyan Nocturne Dust
#26403E · hsl(175, 26%, 20%)
Nearby match
Aqua Shadow Dust
#355A5A · hsl(180, 26%, 28%)
Nearby match
Aqua Nocturne Faint
#2E3838 · hsl(180, 10%, 20%)

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
AAA10.6:1
Crimson Veil Faint
#FAF9F9
AAA10.6:1
Crimson Veil Muted
#FBF9F9
AAA10.6:1
Crimson Veil Dust
#FBF9F9
AAA10.5:1
Crimson Veil Soft
#FCF8F8
AAA10.5:1
Crimson Veil Clear
#FDF7F7
AAA10.4:1
Crimson Veil Vivid
#FEF6F6

Color Vision Simulation

How this color appears with different color vision deficiencies.

Full simulator
Deuteranopia
#322F40
Protanopia
#333340
Tritanopia
#284040
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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 →