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Cyan Silk Dust
Color detail

Cyan Silk Dust

Teal · Hue 175
Metrics
S 26% · L 68%
Contrast (WCAG)
on white1.9:1Failon black10.9:1AA
Save to journalSign in to saveStart palette from thisRecent trail

About this color

Cyan Silk Dust (#98C3BF) belongs to the teal family — hue 175°, 26% saturation, 68% 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-cyan-silk-dust: #98C3BF;
  --colorarchive-cyan-silk-dust-hsl: hsl(175, 26%, 68%);
  --colorarchive-cyan-silk-dust-rgb: rgb(152, 195, 191);
}

AI Color Names

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

Design Context

RefreshingModernClear
Common in

SaaS · Cloud Services · Interior Design

Pairs well with

Coral for playful energy, light gray for modern minimalism

Design tip

Ideal for tech product interfaces. Light teal works as a primary brand color that feels both professional and approachable.

Cultural context ▶

Light teal blends the calm of blue with the renewal of green. Associated with clear water, clarity, and modern thinking.

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 grounded mid-tone — sober, considered, well-suited to body text accents, editorial layouts, or any context where restraint reads as quality.

Lightness band: At mid-lightness the hue carries its full character. This is the band where many identity colors live: bright enough to be distinctive at small sizes, deep enough to sit cleanly on a white canvas.

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 #98C3BF.

  • Anthropicneutral
    Mid Gray · #B0AEA5
    →
  • Starbucksneutral
    Warm Neutral · #D4E9E2
    →
  • Redditsecondary
    Periwinkle · #7193FF
    →

Cultures using a similar color

From the cultural-palette catalog, these regions feature a color close to #98C3BF.

  • ScandinaviaIittala Blue
    #A6CEDB · Aalto vase glassware (1936-)
    →
  • China (Traditional)Celadon (青瓷)
    #9CB48F · Song Dynasty Longquan kilns
    →
  • IcelandGlacial Cyan
    #75BBC1 · Vatnajökull ice cave light
    →

Color guides

Go deeper on using teal and color in design.

UI DesignGradient Design: Chromatic Progressions That Feel ContemporaryColor PsychologySynesthesia and Cross-Modal Color: Why Color Feels the Way It DoesColor TheoryColor Temperature in Palettes: How Warm and Cool Relationships Shape Mood

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
Cyan Bloom Dust
#B2D2CF · hsl(175, 26%, 76%)
Darker companion
Cyan Tone Dust
#7EB4AF · hsl(175, 26%, 60%)
Complementary counterpoint
Crimson Silk Dust
#C39898 · hsl(0, 26%, 68%)
Analogous lead
Azure Silk Dust
#98B4C3 · hsl(200, 26%, 68%)
Analogous echo
Jade Silk Dust
#98C3AD · hsl(150, 26%, 68%)
Triadic +120°
Magenta Silk Dust
#BC98C3 · hsl(290, 26%, 68%)
Triadic +240°
Canary Silk Dust
#C3BF98 · hsl(55, 26%, 68%)
Split-comp +150°
Rose Silk Dust
#C398B4 · hsl(320, 26%, 68%)
Split-comp +210°
Tangerine Silk Dust
#C3AA98 · hsl(25, 26%, 68%)
Export preview
Base: Cyan Silk Dust #98C3BF
Lighter companion: Cyan Bloom Dust #B2D2CF
Darker companion: Cyan Tone Dust #7EB4AF
Complementary counterpoint: Crimson Silk Dust #C39898
Analogous lead: Azure Silk Dust #98B4C3
Analogous echo: Jade Silk Dust #98C3AD
Triadic +120°: Magenta Silk Dust #BC98C3
Triadic +240°: Canary Silk Dust #C3BF98
Split-comp +150°: Rose Silk Dust #C398B4
Split-comp +210°: Tangerine Silk Dust #C3AA98

Compare

See how Cyan Silk Dust compares side by side with related colors.

vsCyan Bloom DustvsCyan Tone DustvsCrimson Silk DustvsAzure Silk DustvsJade Silk DustvsMagenta Silk Dust

Nearest neighbors

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

Search by hex
Nearby match
Cyan Silk Muted
#9FBCBA · hsl(175, 18%, 68%)
Nearby match
Cyan Silk Soft
#92C9C5 · hsl(175, 34%, 68%)
Nearby match
Lagoon Silk Dust
#98C3BC · hsl(170, 26%, 68%)
Nearby match
Aqua Silk Dust
#98C3C3 · hsl(180, 26%, 68%)
Nearby match
Cyan Tone Dust
#7EB4AF · hsl(175, 26%, 60%)
Nearby match
Cyan Bloom Dust
#B2D2CF · hsl(175, 26%, 76%)

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
AAA7:1
Crimson Nocturne Muted
#3C2A2A
AAA7.2:1
Crimson Nocturne Dust
#402626
AAA7.3:1
Crimson Nocturne Soft
#442222
AAA7.4:1
Crimson Nocturne Clear
#4F1717
AAA7.3:1
Crimson Nocturne Vivid
#590D0D
AAA7.2:1
Crimson Nocturne Bright
#5E0808

Color Vision Simulation

How this color appears with different color vision deficiencies.

Full simulator
Deuteranopia
#AAA6C0
Protanopia
#ACADC0
Tritanopia
#9BC1C1
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Saturation ladder

Same hue and lightness, from gray to pure

Search
Cyan Silk Faint#A5B6B4 · hsl(175, 10%, 68%)Cyan Silk Muted#9FBCBA · hsl(175, 18%, 68%)Cyan Silk Dust#98C3BF · hsl(175, 26%, 68%)Cyan Silk Soft#92C9C5 · hsl(175, 34%, 68%)Cyan Silk Clear#81D9D2 · hsl(175, 54%, 68%)Cyan Silk Vivid#71EAE0 · hsl(175, 74%, 68%)Cyan Silk Bright#69F2E7 · hsl(175, 84%, 68%)Cyan Silk Pure#62F8EC · hsl(175, 92%, 68%)
More from Teal →