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Teal Shadow Faint
Color detail

Teal Shadow Faint

Teal · Hue 160
Metrics
S 10% · L 28%
Contrast (WCAG)
on white8.6:1AAon black2.4:1Fail
Save to journalSign in to saveStart palette from thisRecent trail

About this color

Teal Shadow Faint (#404F4A) belongs to the teal family — hue 160°, 10% saturation, 28% 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-teal-shadow-faint: #404F4A;
  --colorarchive-teal-shadow-faint-hsl: hsl(160, 10%, 28%);
  --colorarchive-teal-shadow-faint-rgb: rgb(64, 79, 74);
}

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 #404F4A.

  • Airbnbneutral
    Hof Gray · #484848
    →
  • Xiaohongshu 小红书neutral
    Slate Text · #333333
    →
  • JD.com 京东neutral
    Slate · #333333
    →

Cultures using a similar color

From the cultural-palette catalog, these regions feature a color close to #404F4A.

  • ScandinaviaForest Green
    #3D5B49 · Spruce / fir forest in winter light
    →
  • Italy (Tuscany)Cypress Green
    #3F5E47 · Tuscan hilltop cypresses
    →
  • England (London)Pub Tile Green
    #1F4D2E · Victorian pub interior dado tiling
    →

Color guides

Go deeper on using teal and color in design.

Color PsychologyRestaurant Interior Color Guide: How Color Affects Appetite, Dwell Time, and Dining ExperienceBrand & MarketingStartup Brand Color: How to Build a Color Identity That ScalesColor SystemsDocumenting Color Systems: The Three Layers Every Design System Needs

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
Teal Dusk Faint
#4E5F5A · hsl(160, 10%, 34%)
Darker companion
Teal Nocturne Faint
#2E3835 · hsl(160, 10%, 20%)
Complementary counterpoint
Garnet Shadow Faint
#4F4045 · hsl(340, 10%, 28%)
Analogous lead
Aqua Shadow Faint
#404F4F · hsl(180, 10%, 28%)
Analogous echo
Seafoam Shadow Faint
#404F45 · hsl(140, 10%, 28%)
Triadic +120°
Mulberry Shadow Faint
#4A404F · hsl(280, 10%, 28%)
Triadic +240°
Apricot Shadow Faint
#4F4A40 · hsl(40, 10%, 28%)
Split-comp +150°
Peony Shadow Faint
#4F404C · hsl(310, 10%, 28%)
Split-comp +210°
Ruby Shadow Faint
#4F4340 · hsl(10, 10%, 28%)
Export preview
Base: Teal Shadow Faint #404F4A
Lighter companion: Teal Dusk Faint #4E5F5A
Darker companion: Teal Nocturne Faint #2E3835
Complementary counterpoint: Garnet Shadow Faint #4F4045
Analogous lead: Aqua Shadow Faint #404F4F
Analogous echo: Seafoam Shadow Faint #404F45
Triadic +120°: Mulberry Shadow Faint #4A404F
Triadic +240°: Apricot Shadow Faint #4F4A40
Split-comp +150°: Peony Shadow Faint #4F404C
Split-comp +210°: Ruby Shadow Faint #4F4340

Compare

See how Teal Shadow Faint compares side by side with related colors.

vsTeal Dusk FaintvsTeal Nocturne FaintvsGarnet Shadow FaintvsAqua Shadow FaintvsSeafoam Shadow FaintvsMulberry Shadow Faint

Nearest neighbors

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

Search by hex
Nearby match
Teal Shadow Muted
#3B544C · hsl(160, 18%, 28%)
Nearby match
Teal Dusk Faint
#4E5F5A · hsl(160, 10%, 34%)
Nearby match
Teal Nocturne Faint
#2E3835 · hsl(160, 10%, 20%)
Nearby match
Teal Shadow Dust
#355A4E · hsl(160, 26%, 28%)
Nearby match
Teal Dusk Muted
#47665C · hsl(160, 18%, 34%)
Nearby match
Teal Nocturne Muted
#2A3C36 · hsl(160, 18%, 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
AAA8.2:1
Garnet Veil Faint
#FAF9FA
AAA8.2:1
Garnet Veil Muted
#FBF9FA
AAA8.2:1
Garnet Veil Dust
#FBF9F9
AAA8.2:1
Garnet Veil Soft
#FCF8F9
AAA8.2:1
Garnet Veil Clear
#FDF7F9
AAA8.1:1
Garnet Veil Vivid
#FEF6F9

Color Vision Simulation

How this color appears with different color vision deficiencies.

Full simulator
Deuteranopia
#46454C
Protanopia
#47474B
Tritanopia
#414C4C
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Saturation ladder

Same hue and lightness, from gray to pure

Search
Teal Shadow Faint#404F4A · hsl(160, 10%, 28%)Teal Shadow Muted#3B544C · hsl(160, 18%, 28%)Teal Shadow Dust#355A4E · hsl(160, 26%, 28%)Teal Shadow Soft#2F604F · hsl(160, 34%, 28%)Teal Shadow Clear#216E54 · hsl(160, 54%, 28%)Teal Shadow Vivid#137C59 · hsl(160, 74%, 28%)Teal Shadow Bright#0B835B · hsl(160, 84%, 28%)Teal Shadow Pure#06895D · hsl(160, 92%, 28%)
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