A vivid light cyan, black text passes AA
What color is turquoise?
turquoise is a vivid light cyan: #40e0d0 in hex, rgb(64 224 208). Black text on it reaches 12.79:1, passing WCAG AAA. Recolor (recolor.page) shows it on a real page below.
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| Format | Value |
|---|---|
| Keyword | turquoise |
| Hex | #40e0d0 |
| RGB | rgb(64 224 208) |
| HSL | hsl(174 72% 56%) |
| OKLCH | oklch(82.2% 0.131 185.1) |
| Nearest Tailwind color | teal-300 #46ecd5, 0.033 away in OKLab |
| White text | 1.64:1: AA fails, AAA fails, large text fails |
| Black text | 12.79:1: AA passes, AAA passes, large text passes |
About turquoise
A vivid light cyan is the plain description of turquoise: OKLCH lightness 82.2%, chroma 0.131, hue 185.1 degrees.
HSL puts its lightness at 56% and OKLCH at 82.2%, 26 points apart: HSL's lightness does not follow what the eye sees, OKLCH's is built to. The closest CSS named color is mediumturquoise (#48d1cc), 0.041 away in OKLab: near, and still a visible step from it side by side.
Black text on turquoise measures 12.79:1, past the 7:1 of WCAG AAA, while white text manages only 1.64:1. In the hue-sorted table of named colors it sits between lightblue and skyblue.
In Tailwind CSS 4.3.3 the nearest default color is teal-300 (#46ecd5), 0.033 away in OKLab; for the exact color, an arbitrary value such as bg-[#40e0d0] works.
Tints and shades
- #e6faf7
- #ccf6ef
- #b1f0e7
- #93ebdf
- #70e6d8
- #40e0d0
- #30afa3
- #218178
- #13564f
- #062e2a
- #010b0a
From light to dark: 5 toward white and 5 toward black, mixed in OKLCH a sixth of the way at a time with the hue kept. A step that would repeat its neighbor is left out.
A palette around it
- #40e0d0
- #2b6253
- #93efde
- #0f2727
- #3d9fae
Recolor's generator, with turquoise locked as swatch 1 and the seed taken from its hex, drew an analogous palette, hues next to each other on the wheel: #2b6253, #93efde, #0f2727, #3d9fae. Open it in Recolor.
Using turquoise
As a text color, turquoise on a black page gives the same 12.79:1.
.notice {
background-color: turquoise; /* #40e0d0 */
color: black; /* 12.79:1 */
}Common questions
Does white text pass WCAG AA on turquoise?
No. White text measures 1.64:1 on turquoise, under AA's 4.5:1; black text measures 12.79:1 and passes.
Can turquoise be written in OKLCH?
Yes: oklch(82.2% 0.131 185.1), computed from #40e0d0. A named color is an sRGB color, so its OKLCH value converts back to the same hex.
Is there a named color close to turquoise?
Yes: mediumturquoise (#48d1cc) is the nearest, 0.041 away in OKLab, then darkturquoise at 0.057.