#05ABDA

sRGB: 5 / 171 / 218

#05ABDA belongs to the cyan family. Its hex code tells a screen to mix 5 red, 171 green and 218 blue on a scale of 0 to 255. On the HSL wheel, hue is a position around a circle: 193.2° lands in the cyan region. Its 95.5% saturation makes it strong in color at this lightness. HSL lightness is 43.7% on a scale from black (0%) to white (100%). Of black and white lettering, black has the clearer light-to-dark separation on this background (7.84:1), which helps the shapes of letters stand out.

Color conversions

sRGB (8-bit): 5, 171, 218
HSL: 193.24°, 95.52%, 43.73%
HSV / HSB: 193.24°, 97.71%, 85.49%
CMYK (approx.): 97.71%, 21.56%, 0.00%, 14.51%
CIE XYZ (D65, Y = 100 for white): 27.278, 34.218, 71.499
CIELAB (D65, 2° observer): 65.135, -19.910, -33.937
WCAG relative luminance: 0.34220
24-bit decimal: 371674

CMYK uses a profile-free approximation. Printed output depends on the press, ink and paper. Lab uses a D65 white point.

Text contrast

Contrast tells you how clearly lettering separates from #05ABDA in light and dark. The ratio compares relative luminance, a measure of light weighted for human vision. Identical colors give 1:1 and black against white gives 21:1. A ratio of 2.99:1 falls just below the 3:1 AA minimum for large text. Body text needs at least 4.5:1 because its finer strokes are harder to distinguish.

Black text: 7.84:1

Normal text: AAA
Large text: AAA

White text: 2.68:1

Normal text: Fail
Large text: Fail

AA and AAA are WCAG accessibility levels. AAA sets a higher bar: 7:1 for normal text and 4.5:1 for large text. Large text begins at 18 pt regular or 14 pt bold. Ratings use the unrounded ratio.

Reference: WCAG text contrast guidance

Palettes & scales

Harmonies rotate the hue. Scales mix the starting color with white, black or middle gray in 20% steps in encoded sRGB.

Complementary

#DA3405 sits half a turn (180°) from #05ABDA on the HSL wheel. Keeping saturation and lightness steady while crossing to the opposite hue gives you a contrasting accent. Check text contrast separately before using the pair for lettering.

#05ABDA #DA3405

Analogous

#05DA9E and #0541DA sit 30° to either side of #05ABDA. The three hues are neighbors on the wheel, so you can change the color of a border or highlight while keeping it close to the original.

#05DA9E #05ABDA #0541DA

Triadic

#05ABDA, #DA05AB and #ABDA05 are spaced 120° apart, forming a triangle on the wheel. Try one for the main color and the other two for accents.

#05ABDA #DA05AB #ABDA05

Split complementary

Start at #05ABDA and look across the wheel. #DA0541 and #DA9E05 sit 30° to either side of its exact opposite, giving you two different accent choices.

#05ABDA #DA0541 #DA9E05

Square

Starting with #05ABDA, each quarter turn (90°) takes you to the next hue: #9E05DA, #DA3405, then #41DA05. Across the square, #05ABDA pairs with #DA3405, and #9E05DA with #41DA05.

#05ABDA #9E05DA #DA3405 #41DA05

Tetradic

#05ABDA and #DA3405 are opposites, as are #3405DA and #ABDA05. Together they form a rectangle on the wheel, with alternating gaps of 60° and 120°.

#05ABDA #3405DA #DA3405 #ABDA05

Tints

Mixing #05ABDA with white in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #37BCE1, keeps 80% of the original. By #CDEEF8, the mixture is 80% white.

#05ABDA #37BCE1 #69CDE9 #9BDDF0 #CDEEF8 #FFFFFF

Shades

Mixing #05ABDA with black in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #0489AE, keeps 80% of the original. By #01222C, the mixture is 80% black.

#05ABDA #0489AE #036783 #024457 #01222C #000000

Tones

Mixing #05ABDA with middle gray in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #1EA2C8, keeps 80% of the original. By #678992, the mixture is 80% middle gray.

#05ABDA #1EA2C8 #369AB6 #4F91A4 #678992 #808080

Copy color codes

Hex, RGB and HSL are three ways to write this screen color. Paste any of them into a CSS color property.

Hex

#05ABDA

RGB

rgb(5 171 218)

HSL

hsl(193.239 95.516% 43.725%)

CSS example

.color-sample {
  background-color: #05ABDA;
  color: #000000;
}

Channel breakdown

RGB

#05ABDA uses 5 red, 171 green and 218 blue. Each bar shows how much of that channel’s 0–255 range the screen uses.

Red 2.0%

Green 67.1%

Blue 85.5%

CMYK

A simple CMYK estimate for #05ABDA is 97.7% cyan, 21.6% magenta, 0.0% yellow and 14.5% black. These are ink amounts; a printer profile is needed to predict the result on paper.

Cyan 97.7%

Magenta 21.6%

Yellow 0.0%

Black 14.5%

Nearby colors

The nearest shorthand match is #00AADD. Its matching digit pairs let you write it as #0AD in CSS. For a modern design, keep #05ABDA when you want an exact match. Use its web-safe neighbor, #0099CC, when matching a legacy palette of 216 colors.

Nearest shorthand: #00AADD Nearest web-safe: #0099CC

Gradient to complement

#05ABDA #2997B7 #4C8393 #707070 #935C4C #B74829 #DA3405

Color vision previews

Compare how #05ABDA appears in each simulation. When two chart lines or status indicators become hard to tell apart, a label, shape or line pattern gives readers another way to distinguish them. Individual perception varies.

Protanopia

A red–green color vision deficiency. Without a distinct response from long-wavelength cones, some reds and greens can look alike, and reds can appear darker.

#91A8DC

Deuteranopia

A red–green color vision deficiency. Without a distinct response from medium-wavelength cones, some greens can be difficult to distinguish from reds or browns.

#7997D9

Tritanopia

A blue–yellow color vision deficiency. Without a distinct response from short-wavelength cones, blue can resemble green, and yellow can resemble pink.

#00B9BB

Protanomaly (50%)

An altered long-wavelength cone response can make reds appear dimmer and harder to distinguish from greens. This swatch shows the model’s halfway setting.

#76A7DB

Deuteranomaly (50%)

An altered medium-wavelength cone response can reduce the visible difference between reds and greens. This swatch shows the model’s halfway setting.

#689EDA

Tritanomaly (50%)

An altered short-wavelength cone response can make blue harder to distinguish from green. This swatch shows the model’s halfway setting.

#00AECF

Grayscale (luminance)

This design check removes hue and preserves relative luminance so you can compare light and dark areas.

#9E9E9E

Partial grayscale (50% blend)

This design check mixes the original color halfway toward its grayscale equivalent in linear light. Use it to see how a design holds up as color fades.

#73A5BF

Reference: National Eye Institute: Types of Color Vision Deficiency

Technical reference

CAM16 and CIECAM02 below assume D65 white, an average surround, background Y of 20 against white at 100, and adapting luminance of 4.07 cd/m².

Linear sRGB

These channels scale with emitted light. Use them for lighting calculations and physically meaningful blends.

R 0.00152 G 0.40724 B 0.70110

Display P3

P3 displays can reproduce a wider range of reds and greens. These coordinates reproduce this same sRGB swatch on a color-managed P3 display.

R 0.30063 G 0.66049 B 0.83668

Linear Display P3

These P3 channels are proportional to light, before display encoding.

R 0.07355 G 0.39377 B 0.66788

CIE xyY

The x and y coordinates locate chromaticity on a diagram. Y gives relative luminance on a scale where white is 100.

x 0.205 y 0.257 Y 34.218

CMY

Ideal cyan, magenta and yellow are the complements of the encoded red, green and blue channels.

C % 98.039 M % 32.941 Y % 14.510

Binary RGB

Each eight-bit group represents one channel. Together they store the 24-bit hex color.

00000101 10101011 11011010