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Cyan Core Clear
Color detail

Cyan Core Clear

Teal · Hue 175
Hex
#38BCB1
RGB
rgb(56, 188, 177)
HSL
hsl(175, 54%, 48%)
CMYK
cmyk(70%, 0%, 6%, 26%)
Metrics
S 54% · L 48%
Contrast (WCAG)
on white
2.3:1Fail
on black
9:1AA
Save to journalSign in to saveStart palette from thisRecent trail

About this color

Cyan Core Clear (#38BCB1) belongs to the teal family — hue 175°, 54% saturation, 48% 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-core-clear: #38BCB1;
  --colorarchive-cyan-core-clear-hsl: hsl(175, 54%, 48%);
  --colorarchive-cyan-core-clear-rgb: rgb(56, 188, 177);
}

AI Color Names

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

Design Context

SophisticatedCreativeBalanced
Common in

Design Agencies · Healthcare Tech · Education

Pairs well with

Warm orange for complementary energy, dark slate for depth

Design tip

A versatile primary color for brands seeking to appear both creative and reliable. Works across light and dark themes.

Cultural context ▶

Teal balances emotional stability with mental clarity. It's associated with communication and healing in color therapy.

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, whose wing patches sit at exactly this hue. Egyptian blue and Egyptian green, both made from copper-calcium silicate around 2,500 BCE, sit in this region. The patina of weathered copper (the Statue of Liberty's color) is teal because copper carbonate forms there; Bacon's verdigris is the same chemistry. Phthalo turquoise and cobalt teal are 20th-century pigments.

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

Hospital scrubs are teal because it's the perceptual complement of red blood — staring at red and then looking away produces a green-teal afterimage, and matching the scrubs to that afterimage reduces eye fatigue. Tiffany's blue is a calibrated teal, trademarked as PMS 1837 (their founding year). Most Pixar films grade their shadows toward teal because warm skin against cool shadow is the most legible cinematographic combination. The Apple Watch SE, the Surface Pro, and the new Macs all use teal as a 'calming-but-modern' accent.

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; it's the dominant accent color in healthcare and trust-led fintech for that reason. 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 confident mid-tone — this is the workhorse register of the hue, and the band where most successful brand colors live.

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

Saturation band: The clear, mid-saturation register is the most common identity sweet spot — saturated enough to register as a 'real' color, restrained enough not to fight typography or photography placed over it.

Brands using a similar color

Within the public brand-guidelines reference catalog, these are the closest matches to #38BCB1.

  • Slackaccent
    Slack Green · #2EB67D
    →
  • Supabaseprimary
    Supabase Green · #3ECF8E
    →
  • PlayStationaccent
    Triangle Green · #1FAA8C
    →

Cultures using a similar color

From the cultural-palette catalog, these regions feature a color close to #38BCB1.

  • AustraliaReef Turquoise
    #3FBFB9 · Whitsunday lagoons
    →
  • Turkey (Istanbul)Bosphorus Turquoise
    #4DA8AC · Marmara strait water
    →
  • China (Traditional)Jade Green (碧玉)
    #5F9EA0 · Hetian and Burmese jadeite
    →

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 Radiant Clear
#4AC9BE · hsl(175, 54%, 54%)
Darker companion
Cyan Velvet Clear
#31A59B · hsl(175, 54%, 42%)
Complementary counterpoint
Crimson Core Clear
#BC3838 · hsl(0, 54%, 48%)
Analogous lead
Azure Core Clear
#3890BC · hsl(200, 54%, 48%)
Analogous echo
Jade Core Clear
#38BC7A · hsl(150, 54%, 48%)
Triadic +120°
Magenta Core Clear
#A638BC · hsl(290, 54%, 48%)
Triadic +240°
Canary Core Clear
#BCB138 · hsl(55, 54%, 48%)
Split-comp +150°
Rose Core Clear
#BC3890 · hsl(320, 54%, 48%)
Split-comp +210°
Tangerine Core Clear
#BC6F38 · hsl(25, 54%, 48%)
Export preview
Base: Cyan Core Clear #38BCB1
Lighter companion: Cyan Radiant Clear #4AC9BE
Darker companion: Cyan Velvet Clear #31A59B
Complementary counterpoint: Crimson Core Clear #BC3838
Analogous lead: Azure Core Clear #3890BC
Analogous echo: Jade Core Clear #38BC7A
Triadic +120°: Magenta Core Clear #A638BC
Triadic +240°: Canary Core Clear #BCB138
Split-comp +150°: Rose Core Clear #BC3890
Split-comp +210°: Tangerine Core Clear #BC6F38

Compare

See how Cyan Core Clear compares side by side with related colors.

vsCyan Radiant ClearvsCyan Velvet ClearvsCrimson Core ClearvsAzure Core ClearvsJade Core ClearvsMagenta Core Clear

Nearest neighbors

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

Search by hex
Nearby match
Cyan Velvet Clear
#31A59B · hsl(175, 54%, 42%)
Nearby match
Cyan Radiant Clear
#4AC9BE · hsl(175, 54%, 54%)
Nearby match
Lagoon Core Clear
#38BCA6 · hsl(170, 54%, 48%)
Nearby match
Aqua Core Clear
#38BCBC · hsl(180, 54%, 48%)
Nearby match
Cyan Tone Clear
#62D0C7 · hsl(175, 54%, 60%)
Nearby match
Cyan Core Soft
#51A49D · hsl(175, 34%, 48%)

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 Ink Muted
#2A1D1D
AAA7.1:1
Crimson Ink Dust
#2D1A1A
AAA7.1:1
Crimson Ink Soft
#301818
AAA7.2:1
Crimson Ink Clear
#371010
AAA7.2:1
Crimson Ink Vivid
#3E0909
AAA7.1:1
Crimson Ink Bright
#420606

Color Vision Simulation

How this color appears with different color vision deficiencies.

Full simulator
Deuteranopia
#7F75B4
Protanopia
#8687B4
Tritanopia
#47B6B6
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