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Cyan Ink Soft
Color detail

Cyan Ink Soft

Teal · Hue 175
Hex
#18302E
RGB
rgb(24, 48, 46)
HSL
hsl(175, 34%, 14%)
CMYK
cmyk(50%, 0%, 4%, 81%)
Metrics
S 34% · L 14%
Contrast (WCAG)
on white
14:1AA
on black
1.5:1Fail
Save to journalSign in to saveStart palette from thisRecent trail

About this color

Cyan Ink Soft (#18302E) belongs to the teal family — hue 175°, 34% saturation, 14% 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-ink-soft: #18302E;
  --colorarchive-cyan-ink-soft-hsl: hsl(175, 34%, 14%);
  --colorarchive-cyan-ink-soft-rgb: rgb(24, 48, 46);
}

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, 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 deep, weighted version of the hue — formal, considered, and pairs especially well with off-white and warm metallic accents.

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 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 #18302E.

  • Supabaseneutral
    Surface · #2A2A2A
    →
  • Meituan 美团neutral
    Slate Black · #222222
    →
  • Stripeneutral
    Slate Navy · #0A2540
    →

Cultures using a similar color

From the cultural-palette catalog, these regions feature a color close to #18302E.

  • Korea (Obangsaek)Obangsaek Black (흑 / heuk)
    #1F1F1F · North — water element, ink and lacquer
    →
  • AustraliaSouthern Sky Navy
    #0C1E3F · Outback night sky
    →
  • China (Traditional)Ink Wash Black (墨)
    #1C1C1C · Pine-soot ink stick (mò)
    →

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 Nocturne Soft
#224441 · hsl(175, 34%, 20%)
Complementary counterpoint
Crimson Ink Soft
#301818 · hsl(0, 34%, 14%)
Analogous lead
Azure Ink Soft
#182830 · hsl(200, 34%, 14%)
Analogous echo
Jade Ink Soft
#183024 · hsl(150, 34%, 14%)
Triadic +120°
Magenta Ink Soft
#2C1830 · hsl(290, 34%, 14%)
Triadic +240°
Canary Ink Soft
#302E18 · hsl(55, 34%, 14%)
Split-comp +150°
Rose Ink Soft
#301828 · hsl(320, 34%, 14%)
Split-comp +210°
Tangerine Ink Soft
#302218 · hsl(25, 34%, 14%)
Export preview
Base: Cyan Ink Soft #18302E
Lighter companion: Cyan Nocturne Soft #224441
Complementary counterpoint: Crimson Ink Soft #301818
Analogous lead: Azure Ink Soft #182830
Analogous echo: Jade Ink Soft #183024
Triadic +120°: Magenta Ink Soft #2C1830
Triadic +240°: Canary Ink Soft #302E18
Split-comp +150°: Rose Ink Soft #301828
Split-comp +210°: Tangerine Ink Soft #302218

Compare

See how Cyan Ink Soft compares side by side with related colors.

vsCyan Nocturne SoftvsCrimson Ink SoftvsAzure Ink SoftvsJade Ink SoftvsMagenta Ink SoftvsCanary Ink Soft

Nearest neighbors

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

Search by hex
Nearby match
Cyan Ink Dust
#1A2D2B · hsl(175, 26%, 14%)
Nearby match
Cyan Nocturne Soft
#224441 · hsl(175, 34%, 20%)
Nearby match
Lagoon Ink Soft
#18302C · hsl(170, 34%, 14%)
Nearby match
Aqua Ink Soft
#183030 · hsl(180, 34%, 14%)
Nearby match
Cyan Ink Muted
#1D2A29 · hsl(175, 18%, 14%)
Nearby match
Cyan Nocturne Dust
#26403E · hsl(175, 26%, 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
AAA13.3:1
Crimson Veil Faint
#FAF9F9
AAA13.3:1
Crimson Veil Muted
#FBF9F9
AAA13.3:1
Crimson Veil Dust
#FBF9F9
AAA13.3:1
Crimson Veil Soft
#FCF8F8
AAA13.2:1
Crimson Veil Clear
#FDF7F7
AAA13.1:1
Crimson Veil Vivid
#FEF6F6

Color Vision Simulation

How this color appears with different color vision deficiencies.

Full simulator
Deuteranopia
#23212F
Protanopia
#24252E
Tritanopia
#1A2F2F
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