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Teal Ink Soft
Color detail

Teal Ink Soft

Teal · Hue 160
Hex
#183028
RGB
rgb(24, 48, 40)
HSL
hsl(160, 34%, 14%)
CMYK
cmyk(50%, 0%, 17%, 81%)
Metrics
S 34% · L 14%
Contrast (WCAG)
on white
14.1:1AA
on black
1.5:1Fail
Save to journalSign in to saveStart palette from thisRecent trail

About this color

Teal Ink Soft (#183028) belongs to the teal family — hue 160°, 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-teal-ink-soft: #183028;
  --colorarchive-teal-ink-soft-hsl: hsl(160, 34%, 14%);
  --colorarchive-teal-ink-soft-rgb: rgb(24, 48, 40);
}

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 #183028.

  • Supabaseneutral
    Surface · #2A2A2A
    →
  • Meituan 美团neutral
    Slate Black · #222222
    →
  • Webflowneutral
    Charcoal · #1D1F26
    →

Cultures using a similar color

From the cultural-palette catalog, these regions feature a color close to #183028.

  • Korea (Obangsaek)Obangsaek Black (흑 / heuk)
    #1F1F1F · North — water element, ink and lacquer
    →
  • China (Traditional)Ink Wash Black (墨)
    #1C1C1C · Pine-soot ink stick (mò)
    →
  • IcelandBasalt Black
    #1A1B1F · Reynisfjara basalt columns
    →

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 Nocturne Soft
#224439 · hsl(160, 34%, 20%)
Complementary counterpoint
Garnet Ink Soft
#301820 · hsl(340, 34%, 14%)
Analogous lead
Aqua Ink Soft
#183030 · hsl(180, 34%, 14%)
Analogous echo
Seafoam Ink Soft
#183020 · hsl(140, 34%, 14%)
Triadic +120°
Mulberry Ink Soft
#281830 · hsl(280, 34%, 14%)
Triadic +240°
Apricot Ink Soft
#302818 · hsl(40, 34%, 14%)
Split-comp +150°
Peony Ink Soft
#30182C · hsl(310, 34%, 14%)
Split-comp +210°
Ruby Ink Soft
#301C18 · hsl(10, 34%, 14%)
Export preview
Base: Teal Ink Soft #183028
Lighter companion: Teal Nocturne Soft #224439
Complementary counterpoint: Garnet Ink Soft #301820
Analogous lead: Aqua Ink Soft #183030
Analogous echo: Seafoam Ink Soft #183020
Triadic +120°: Mulberry Ink Soft #281830
Triadic +240°: Apricot Ink Soft #302818
Split-comp +150°: Peony Ink Soft #30182C
Split-comp +210°: Ruby Ink Soft #301C18

Compare

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

vsTeal Nocturne SoftvsGarnet Ink SoftvsAqua Ink SoftvsSeafoam Ink SoftvsMulberry Ink SoftvsApricot Ink Soft

Nearest neighbors

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

Search by hex
Nearby match
Teal Ink Dust
#1A2D27 · hsl(160, 26%, 14%)
Nearby match
Teal Nocturne Soft
#224439 · hsl(160, 34%, 20%)
Nearby match
Teal Ink Muted
#1D2A26 · hsl(160, 18%, 14%)
Nearby match
Teal Nocturne Dust
#264037 · hsl(160, 26%, 20%)
Nearby match
Teal Ink Clear
#10372A · hsl(160, 54%, 14%)
Nearby match
Teal Shadow Soft
#2F604F · hsl(160, 34%, 28%)

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
AAA13.4:1
Garnet Veil Faint
#FAF9FA
AAA13.4:1
Garnet Veil Muted
#FBF9FA
AAA13.4:1
Garnet Veil Dust
#FBF9F9
AAA13.4:1
Garnet Veil Soft
#FCF8F9
AAA13.3:1
Garnet Veil Clear
#FDF7F9
AAA13.2:1
Garnet Veil Vivid
#FEF6F9

Color Vision Simulation

How this color appears with different color vision deficiencies.

Full simulator
Deuteranopia
#23212B
Protanopia
#24252A
Tritanopia
#1A2C2C
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