00FF00 (lime) — RGB, HSL, CMYK and Contrast

Q: What text colour should sit on 00FF00?

Black gives 15.30:1 and white gives 1.37:1, so black wins at 15.30:1. That clears the 4.5:1 AA threshold for normal text and the 7:1 AAA threshold as well.

Every value recomputed from the hex code · WCAG 2.1 contrast ratios

A green at 50% lightness and 100% saturation, which puts it at 1.37:1 against white and 15.30:1 against black. The tables below give the notation conversions, the tints and shades that keep the hue intact, and the harmonies that pair with it.

00FF00

Notation conversions

Notation	Value
HEX	`00FF00`
RGB	rgb(0, 255, 0)
HSL	hsl(120, 100%, 50%)
CMYK	cmyk(100%, 0%, 100%, 0%)
Relative luminance	0.7152
Perceived brightness	58.7 / 100

R=0 G=255 B=0 · hue 120.0° · saturation 100.0% · lightness 50.0%

Contrast against pure white and pure black

Pair this colour with the two extremes to see which is the safer text partner. AA needs 4.5:1 for body text and 3:1 for large text; AAA raises that to 7:1 and 4.5:1.

Against	Hex	Ratio	AA text	AA large	AAA text
#FFFFFF	`white`	1.37:1	fail	fail	fail
#000000	`black`	15.30:1	pass	pass	pass

Tints and shades

Lightness moves in ten-point steps while hue and saturation stay fixed, which keeps the colour recognisable in a scale. The last column is the ratio against white text, useful for deciding where a scale stops working as a background.

Step	Hex	HSL	vs white text
shade -30	`#006600`	hsl(120, 100%, 20%)	7.24:1
shade -20	`#009900`	hsl(120, 100%, 30%)	3.78:1
shade -10	`#00cc00`	hsl(120, 100%, 40%)	2.18:1
tint +10	`#33ff33`	hsl(120, 100%, 60%)	1.36:1
tint +20	`#66ff66`	hsl(120, 100%, 70%)	1.31:1
tint +30	`#99ff99`	hsl(120, 100%, 80%)	1.23:1

Harmonies

Scheme	Hex
Complementary	`#ff00ff`
Analogous −30	`#80ff00`
Analogous +30	`#00ff80`
Triadic −120	`#ff0000`
Triadic +120	`#0000ff`

Measured rather than eyeballed: hue 120.0°, saturation 100.0%, lightness 50.0%, relative luminance 0.7152 — four decimals is the precision the WCAG formula actually needs — and perceived brightness 58.7 out of 100. Entry 26 of 69 in this library, it scores 1.37:1 on white and 15.30:1 on black, a 13.93 spread. The complementary #ff00ff sits 180° away on the wheel, and the scale brackets it with #006600 below and #99ff99 above.

Nearby colours

008000 green 2E8B57 seagreen 4CAF50 Green 500 8BC34A Light Green 500 008080 teal 009688 Teal 500

Frequently asked questions

What text colour should sit on 00FF00?
Black gives 15.30:1 and white gives 1.37:1, so black wins at 15.30:1. That clears the 4.5:1 AA threshold for normal text and the 7:1 AAA threshold as well.

Do the CMYK numbers match a print workflow?
They are the naive conversion from RGB, which assumes no ink limit, no colour profile and no black generation strategy. Real print work needs a profile-aware conversion; the values here are the ones the converter reports and are best used as a starting point for a designer rather than a press-ready separations file.

Convert any other colour, or test a pair against each other, in the ColrShift colour converter and contrast checker. The colour library groups every entry on this site by hue family.