40E0D0 (turquoise) — RGB, HSL, CMYK and Contrast

Q: What text colour should sit on 40E0D0?

Black gives 12.79:1 and white gives 1.64:1, so black wins at 12.79:1. 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 teal at 56% lightness and 72% saturation, which puts it at 1.64:1 against white and 12.79:1 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.

40E0D0

Notation conversions

Notation	Value
HEX	`40E0D0`
RGB	rgb(64, 224, 208)
HSL	hsl(174, 72%, 56%)
CMYK	cmyk(71%, 0%, 7%, 12%)
Relative luminance	0.5896
Perceived brightness	68.4 / 100

R=64 G=224 B=208 · hue 174.0° · saturation 72.1% · lightness 56.5%

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`	1.64:1	fail	fail	fail
#000000	`black`	12.79:1	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	`#13746a`	hsl(174, 72%, 26%)	5.62:1
shade -20	`#1aa093`	hsl(174, 72%, 36%)	3.23:1
shade -10	`#21ccbb`	hsl(174, 72%, 46%)	2.02:1
tint +10	`#6ce7db`	hsl(174, 72%, 66%)	1.49:1
tint +20	`#98eee6`	hsl(174, 72%, 76%)	1.34:1
tint +30	`#c4f5f0`	hsl(174, 72%, 86%)	1.19:1

Harmonies

Scheme	Hex
Complementary	`#e04050`
Analogous −30	`#40e080`
Analogous +30	`#40a0e0`
Triadic −120	`#e0d040`
Triadic +120	`#d040e0`

Take the channels apart and the numbers hold together: 64, 224 and 208 average 165, the strongest channel is 224 and the weakest 64, and that span is what pushes saturation to 72.1% at hue 174.0° and lightness 56.5%. Luminance 0.5896 with perceived brightness 68.4 out of 100 is why the white ratio (1.64:1) and the black ratio (12.79:1) diverge by 11.15. Entry 34 of 69, it steps to #13746a at minus thirty and #c4f5f0 at plus thirty.

Nearby colours

607D8B Blue Grey 500 03A9F4 Light Blue 500 00FFFF aqua 87CEEB skyblue 000080 navy 191970 midnightblue

Frequently asked questions

What text colour should sit on 40E0D0?
Black gives 12.79:1 and white gives 1.64:1, so black wins at 12.79:1. 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.