Tints & Shades
50
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
Scale from white (50) through Dark Teal (500) to black (900), interpolated in Lab color space.
Color Values
- HEX
- #003E4E
- RGB
- rgb(0, 62, 78)
- HSL
- hsl(192, 100%, 15%)
- OKLCH
- oklch(0.337 0.062 222)
- CMYK
- cmyk(100%, 21%, 0%, 69%)
--color-dark-tealbg-[#003E4E]Accessibility
Score: 96/100On White (#FFF)
11.67:1
On Black (#000)
1.8:1
On Light Gray (#F5F5F5)
10.71:1
Best text color on this background:
Design Applications
background-color: #003E4E
color: #003E4E
bg-[#003E4E] text-[#FFFFFF]
border-left: 4px solid #003E4E
Color Harmonies
Complementary
Burnt Sienna
#E97451
Split-Complementary
Similar Colors
Color Meaning & Psychology
Teal occupies the sophisticated intersection of blue's trust and green's vitality. It feels calming yet distinctive — neither the corporate ubiquity of navy nor the aggressive freshness of lime green. Teal is associated with healing, emotional balance, and clarity of thought. It gained significant cultural cachet in the 2010s as a design-forward alternative to standard blues in healthcare and technology branding. Deeper teals feel luxurious and authoritative; lighter teals feel fresh and energetic. Teal is one of the few colors that reads well in both light and dark themes. Its primary challenge is legibility — teal text on white often fails WCAG AA without careful shade selection. Its very dark, near-black depth creates dramatic intensity — maximally contrastive, powerful, and reserved for focal design elements where other dark colors would disappear.
Industry Usage
Common contexts and industries where Dark Teal is applied in professional design.
- Healthcare technology and health apps
- Mental health and wellness platforms
- Fintech brands seeking blue-alternative trust
- Premium interior design and home accessories
- Environmental and ocean-focused organizations
- Contemporary hotel and hospitality brands
- Corporate communications departments
- Spa and beauty wellness destinations
Accessibility Considerations
Normal Text
Passes AA
4.5:1 minimum required
Large Text
Passes AA Large
3:1 minimum required
UI Components
Meets 1.4.11
3:1 for non-text UI
Dark Teal is a dark color. Use white (#FFFFFF) text on top of it for maximum readability (11.67:1). Avoid small black text on this background.
CSS & Code Examples
Background
background-color: #003E4E;Text
color: #003E4E;Border
border: 2px solid #003E4E;Box Shadow
box-shadow: 0 4px 20px #003E4E40;Gradient
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #003E4E, #38697a);Tailwind-style
--color-dark-teal: #003E4E;Tailwind CSS Utilities
Use arbitrary value syntax in Tailwind CSS to apply Dark Teal without a custom config.
Background
bg-[#003E4E]Text
text-[#003E4E]Border
border-[#003E4E]Ring
ring-[#003E4E]Fill
fill-[#003E4E]From (gradient)
from-[#003E4E]Via (gradient)
via-[#003E4E]To (gradient)
to-[#003E4E]Design Tokens
Ready-to-use Dark Teal design token in CSS custom properties, SCSS, Tailwind v3/v4, and JSON formats.
CSS Custom Properties
:root {
--color-dark-teal: #003E4E;
--color-dark-teal-rgb: 0, 62, 78;
--color-dark-teal-hsl: 192, 100%, 15%;
}SCSS Variables
$color-dark-teal: #003E4E; $color-dark-teal-rgb: 0, 62, 78; $color-dark-teal-hsl: 192, 100%, 15%;
Tailwind v3 Config
// tailwind.config.js
module.exports = {
theme: {
extend: {
colors: {
'dark-teal': '#003E4E',
},
},
},
};Tailwind v4 (@theme)
/* tailwind.css */
@theme {
--color-dark-teal: #003E4E;
}JSON Design Token (W3C format)
{
"dark-teal": {
"value": "#003E4E",
"type": "color",
"description": "Dark Teal — #003E4E"
}
}More teal colors
View all →What Does Dark Teal Mean? Color Psychology & Cultural Symbolism
Dark Teal (#003E4E) sits at the exact chromatic intersection where green's vitality meets blue's reliability. This isn't a compromise—it's a synthesis, and the result is a color that reads as balance: balanced, confident, and impossible to reduce to a single emotion.
- Teal occupies the visual and psychological space between blue's trust and green's vitality—inheriting credibility from the former and freshness from the latter. It's become a defining color of modern healthcare tech and SaaS design for exactly this balance.
- In Persian and Islamic design traditions, teal and turquoise hold deep spiritual significance—associated with protection, sky, and water. Persian turquoise ceramics are among the most celebrated in the world. In many Central Asian cultures, the color connects heaven and earth.
- Dark Teal's dark lightness (15%) shifts its psychological register: Deep teal and dark cyan carry genuine authority and depth—functioning like a cooler alternative to navy that still communicates seriousness and precision.
- At 100% saturation, Dark Teal reads as vivid—Vivid teals are a signature of contemporary tech design—digitally native, modern, and distinct enough to stand out in a landscape of blue-dominated software interfaces.
The best use of Dark Teal is unapologetic. When it's the primary color, it earns its position through clarity and confidence.
How to Use Dark Teal in Design: Applications, Pairings & Best Practices
The appeal of Dark Teal in design is its specificity without limitation. Unlike blue (everyone) or purple (everyone creative), teal stakes out a particular position—modern, balanced, health-forward—without cutting off audience breadth.
- UI components: primary brand color, action states, informational elements—Dark Teal performs reliably in all these roles with its dark tonal character.
- Brand & identity: health tech platforms, modern SaaS UIs, financial dashboards—contexts where Dark Teal's vivid quality creates the right register.
- Typography: Dark Teal works as a background behind white text but requires careful sizing—test at intended heading and body sizes before finalizing.
- As a dark tone, Dark Teal creates maximum contrast with white and light neutrals—excellent for creating premium dark-mode sections, bold headers, and high-drama brand moments
- Proportional use: Dark Teal's vivid saturation (100%) means small applications—accents, highlights, icons—deliver maximum impact without visual fatigue. Reserve large-scale use for intentional brand moments.
The best use of Dark Teal is unapologetic. When it's the primary color, it earns its position through clarity and confidence.
Dark Teal Accessibility: WCAG Contrast Ratios, Color Blindness & Inclusive Design
Dark Teal (#003E4E) achieves a 11.67:1 contrast ratio with white text, surpassing the WCAG 2.1 AAA threshold of 7:1. This exceptional contrast qualifies it for body text, UI components at any size, and all accessibility-sensitive interface contexts. Relative luminance: 4.0%.
- As text on white (#FFFFFF): 11.67:1 — AAA ✓
- As text on black (#000000): 1.80:1 — Fail
- Best text color on Dark Teal background: White (#FFFFFF) at 11.67:1
- WCAG 2.1 luminance: 4.0% — low luminance (dark)—it provides strong contrast for white and light overlaid text, functioning well as a background in dark-mode and header contexts
- Dark Teal qualifies for all text sizes including small body copy (AAA).
- Color blindness consideration: tritanopia (blue-yellow color blindness, ~0.003% of population) may affect how this color reads. While rare, for maximum accessibility supplement color signals with text or icon indicators in critical states.
For production use, test Dark Teal against your specific background colors rather than assuming #FFFFFF or #000000 performance translates. Surrounding colors alter perceived contrast.
Dark Teal in Industry: Branding, Design & Market Applications
Dark Teal (#003E4E) is most at home in industries where clarity, innovation, balance, and modern sophistication are key brand values. Its dark quality makes it particularly effective in Healthcare Technology contexts, where the vivid saturation signals sophistication at exactly the right register.
- Healthcare Technology: Teal has become the signature color of healthcare technology for a specific reason: it bridges clinical trust (blue's domain) with vitality and growth (green's domain), communicating that a product is both reliable and innovative. (examples: Notion, Slack, Salesforce) Particularly effective for telemedicine, health tracking apps, and digital wellness platforms that need clinical credibility without institutional coldness.
- SaaS & B2B Software: The modern SaaS industry has adopted teal as an alternative to blue that signals both professionalism and innovation. It works especially well for productivity tools, data platforms, and workflow software where clarity and intelligence are the core brand values. Teal differentiates from the blue-dominated enterprise market while maintaining the trust signals B2B buyers require.
- Financial Technology: Fintech brands use teal to signal that they're reimagining financial services—keeping the trustworthiness of traditional blue but adding a freshness that traditional banks lack. The color says "we take your money seriously and we're different from old banking." (examples: Apple, Microsoft, Salesforce) Works best paired with clean white and dark charcoal for maximum fintech modernity.
- Brand positioning: Dark Teal is best suited for brands projecting innovation, clarity, balance. Categories outside this positioning—traditional—tend to see weaker results.
- Adjacent applications: Beyond primary industries, Dark Teal works effectively in health tech platforms, modern SaaS UIs, financial dashboards—contexts where sophistication serves a secondary but reinforcing role.
The industries where Dark Teal performs best are those where the audience expects sophistication. Build brand strategy around this alignment, not against it.
Accessibility & Design Guides
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is the hex code for Dark Teal? ▾
- The hex code for Dark Teal is #003E4E. Its RGB values are rgb(0, 62, 78) and its HSL values are hsl(192, 100%, 15%).
- What does Dark Teal mean in design? ▾
- Teal occupies the sophisticated intersection of blue's trust and green's vitality. It feels calming yet distinctive — neither the corporate ubiquity of navy nor the aggressive freshness of lime green. Teal is associated with healing, emotional balance, and clarity of thought. It gained significant cultural cachet in the 2010s as a design-forward alternative to standard blues in healthcare and technology branding. Deeper teals feel luxurious and authoritative; lighter teals feel fresh and energetic. Teal is one of the few colors that reads well in both light and dark themes. Its primary challenge is legibility — teal text on white often fails WCAG AA without careful shade selection. Its very dark, near-black depth creates dramatic intensity — maximally contrastive, powerful, and reserved for focal design elements where other dark colors would disappear.
- Is Dark Teal WCAG accessible? ▾
- Dark Teal (#003E4E) passes WCAG AAA on white with a 11.67:1 contrast ratio. Its overall accessibility score is 96/100.
- What colors go well with Dark Teal? ▾
- Dark Teal pairs well with its complementary color Burnt Sienna (#E97451). Analogous colors like Hooker's Green and Verdigris Teal also work harmoniously. Check the Color Harmonies section above for the full palette.
- What is Dark Teal used for? ▾
- Dark Teal is commonly used for: Healthcare technology and health apps; Mental health and wellness platforms; Fintech brands seeking blue-alternative trust; Premium interior design and home accessories; Environmental and ocean-focused organizations.
- What are the CSS and Tailwind values for Dark Teal? ▾
- In CSS, use `color: #003E4E` or `background-color: #003E4E`. The CSS custom property is `--color-dark-teal: #003E4E`. In Tailwind CSS, use the arbitrary value class `bg-[#003E4E]` for backgrounds or `text-[#003E4E]` for text.