Tints & Shades
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Scale from white (50) through Deep Teal (500) to black (900), interpolated in Lab color space.
Color Values
- HEX
- #004D47
- RGB
- rgb(0, 77, 71)
- HSL
- hsl(175, 100%, 15%)
- OKLCH
- oklch(0.378 0.066 186)
- CMYK
- cmyk(100%, 0%, 8%, 70%)
--color-deep-tealbg-[#004D47]Accessibility
Score: 96/100On White (#FFF)
9.76:1
On Black (#000)
2.15:1
On Light Gray (#F5F5F5)
8.95:1
Best text color on this background:
Design Applications
background-color: #004D47
color: #004D47
bg-[#004D47] text-[#FFFFFF]
border-left: 4px solid #004D47
Color Harmonies
Complementary
Candy Pink
#E4717A
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 Deep 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
Deep Teal is a dark color. Use white (#FFFFFF) text on top of it for maximum readability (9.76:1). Avoid small black text on this background.
CSS & Code Examples
Background
background-color: #004D47;Text
color: #004D47;Border
border: 2px solid #004D47;Box Shadow
box-shadow: 0 4px 20px #004D4740;Gradient
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #004D47, #3a7972);Tailwind-style
--color-deep-teal: #004D47;Tailwind CSS Utilities
Use arbitrary value syntax in Tailwind CSS to apply Deep Teal without a custom config.
Background
bg-[#004D47]Text
text-[#004D47]Border
border-[#004D47]Ring
ring-[#004D47]Fill
fill-[#004D47]From (gradient)
from-[#004D47]Via (gradient)
via-[#004D47]To (gradient)
to-[#004D47]Design Tokens
Ready-to-use Deep Teal design token in CSS custom properties, SCSS, Tailwind v3/v4, and JSON formats.
CSS Custom Properties
:root {
--color-deep-teal: #004D47;
--color-deep-teal-rgb: 0, 77, 71;
--color-deep-teal-hsl: 175, 100%, 15%;
}SCSS Variables
$color-deep-teal: #004D47; $color-deep-teal-rgb: 0, 77, 71; $color-deep-teal-hsl: 175, 100%, 15%;
Tailwind v3 Config
// tailwind.config.js
module.exports = {
theme: {
extend: {
colors: {
'deep-teal': '#004D47',
},
},
},
};Tailwind v4 (@theme)
/* tailwind.css */
@theme {
--color-deep-teal: #004D47;
}JSON Design Token (W3C format)
{
"deep-teal": {
"value": "#004D47",
"type": "color",
"description": "Deep Teal — #004D47"
}
}More teal colors
View all →What Does Deep Teal Mean? Color Psychology & Cultural Symbolism
Color psychology researchers note that blue-green tones like Deep Teal elicit a particularly broad range of positive associations across different demographic groups. This cross-market appeal—simultaneously sophisticated and accessible—is what makes it project balance so reliably.
- Across color psychology research, teal consistently tests high for "innovation" associations, making Deep Teal a reliable vehicle for balance in cross-demographic audiences.
- Brand designers draw on teal-family tones to project modern sophistication and trustworthiness—values that Deep Teal communicates in a dark key.
- At 100% saturation, Deep 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.
- Deep 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.
The best use of Deep Teal is unapologetic. When it's the primary color, it earns its position through clarity and confidence.
How to Use Deep Teal in Design: Applications, Pairings & Best Practices
The appeal of Deep 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.
- Avoid: traditional, conservative institutions that need to signal historical trust (navy serves better), children's products where warmer colors perform better, and food branding.
- Color harmonies: Deep Teal's complementary color creates a high-energy split ideal for promotional design; its analogous palette (±30° hue) builds cohesive, monochromatic sophistication.
- Proportional use: Deep 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.
- As a dark tone, Deep Teal creates maximum contrast with white and light neutrals—excellent for creating premium dark-mode sections, bold headers, and high-drama brand moments
- Typography: Deep Teal works as a background behind white text but requires careful sizing—test at intended heading and body sizes before finalizing.
The best use of Deep Teal is unapologetic. When it's the primary color, it earns its position through clarity and confidence.
Deep Teal Accessibility: WCAG Contrast Ratios, Color Blindness & Inclusive Design
Deep Teal (#004D47) achieves a 9.76:1 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: 5.8%.
- As text on white (#FFFFFF): 9.76:1 — AAA ✓
- As text on black (#000000): 2.15:1 — Fail
- Best text color on Deep Teal background: White (#FFFFFF) at 9.76:1
- WCAG 2.1 luminance: 5.8% — low luminance (dark)—it provides strong contrast for white and light overlaid text, functioning well as a background in dark-mode and header contexts
- Deep 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 Deep Teal against your specific background colors rather than assuming #FFFFFF or #000000 performance translates. Surrounding colors alter perceived contrast.
Deep Teal in Industry: Branding, Design & Market Applications
Deep Teal's brand positioning falls squarely in the territory of clarity, innovation, balance, and modern sophistication. Industry data supports its strongest performance in healthcare technology, SaaS & B2B software, financial technology categories, where the vivid saturation calibrates the message at a dark, considered level.
- 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: Apple, Microsoft, 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: Notion, Slack, Salesforce) Works best paired with clean white and dark charcoal for maximum fintech modernity.
- Brand positioning: Deep 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, Deep Teal works effectively in health tech platforms, modern SaaS UIs, financial dashboards—contexts where innovation serves a secondary but reinforcing role.
For marketers and brand strategists, Deep Teal is a commitment to clarity, innovation, balance, and modern sophistication. Match it with industries that make that promise and it will pay dividends consistently.
Accessibility & Design Guides
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is the hex code for Deep Teal? ▾
- The hex code for Deep Teal is #004D47. Its RGB values are rgb(0, 77, 71) and its HSL values are hsl(175, 100%, 15%).
- What does Deep 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 Deep Teal WCAG accessible? ▾
- Deep Teal (#004D47) passes WCAG AAA on white with a 9.76:1 contrast ratio. Its overall accessibility score is 96/100.
- What colors go well with Deep Teal? ▾
- Deep Teal pairs well with its complementary color Candy Pink (#E4717A). Analogous colors like Sea Green and Aquamarine also work harmoniously. Check the Color Harmonies section above for the full palette.
- What is Deep Teal used for? ▾
- Deep 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 Deep Teal? ▾
- In CSS, use `color: #004D47` or `background-color: #004D47`. The CSS custom property is `--color-deep-teal: #004D47`. In Tailwind CSS, use the arbitrary value class `bg-[#004D47]` for backgrounds or `text-[#004D47]` for text.