Tints & Shades
50
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Scale from white (50) through Opal (500) to black (900), interpolated in Lab color space.
Color Values
- HEX
- #A8C3BC
- RGB
- rgb(168, 195, 188)
- HSL
- hsl(164, 18%, 71%)
- OKLCH
- oklch(0.795 0.031 178)
- CMYK
- cmyk(14%, 0%, 4%, 24%)
--color-opalbg-[#A8C3BC]Accessibility
Score: 48/100On White (#FFF)
1.88:1
On Black (#000)
11.2:1
On Light Gray (#F5F5F5)
1.72:1
Best text color on this background:
Design Applications
background-color: #A8C3BC
color: #A8C3BC
bg-[#A8C3BC] text-[#000000]
border-left: 4px solid #A8C3BC
Color Harmonies
Complementary
Burgundy
#800020
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 lighter value makes it approachable and soft — suitable for backgrounds, secondary UI states, and contexts requiring the hue's character without full intensity.
Industry Usage
Common contexts and industries where Opal 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
Fails AA
4.5:1 minimum required
Large Text
Fails AA Large
3:1 minimum required
UI Components
Check contrast
3:1 for non-text UI
Opal is a light color. Use black (#000000) text on top of it for maximum readability (11.20:1). Avoid white text on this background.
CSS & Code Examples
Background
background-color: #A8C3BC;Text
color: #A8C3BC;Border
border: 2px solid #A8C3BC;Box Shadow
box-shadow: 0 4px 20px #A8C3BC40;Gradient
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #A8C3BC, #daf6ee);Tailwind-style
--color-opal: #A8C3BC;Tailwind CSS Utilities
Use arbitrary value syntax in Tailwind CSS to apply Opal without a custom config.
Background
bg-[#A8C3BC]Text
text-[#A8C3BC]Border
border-[#A8C3BC]Ring
ring-[#A8C3BC]Fill
fill-[#A8C3BC]From (gradient)
from-[#A8C3BC]Via (gradient)
via-[#A8C3BC]To (gradient)
to-[#A8C3BC]Design Tokens
Ready-to-use Opal design token in CSS custom properties, SCSS, Tailwind v3/v4, and JSON formats.
CSS Custom Properties
:root {
--color-opal: #A8C3BC;
--color-opal-rgb: 168, 195, 188;
--color-opal-hsl: 164, 18%, 71%;
}SCSS Variables
$color-opal: #A8C3BC; $color-opal-rgb: 168, 195, 188; $color-opal-hsl: 164, 18%, 71%;
Tailwind v3 Config
// tailwind.config.js
module.exports = {
theme: {
extend: {
colors: {
'opal': '#A8C3BC',
},
},
},
};Tailwind v4 (@theme)
/* tailwind.css */
@theme {
--color-opal: #A8C3BC;
}JSON Design Token (W3C format)
{
"opal": {
"value": "#A8C3BC",
"type": "color",
"description": "Opal — #A8C3BC"
}
}More teal colors
View all →What Does Opal Mean? Color Psychology & Cultural Symbolism
Color psychology researchers note that blue-green tones like Opal 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 Opal a reliable vehicle for balance in cross-demographic audiences.
- Brand designers draw on teal-family tones to project modern sophistication and trustworthiness—values that Opal communicates in a light key.
- At 18% saturation, Opal reads as muted—Muted teals (slate teal, dusty aqua) create sophisticated, timeless palettes—popular in interior design and brand identities that want to feel current without chasing trends.
- Opal's light lightness (71%) shifts its psychological register: Pale aqua and light teal feel fresh, airy, and almost spa-like—excellent for wellness, beauty, and digital health applications where calm and approachability are paramount.
The best use of Opal is unapologetic. When it's the primary color, it earns its position through clarity and confidence.
How to Use Opal in Design: Applications, Pairings & Best Practices
The appeal of Opal 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: Opal's complementary color creates a high-energy split ideal for promotional design; its analogous palette (±30° hue) builds cohesive, monochromatic sophistication.
- Proportional use: Opal's muted quality means it scales well across proportions—from full-bleed backgrounds to single-pixel borders—making it an unusually versatile palette component.
- Opal creates strong legibility with black text overlays (11.2:1 contrast ratio), making it a reliable background or surface color in design systems
- Typography: Opal as text requires a dark background; its 71% lightness means it provides 1.9:1 contrast on white, not meeting WCAG AA.
The best use of Opal is unapologetic. When it's the primary color, it earns its position through clarity and confidence.
Opal Accessibility: WCAG Contrast Ratios, Color Blindness & Inclusive Design
Opal (#A8C3BC) achieves a 11.20:1 contrast ratio with black 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: 51.0%.
- As text on white (#FFFFFF): 1.88:1 — Fail
- As text on black (#000000): 11.20:1 — AAA ✓
- Best text color on Opal background: Black (#000000) at 11.20:1
- WCAG 2.1 luminance: 51.0% — above-median luminance—it reads as a light to mid-tone background, compatible with dark text while retaining color personality
- Opal 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 Opal against your specific background colors rather than assuming #FFFFFF or #000000 performance translates. Surrounding colors alter perceived contrast.
Opal in Industry: Branding, Design & Market Applications
Opal'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 muted saturation calibrates the message at a light, 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: 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: Notion, Slack, Salesforce) Works best paired with clean white and dark charcoal for maximum fintech modernity.
- Brand positioning: Opal is best suited for brands projecting modern sophistication, trustworthiness, balance. Categories outside this positioning—traditional—tend to see weaker results.
- Adjacent applications: Beyond primary industries, Opal works effectively in professional services branding, wellness apps, financial dashboards—contexts where innovation serves a secondary but reinforcing role.
For marketers and brand strategists, Opal 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 Opal? ▾
- The hex code for Opal is #A8C3BC. Its RGB values are rgb(168, 195, 188) and its HSL values are hsl(164, 18%, 71%).
- What does Opal 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 lighter value makes it approachable and soft — suitable for backgrounds, secondary UI states, and contexts requiring the hue's character without full intensity.
- Is Opal WCAG accessible? ▾
- Opal (#A8C3BC) does not pass WCAG AA on white (1.88:1 ratio). Use it on dark backgrounds where it achieves 11.2:1. Its overall accessibility score is 48/100.
- What colors go well with Opal? ▾
- Opal pairs well with its complementary color Burgundy (#800020). Analogous colors like Ash Gray and Spring Green also work harmoniously. Check the Color Harmonies section above for the full palette.
- What is Opal used for? ▾
- Opal 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 Opal? ▾
- In CSS, use `color: #A8C3BC` or `background-color: #A8C3BC`. The CSS custom property is `--color-opal: #A8C3BC`. In Tailwind CSS, use the arbitrary value class `bg-[#A8C3BC]` for backgrounds or `text-[#A8C3BC]` for text.