Skip to main content

Teal Blue

#367588·teal family·WCAG AA

Tints & Shades

50

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

Scale from white (50) through Teal Blue (500) to black (900), interpolated in Lab color space.

Color Values

HEX
#367588
RGB
rgb(54, 117, 136)
HSL
hsl(194, 43%, 37%)
OKLCH
oklch(0.529 0.071 220)
CMYK
cmyk(60%, 14%, 0%, 47%)
Luminance:0.1528
CSS var:--color-teal-blue
Tailwind:bg-[#367588]

Accessibility

Score: 54/100

On White (#FFF)

5.18:1

AA

On Black (#000)

4.06:1

AA Large

On Light Gray (#F5F5F5)

4.75:1

AA

Best text color on this background:

white5.18:1
Open in Contrast Checker →

Design Applications

Background

background-color: #367588

Text Color

color: #367588

bg-[#367588] text-[#FFFFFF]

Accent border card component

border-left: 4px solid #367588

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 deeper, richer tone gives it gravitas and sophistication, making it well-suited for primary brand colors, typography, and contexts where authority matters.

Industry Usage

Common contexts and industries where Teal Blue 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

Teal Blue is a dark color. Use white (#FFFFFF) text on top of it for maximum readability (5.18:1). Avoid small black text on this background.

CSS & Code Examples

Background

background-color: #367588;

Text

color: #367588;

Border

border: 2px solid #367588;

Box Shadow

box-shadow: 0 4px 20px #36758840;

Gradient

background: linear-gradient(135deg, #367588, #67a4b8);

Tailwind-style

--color-teal-blue: #367588;

Tailwind CSS Utilities

Use arbitrary value syntax in Tailwind CSS to apply Teal Blue without a custom config.

Background

bg-[#367588]

Text

text-[#367588]

Border

border-[#367588]

Ring

ring-[#367588]

Fill

fill-[#367588]

From (gradient)

from-[#367588]

Via (gradient)

via-[#367588]

To (gradient)

to-[#367588]

Design Tokens

Ready-to-use Teal Blue design token in CSS custom properties, SCSS, Tailwind v3/v4, and JSON formats.

CSS Custom Properties

:root {
  --color-teal-blue: #367588;
  --color-teal-blue-rgb: 54, 117, 136;
  --color-teal-blue-hsl: 194, 43%, 37%;
}

SCSS Variables

$color-teal-blue: #367588;
$color-teal-blue-rgb: 54, 117, 136;
$color-teal-blue-hsl: 194, 43%, 37%;

Tailwind v3 Config

// tailwind.config.js
module.exports = {
  theme: {
    extend: {
      colors: {
        'teal-blue': '#367588',
      },
    },
  },
};

Tailwind v4 (@theme)

/* tailwind.css */
@theme {
  --color-teal-blue: #367588;
}

JSON Design Token (W3C format)

{
  "teal-blue": {
    "value": "#367588",
    "type": "color",
    "description": "Teal Blue — #367588"
  }
}

What Does Teal Blue Mean? Color Psychology & Cultural Symbolism

Teal Blue has become one of the signature colors of contemporary digital design precisely because it fills a gap: cool enough to feel clinical and precise, but saturated enough (43%) to feel alive and modern. The result is clarity.

  • Across color psychology research, teal consistently tests high for "innovation" associations, making Teal Blue a reliable vehicle for clarity in cross-demographic audiences.
  • Brand designers draw on teal-family tones to project modern sophistication and trustworthiness—values that Teal Blue communicates in a deep key.
  • At 43% saturation, Teal Blue reads as subdued—neither overwhelming nor passive, landing in the clarity, innovation, balance, and modern sophistication zone with measured confidence.
  • Teal Blue's deep lightness (37%) shifts its psychological register: a balanced mid-tone that embodies clarity, innovation, balance, and modern sophistication at its most direct.

Teal Blue is the color for when you need to be trusted AND interesting—a combination most colors can only approximate.

How to Use Teal Blue in Design: Applications, Pairings & Best Practices

Teal Blue is one of the most versatile colors in professional design systems—it performs equally well as a dominant brand color, a UI accent, and a data visualization tone. Its subdued saturation means it works in both large and small applications without visual fatigue.

  • 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: Teal Blue's complementary color creates a high-energy split ideal for promotional design; its analogous palette (±30° hue) builds cohesive, monochromatic sophistication.
  • Proportional use: Teal Blue's subdued quality means it scales well across proportions—from full-bleed backgrounds to single-pixel borders—making it an unusually versatile palette component.
  • As a dark tone, Teal Blue creates maximum contrast with white and light neutrals—excellent for creating premium dark-mode sections, bold headers, and high-drama brand moments
  • Typography: Teal Blue works as a background behind white text but requires careful sizing—test at intended heading and body sizes before finalizing.

Teal Blue is the color for when you need to be trusted AND interesting—a combination most colors can only approximate.

Teal Blue Accessibility: WCAG Contrast Ratios, Color Blindness & Inclusive Design

Teal Blue (#367588) reaches 5.18:1 contrast with white text—meeting WCAG 2.1 AA minimum of 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text. It clears standard production accessibility requirements. Relative luminance: 15.3%.

  • As text on white (#FFFFFF): 5.18:1 — AA ✓
  • As text on black (#000000): 4.06:1 — AA (large text only)
  • Best text color on Teal Blue background: White (#FFFFFF) at 5.18:1
  • WCAG 2.1 luminance: 15.3% — low luminance (dark)—it provides strong contrast for white and light overlaid text, functioning well as a background in dark-mode and header contexts
  • Teal Blue qualifies for normal body text and all larger sizes (AA).
  • 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.

Always verify Teal Blue at its final intended size and weight using a real contrast checker—font weight and rendering environment affect perceived legibility beyond what raw ratios capture.

Teal Blue in Industry: Branding, Design & Market Applications

Across industry research, teal-family tones consistently outperform competitors in categories built on clarity, innovation, balance, and modern sophistication. Teal Blue is a deep expression of this advantage—best positioned in Healthcare Technology and adjacent markets.

  • 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: Teal Blue 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, Teal Blue works effectively in professional services branding, wellness apps, financial dashboards—contexts where calm serves a secondary but reinforcing role.

Teal Blue earns its strongest ROI in industries where trust and recognition compound over time: Healthcare Technology, SaaS & B2B Software, Financial Technology. Use it to build the kind of brand recognition that decades reinforce.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the hex code for Teal Blue?
The hex code for Teal Blue is #367588. Its RGB values are rgb(54, 117, 136) and its HSL values are hsl(194, 43%, 37%).
What does Teal Blue 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 deeper, richer tone gives it gravitas and sophistication, making it well-suited for primary brand colors, typography, and contexts where authority matters.
Is Teal Blue WCAG accessible?
Teal Blue (#367588) passes WCAG AA on white with a 5.18:1 contrast ratio. Its overall accessibility score is 54/100.
What colors go well with Teal Blue?
Teal Blue pairs well with its complementary color Burnt Sienna (#E97451). Analogous colors like Bottle Green and Forest Teal also work harmoniously. Check the Color Harmonies section above for the full palette.
What is Teal Blue used for?
Teal Blue 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 Teal Blue?
In CSS, use `color: #367588` or `background-color: #367588`. The CSS custom property is `--color-teal-blue: #367588`. In Tailwind CSS, use the arbitrary value class `bg-[#367588]` for backgrounds or `text-[#367588]` for text.