Turquoise Color Codes

Turquoise is a light, saturated teal with the hex code #40E0D0, RGB values of 64, 224, 208 and an HSL value of hsl(174, 72%, 56%).

HEX	#40E0D0
RGB	64, 224, 208
HSL	hsl(174, 72%, 56%)
HSV	174°, 71%, 88%
CMYK	71%, 0%, 7%, 12%
LAB	81.26, -44.08, -4.03
CIELCHuv	81.26, 59.02, 179.29°

Nearest Pantone: PMS 3255 C ΔE 4.8 · approximate
Nearest CSS name: turquoise ΔE 0.0

Source CSS Color Module Level 4 keyword 'Turquoise'

Turquoise Color Hex Code

The Turquoise color hex code is #40E0D0. Those six digits are three pairs, 40 for red, E0 for green and D0 for blue, which is the same triplet a browser reads from the CSS value below.

#40E0D0

Turquoise Color RGB Code

The Turquoise RGB code is rgb(64, 224, 208). Green carries the most light at 224 of 255, which is what puts this color where it sits on the wheel.

rgb(64, 224, 208)

Turquoise Color HSV Code

The Turquoise HSV code is 174°, 71%, 88%. Read it as a hue of 174 degrees, 71% saturation and 88% value, which is the form most color pickers use because moving one number changes one thing.

174°, 71%, 88%

Turquoise Color CIELChuv Code

The Turquoise CIELCHuv code is 81.26, 59.02, 179.29°. Unlike hex or RGB this one is perceptual: lightness 81 means light to the eye rather than to the screen, and chroma 59 is how far it sits from grey.

81.26, 59.02, 179.29°

Tonal scale

What are Turquoise Color Palettes?

A shade mixes toward black, a tint toward white, a tone toward grey. Every step keeps the hue and is copy-ready.

Shades, toward black

Tints, toward white

Tones, toward grey

Open in the shades & tints generator →

Palettes

What are Turquoise Color Palette Codes?

Each of these is a hue rotation from #40E0D0. They are generated, not curated, so they are exact.

Complementary

Rotate a half turn and you land on #E04050, a mid-tone, saturated red. Maximum hue distance, which is what makes a complement read as emphasis rather than decoration. Both are saturated, so give the complement much less area than the base or the two will fight.

Analogous

Step 30 degrees in each direction and you get #40E080 and #40A0E0. Neighbouring hues hold together without effort, which is what makes analogous sets the safe choice for large areas.

Triadic

#D040E0 and #E0D040 complete an even 120 degree split. Three fully independent hues, so one has to lead: keep this base dominant and let the other two appear in small quantities.

Split-complementary

Instead of the direct complement, this takes the two hues either side of it: #E040A0 and #E08040. Almost the same contrast, without the edge shimmer a true complementary pair produces at high saturation.

Tetradic

Two complementary pairs forming a rectangle: this base with #E04050, and #8040E0 with #A0E040. The richest of the five and the hardest to balance, so treat this base as the lead and hold the other three well back.

See these on the color wheel →

Accessibility

Measured against white and against black, with a separate verdict for each element type. Small text, large text and UI components have different thresholds, so one pass or fail for the whole color would be wrong roughly a third of the time.

White background

1.64:1

1.64

contrast ratio on white background

Element	AA	AAA
Small text needs 4.5:1 / 7:1	Fails	Fails
Large text needs 3:1 / 4.5:1	Fails	Fails
UI component needs 3:1	Fails	n/a

Black background

12.79:1

12.79

contrast ratio on black background

Element	AA	AAA
Small text needs 4.5:1 / 7:1	Passes	Passes
Large text needs 3:1 / 4.5:1	Passes	Passes
UI component needs 3:1	Passes	n/a

At 1.64:1 against white, Turquoise is a fill color rather than a text color. Use it for surfaces, borders and large display type, and set the copy in ink. Text placed on it should be black, which gives 12.79:1.

Check Turquoise against another color →

Color vision

How Turquoise looks with color blindness

Around 300 million people see color differently from the way it is specified. Each card shows the actual color beside how it appears, and how common that form of vision is.

Protanopia

About 1% of men

actual

#A0A1D4

Turquoise changes substantially here. ΔE 60.5

No working red cones. Reds darken sharply and drift toward the same muddy olive as green.

Deuteranopia

About 1% of men

actual

#978BD5

Turquoise changes substantially here. ΔE 75.1

No working green cones. With the milder deuteranomaly at nearer 6% of men, this is by far the most common form, and the one worth designing around.

Tritanopia

About 1 in 10,000

actual

#53D7D8

Turquoise shifts noticeably here. ΔE 11.6

No working blue cones. Blues shift toward green and yellows toward pink. Rare, and unlike the others it is not sex-linked, so it affects men and women equally.

Achromatopsia

About 1 in 30,000

actual

#CACACA

Turquoise changes substantially here. ΔE 44.3

No color vision at all. Also a fair proxy for how the color survives a greyscale print or a failing screen.

To a deuteranope, the most common form, Turquoise reads as #978BD5. That is a shift of ΔE 75.1, so it is a different color to roughly one man in sixteen. The widest shift is under deuteranopia, at ΔE 75.1. The rule this leads to needs no simulator: never let color be the only thing carrying a message. Add a label, an icon, or a clear difference in lightness, and the problem disappears for everyone.

Simulate a whole palette →

Snippets

Using Turquoise in code

:root {
  --turquoise: #40E0D0;
}

.example {
  color: var(--turquoise);
}

// tailwind.config.js
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      'turquoise': '#40E0D0',
    },
  },
}

// SwiftUI takes 0–1 components, not 0–255.
let turquoise = Color(
    red: 0.251,
    green: 0.878,
    blue: 0.816
)

<!-- res/values/colors.xml -->
<color name="turquoise">#40E0D0</color>

// Flutter wants ARGB: FF for full opacity, then the hex.
const turquoise = Color(0xFF40E0D0);

Meaning

What is the Meaning of Turquoise Color?

Turquoise reads as its own character. It is saturated enough to dominate anything it sits beside, and at 72% saturation with a perceptual lightness of 81 it behaves as a cool color, which is the practical reason it turns up where it does.

What are Other Names of Turquoise Color?

In CSS you can write Turquoise instead of the hex and get the same color: the two are 0.0 apart, which no eye resolves. For print the nearest Pantone is PMS 3255 C at #47D6C1. The name Turquoise comes from the community color-name index rather than a standards body, so you will meet it under other names elsewhere.

How is Turquoise Color Made?

On a screen Turquoise is made by additive light: 64 red, 224 green and 208 blue out of 255, with green leading and 64 as the floor. In print it is subtractive instead, mixed as 71%, 0%, 7%, 12%. Starting from the pure hue at 174 degrees, Turquoise is close to the pure hue, with little white or black in it.