Exploring the Color #42E0CD

#42E0CD sits at 173° on the color wheel, placing it in the cyan family of the cool half of the spectrum. With 72% saturation and 57% lightness, it reads as a richly saturated, light tone — a balanced mid-energy presence that sits comfortably alongside other UI tones. Its RGB mix of 66, 224, 205 produces a 12.78:1 contrast ratio against black, which clears WCAG AAA for body text in that pairing.

In RGB space #42E0CD is essentially indistinguishable from CSS turquoise at this fidelity — about 4 units away from #40E0D0. Designers reach for cyan hues at this saturation when the brief calls for bold, immediate signal, and at this lightness when they want a present, comfortable mid-canvas voice. On screen the cool cast tends to pair best with warm neutrals in the 25°-45° range to add life.

Darkening Shades

Lightening Shades