Exploring the Color #78BBB9

#78BBB9 sits at 178° on the color wheel, placing it in the cyan family of the cool half of the spectrum. With 33% saturation and 60% lightness, it reads as a softly muted, light tone — a balanced mid-energy presence that sits comfortably alongside other UI tones. Its RGB mix of 120, 187, 185 produces a 9.61:1 contrast ratio against black, which clears WCAG AAA for body text in that pairing.

In RGB space #78BBB9 is a clear variant of CSS sky blue — about 56 units away from #87CEEB. Designers reach for cyan hues at this saturation when the brief calls for a conversational, mid-energy register, 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