SkyBlue color
Inspect SkyBlue (#87CEEB) in HEX, RGB, HSL, LCH and OKLCH, check its contrast, and copy the value you need.
SkyBlue color values
SkyBlue
#87CEEB
Black text reads best on this background, at 12.06:1.
SkyBlue is one of the 148 CSS named colors, and resolves to #87CEEB in every browser. In numbers that is rgb(135, 206, 235) and hsl(197, 71%, 73%). Perceptually it is a light, muted color: OKLCH puts its lightness at 81% and its chroma at 0.082. It sits in the cyans at 226 degrees of OKLCH hue, and reads as a cool color.
White text only reaches 1.74:1 here, so black text is the safer pairing at 12.06:1. That combination of lightness and chroma makes it a workable mid-tone, the kind of value that lands in the middle of a shade scale.
The closest CSS named colors to SkyBlue, measured with CIEDE2000, are LightSkyBlue (#87CEFA), LightBlue (#ADD8E6), PowderBlue (#B0E0E6). If SkyBlue is not quite right, those are the nearest keywords to try before reaching for a custom value.
HEX
#87CEEB
RGB
rgb(135, 206, 235)
HSL
hsl(197, 71%, 73%)
HWB
hwb(197 53% 8%)
CMYK
cmyk(43%, 12%, 0%, 8%)
LAB
lab(78.85 -17.54 -21.79)
LCH
lch(78.85 27.97 231.17)
OKLCH
oklch(81.48% 0.0819 225.75)
Is SkyBlue accessible?
WCAG asks for 4.5:1 between body text and its background. On #87CEEB white text measures 1.74:1 and black text 12.06:1, so black clears it and white does not.
White text on SkyBlue
WCAG 2.2
1.74:1
APCA
Lc 35
Fails AA body text
Fails AAA body text
Fails AA large text
Black text on SkyBlue
WCAG 2.2
12.06:1
APCA
Lc 72
Passes AA body text
Passes AAA body text
Passes AA large text
Check SkyBlue against any other color in the contrast checker.
Tints and shades of SkyBlue
SkyBlue sits at 81% OKLCH lightness. Holding its hue and chroma and moving only that value carries it up to #F0FAFF and down to #00070C, which keeps the family recognizable instead of letting it drift toward gray the way a plain HSL ramp does.
Tints, toward white
#92D9F6
20% lighter
#A0E3FF
40% lighter
#BCEBFF
60% lighter
#D7F3FF
80% lighter
#F0FAFF
100% lighter
Shades, toward black
#5BA2BE
20% darker
#2F7792
40% darker
#004F66
60% darker
#002836
80% darker
#00070C
100% darker
Build a full accessible scale from #87CEEB in the shade generator.
Colors that go with SkyBlue
Hues rotated around #87CEEB in OKLCH, then pulled back into the sRGB gamut. Each swatch is labelled with the nearest CSS named color so you have a keyword to start from.
Complementary
SkyBlue sits at 226 degrees. Rotating it a half turn lands on 46 degrees, the hue directly opposite. It is the strongest pairing you can make without changing lightness, and the one most likely to vibrate if you use both at full chroma.
Analogous
The neighbors of SkyBlue at 196 and 256 degrees. They stay close enough to read as the same family, which is what you want for hover states, secondary surfaces and gradients.
Triadic
226, 346 and 106 degrees divide the wheel into thirds. Balanced enough to carry a whole palette without one color dominating the other two.
Split complementary
Instead of the complement at 46 degrees, this pair flanks it at 16 and 76. You keep most of the contrast of a complementary pairing while losing the harshness.
Explore more combinations around SkyBlue on the color wheel.
How SkyBlue looks with color blindness
The biggest shift is under achromatopsia, where #87CEEB reads as #C1C1C1, 18 CIEDE2000 units away. If SkyBlue is the only thing marking a state or a series, roughly one viewer in twelve will miss it.
Protanopia
#BDC9ED
Deuteranopia
#ADBBEB
Tritanopia
#70D8D6
Achromatopsia
#C1C1C1
Colors similar to SkyBlue
The nearest CSS keywords to #87CEEB, ranked by perceptual distance rather than by how close their hex digits happen to look.