shades of cyan

A very narrow band around 191° to 200°, at its most vivid on a screen and rare in daylight.

The shade ramp

Same hue and saturation, brightness falling from near-white to near-black. This is what most people mean by “shades of cyan”.

#36C5F5

#30B1DC

#2B9DC3

#2589AA

#207591

#1A6178

#154D5F

#0F3946

#0A242D

#041014

Brightness ramp at hue 195°, saturation 78%.

The tint ramp

Same hue and brightness, saturation climbing from almost gray to full strength. Saturation is the channel players misjudge most often, because a washed-out cyan and a vivid one carry the same name.

#D8E6EB

#C0E0EB

#A8DAEB

#90D4EB

#78CEEB

#60C8EB

#48C2EB

#30BCEB

#18B6EB

#00B0EB

Saturation ramp at hue 195°, brightness 92%.

Across the range

Everything the eye files under cyan, sampled from 191° to 200°. Two colors at opposite ends of this strip still share one word.

#28BFE0

#28BCE0

#28B9E0

#28B5E0

#28B2E0

#28AFE0

#28ACE0

#28A9E0

#28A6E0

#28A3E0

Hue sweep from 191° to 200°.

Named cyans

Cyan#00FFFF
Sky blue#87CEEB
Powder blue#B0E0E6
Cerulean#007BA7
Electric blue#7DF9FF

Why cyan is hard to remember

Cyan is a printing and screen primary with almost no natural referents, so there is no object to anchor it to. People reach for 'sky' and land far too pale, because the sky is a much softer blue than cyan.

Off Colors shows you a color for five seconds and asks you to rebuild it. It tells you which channel you missed and by how much.

Test your color memory

Other hue families

How the scoring works