Aqua
A bright blue-green used for screens and web design
Aqua is a bright, clear blue-green colour, exactly halfway between blue and green on the HSV colour wheel. Its name comes from the Latin word for water. On computer screens, aqua and cyan are identical, both created by mixing blue and green light at full strength. The name 'aqua' became common in web and digital design from the late 1980s.
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- Aqua and cyan are identical on screens
- Defined by the hex code #00FFFF
- Named 'aqua' in X11 colour names in 1987
- Halfway between blue and green in HSV
- Standard colour in HTML and CSS
What colour is Aqua?
Aqua is a vivid blue-green colour that sits exactly between blue and green on the HSV colour wheel. It is often described as brilliant or bright, and is commonly seen on digital screens. In web and computer graphics, aqua and cyan are two names for the same colour, with no difference in their appearance or how they are made. The colour is defined by the hex code #00FFFF, which means no red, but full blue and green light.
Where does Aqua come from?
The word 'aqua' comes from Latin, meaning 'water'. The colour was first named 'aqua' in 1987 as part of the X11 colour names for computer displays. Before that, the same colour was usually called 'cyan' in the RGB colour model. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) later included 'aqua' as a standard web colour name in HTML 3.2, making it widely used in web design.
How Aqua is defined
On screens, aqua is created by mixing blue and green light at their highest intensity, with no red. This is an example of additive colour mixing, used in the RGB colour model for digital displays. The result is a bright, clear blue-green that matches both the names 'aqua' and 'cyan'.
Where Aqua is used
Aqua is mainly used in digital design, web pages, and computer graphics. It is one of the standard colours available in HTML and CSS for web design, and is often chosen for its brightness and clarity on screens. The colour is not used as a pigment or dye, but is defined by its light values in digital systems.
Turquoise around the world
What the turquoise and cyan family means from country to country.
The old colour word qing covers green, blue and the shades between. In the five-element system it belongs to wood, the east and spring.
Nature and renewalCalmSource: Blue–green distinction in languageTurquoise, firuzeh in Persian, has been mined near Nishapur for thousands of years. It is worn against the evil eye, and its colour covers the domes of mosques in Isfahan.
Protection and healingSacred and holyAweSource: TurquoiseIn the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mary wears a blue-green cloak covered in stars. Turquoise was precious to the Aztecs, who used it in mosaic masks.
Sacred and holyAweSource: Our Lady of GuadalupeThe English word turquoise comes from the French for Turkish, because the stone reached Europe through Ottoman lands. Tiles from Iznik made the colour a mark of Ottoman mosques.
Royalty and powerSource: TurquoiseThe mosques and tombs of Samarkand are faced with turquoise and deep blue tiles. The three great madrasas of the Registan square and their ribbed turquoise domes are the best known.
Sacred and holyAweSource: RegistanShades and relatives of Aqua
Pale aqua is a lighter version of aqua, shown as a separate colour in some charts. Aqua and cyan are often used as synonyms in digital contexts, though 'process cyan' in printing is a different shade. Aqua is sometimes confused with turquoise or teal, but those are distinct colours.
Colours that go with Aqua
Harmonies are worked out from the value #00FFFF. Contrast ratios follow the WCAG 2 formula.
Questions people ask about Aqua
What colour is aqua?
Aqua is a bright blue-green colour, exactly halfway between blue and green on the HSV colour wheel. On screens, it is made by combining blue and green light at full strength.
Where does the name 'aqua' come from?
The name 'aqua' comes from the Latin word for water. It was first used for this colour in the X11 colour names for computers in 1987.
Is aqua the same as cyan?
Yes, in web and computer graphics, aqua and cyan refer to the same colour, with identical values and appearance.
How is aqua made on a computer screen?
Aqua is made by combining blue and green light at full intensity, with no red light, in the RGB colour model.
Is aqua used in printing?
No, the colour called 'aqua' on screens is not the same as 'process cyan' used in printing, which is a different shade.
Good reading and sources
The facts on this page come from the Wikipedia article "Aqua (color)", written by its contributors and used under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence, and from its Wikidata record (CC0). Rang rewrote the text in its own words, with AI assistance, and compares every page with the article to make sure no passage is copied. It may be reused under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 licence with a link back.
It may contain mistakes. The swatch is an approximation: named colours are not fixed standards, and every screen shows them a little differently. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-03.
More of the turquoise and cyan family
All of turquoise and cyan
#00FFFF
Cyan
A blue-green colour found between blue and green on the spectrum and key in printingBasic colour
#008080
Teal
A dark cyan named after the Eurasian teal bird’s blue-green head stripeNamed shade
#81D8D0
Tiffany Blue
A light blue-green shade trademarked by Tiffany & Co. for its boxes and brandingNamed shade
#00BFFF
Deep sky blue
A web colour halfway between azure and cyan on the colour wheelNamed shade
#367588
Teal blue
A blue-leaning teal shade named in the early twentieth centuryNamed shade
#00B7EB
Process cyan
The standard cyan ink used in four-colour printing (CMYK)Named shade
#536878
Dark electric blue
A dark cyan shade formalised in 1955, matching the colour Payne's greyNamed shade
#40E0D0
Turquoise
A blue-green colour named after a prized mineral long used for gems and decorationNamed shade · 🇮🇷 Iran +5