Cyan
A blue-green colour found between blue and green on the spectrum and key in printing
Cyan is a blue-green colour seen between blue and green in the spectrum of visible light, with wavelengths from 490 to 520 nanometres. It is a primary colour in printing and digital displays, and the name comes from the Greek word for dark blue. Cyan is linked to water, the sky, and is found in both nature and technology.
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- Cyan is a primary colour in both printing and digital screens
- It appears between blue and green in the spectrum
- The name comes from Greek for dark blue
- Cyan is seen in tropical waters and the sky
- Teal and turquoise are common variations
What colour is Cyan?
Cyan is a colour that sits between blue and green on the visible light spectrum. It appears as a clear blue-green, similar to the shade seen in tropical waters or a clear sky. In everyday life, cyan can be spotted in robin's eggs, the planet Uranus, and even in the flame of burning natural gas. It stands out because it is neither fully blue nor fully green, but a blend of both.
Where does Cyan come from?
The word 'cyan' comes from the Ancient Greek 'kyanos', which means dark blue or lapis lazuli. Its earliest use in English dates to 1879. The colour is also linked to the cornflower, which was once used to make a dye. Over time, names like 'aqua', 'teal', and 'turquoise' have described similar shades, each with their own subtle differences.
How Cyan is defined
Cyan is defined by its place between blue and green in the spectrum, with light wavelengths from 490 to 520 nanometres. In printing, cyan is one of the four main ink colours (along with magenta, yellow, and black) used to create full-colour images. On screens, it is produced by combining green and blue light.
Where Cyan is used
Cyan is widely used in art, especially by Impressionist painters who wanted to capture the effects of daylight. It is a standard ink in colour printing and is essential in digital displays, where it helps form all other colours. The colour is also seen in textiles, architecture, and everyday objects like surgical masks and signage.
What Cyan means
Cyan is often associated with water due to its resemblance to the colour of clear seas and the sky. In science, it marks the colour of liquid oxygen and the planet Uranus. The sources do not tie it to specific symbolic meanings in faith or emotion.
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 Cyan
There are many shades of cyan, ranging from lighter tints like celeste to darker tones such as teal. Turquoise, which takes its name from a gemstone, falls within the cyan range but leans more green. Some shades are called blue or green depending on their exact hue, and teal refers to the deeper, darker versions.
Colours that go with Cyan
Harmonies are worked out from the value #00FFFF. Contrast ratios follow the WCAG 2 formula.
Questions people ask about Cyan
What colour is cyan?
Cyan is a blue-green colour found between blue and green on the visible spectrum, with a clear, bright appearance similar to tropical water or a clear sky.
Where does the name cyan come from?
The name 'cyan' comes from the Ancient Greek word 'kyanos', meaning dark blue or lapis lazuli.
Is cyan a primary colour?
Yes, cyan is a primary colour in both the subtractive (printing) and additive (digital display) colour systems.
What are some common uses of cyan?
Cyan is used in art, printing, digital screens, textiles, and architecture. It is also seen in nature, such as in robin's eggs and the planet Uranus.
What are some other names for cyan?
Other names for cyan include aqua, blue-green, process blue, printer's cyan, and cyan blue.
Good reading and sources
The facts on this page come from the Wikipedia article "Cyan", 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
#008080
Teal
A dark cyan named after the Eurasian teal bird’s blue-green head stripeNamed shade
#00FFFF
Aqua
A bright blue-green used for screens and web designBasic colour
#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