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How to Make Teal Color for a Logo Palette

Make teal by mixing blue and green, then define it as a hex, RGB, CMYK or spot value. Steps to build, apply, check and export teal in a vector logo.

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Contents
  1. The short answer: teal is blue plus green, darkened
  2. Key color terms
  3. How teal is defined in each color system
  4. How to adjust teal toward the shade you want
  5. Step by step: create teal for a vector logo
  6. How to confirm the teal is correct
  7. Example swatch definitions for handoff
  8. Information this guide cannot supply

The short answer: teal is blue plus green, darkened

Teal is a blue-green, a cyan that has been darkened. With paint, mix blue and green in roughly equal parts, then add a little black or a darker blue to deepen it, or white to lighten it. On screen, use equal amounts of green and blue light with little or no red. The standard web color named teal is hex #008080, which is RGB 0, 128, 128: no red, and green and blue each at about half strength.

For a logo, a mixing recipe is only the start. A vector logo is built from mathematically defined paths, and each filled shape or text object stores its color as a numeric value, not as paint. Making teal for a logo means choosing those values, saving them as reusable swatches, and translating them correctly for each place the logo will appear.

Key color terms

  • RGB: red, green and blue light, the color model for screens. Each channel usually runs from 0 to 255.
  • Hex: a six-character shorthand for an RGB value, used in web and app design. #008080 is one example.
  • HSB or HSL: hue, saturation and brightness (or lightness). This model is the easiest one for adjusting teal by eye. Teal sits at a hue of about 180 degrees, the cyan position on the color wheel.
  • CMYK: cyan, magenta, yellow and black inks, the model for process printing.
  • Spot color: a premixed ink chosen from a printed swatch system and specified by name or number instead of being built from CMYK.
  • Gamut: the range of colors a device or process can reproduce. A bright screen teal can fall outside the CMYK gamut.
  • Global swatch: a saved color in a vector editor. If you edit the swatch, every object that uses it updates.

How teal is defined in each color system

Use | Color model | How to build teal | Caveat
Paint or physical mockups | Pigment mixing | Equal blue and green, plus a touch of black for depth or white for a lighter tone | Results depend on the specific pigments
Screens, web, apps | RGB or hex | Red low, green and blue equal and moderate, for example #008080 | Displays vary, so check on more than one
Process print | CMYK | Mostly cyan, a smaller amount of yellow, some black to deepen it, little or no magenta | Exact numbers depend on the printer's color profile and paper
Brand-critical print | Spot ink | Pick a teal from a current physical swatch guide | Match it with the printer, not by converting an on-screen value

The CMYK row gives only proportions, because no reliable single conversion exists. The same RGB teal produces different ink values under different color profiles. Get final CMYK values from your printer's profile or from a press proof.

How to adjust teal toward the shade you want

  • Greener teal: move the hue slightly below 180 degrees, or raise green a little above blue.
  • Bluer teal: move the hue slightly above 180 degrees, or raise blue a little above green.
  • Deeper teal: lower brightness or lightness. In CMYK, add black.
  • Lighter teal: raise lightness, or make a tint. A tint is the same hue mixed toward white.
  • Muted teal: lower saturation, or add a small amount of the complementary hue. In print, add a little magenta.

Before you start, you need three things. First, a vector logo file you are allowed to edit, with fills and strokes you can select. Second, a clear idea of where the logo will be used: screen, process print, spot-color print, or several of these. Third, any existing brand color values you must match. A file extension such as .svg, .eps, .ai or .pdf does not prove that the file contains only editable vector paths, and it does not grant permission to reuse or alter a logo. Open the file and check that the shapes are real paths and not an embedded image.

  • 1. Set the document color mode to match the main destination: RGB for screen-first logos, CMYK for print-first logos. If the logo will appear in both, keep a master in one mode and make separate versions for the other.
  • 2. Choose a base teal in HSB or RGB. Start near #008080 and adjust hue, saturation and brightness until it suits the brand.
  • 3. Save the base teal as a named global swatch, for example Brand Teal. Do not leave it as an unsaved fill on individual objects.
  • 4. Build a small set of variants from the base: one or two darker shades for text and outlines, one or two lighter tints for backgrounds, and a neutral such as charcoal or off-white. Save each as its own swatch.
  • 5. Add an accent color if you need one. The complement of teal is a red-orange or coral. Use it sparingly so the teal stays dominant.
  • 6. Apply the swatches to the logo. Select each path and set fill and stroke separately. Check compound paths and grouped objects so that no shape keeps an old color.
  • 7. Color the type. If the wordmark is still live text, apply the swatch to the text object. If it has been converted to outlines, the letters are now paths, so apply the fill to those paths. Before converting live text to outlines for delivery, keep an editable copy.
  • 8. Make the print versions. Convert or reassign the teal swatches to CMYK using the profile your printer specifies. If the job uses a spot ink, define the teal as a spot swatch named exactly as the printer expects.
  • 9. Export each version. For screens, export SVG, or PNG at the required sizes. For print, export PDF or the format the printer requests, keeping the correct color mode and embedding the color profile if your workflow uses one.

Menu names, swatch options and export dialogs differ between vector editors and between versions of the same editor. These steps describe the concepts. Look up the exact commands in the documentation for the version you use.

How to confirm the teal is correct

  • Every teal object in the logo uses a saved swatch. Editing the swatch should update all of them at once.
  • No stray colors remain. Your editor's color or separations view lists only the intended swatches.
  • The hex or RGB value in the exported SVG matches the swatch value in the master file.
  • Text contrast passes. Under the WCAG accessibility guidelines, normal-size text needs a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 against its background. Mid-tone teal on white is close to that threshold, so test with a contrast checker and use a darker shade for small text if needed.
  • The CMYK version shows no out-of-gamut warning for the main teal, or you have accepted the shift the warning describes.
  • A printed proof or physical swatch has been compared with the screen version under neutral lighting before any large print run.
  • The logo still reads clearly in one-color, black and reversed (white on dark) versions, so it does not depend on teal alone.

Example swatch definitions for handoff

A simple way to record the palette for developers is a set of CSS custom properties. Only the base value below is the standard named teal. The other entries are placeholders to fill in with your own chosen values.

:root {
  --brand-teal:       #008080; /* standard named teal */
  --brand-teal-dark:  /* your darker shade */;
  --brand-teal-light: /* your lighter tint */;
  --brand-neutral:    /* your neutral */;
}

Information this guide cannot supply

This guide does not give a verified spot-ink match for teal, exact CMYK values, or editor-specific menu paths, because none of these were available as confirmed evidence and all of them depend on factors outside the logo file. Get spot and CMYK values from a current physical swatch guide and your printer's specified profile. Confirm software steps against the documentation for your editor version.