What Colors Make Teal? Blue, Green and a Little White

Blue and green make teal, with the exact result depending on their proportions and a little white often added in paint to lighten and clarify the mixture. More blue creates a cooler, deeper teal, while more green moves the result toward turquoise or green-teal.

Mixing teal with paint

Teal sits between blue and green, so start by combining those two colors.

A roughly equal mixture provides a useful starting point. Add more blue for a dark blue-teal or more green for a greener turquoise direction.

Because blue pigments are strong, add them gradually when mixing into green.

A little white makes the resulting teal lighter and easier to read. White also produces softer turquoise and seafoam variations as the amount increases.

For a cleaner mixture, use a cyan or phthalo blue as the blue-side pigment, because teal is closely related to the cyan region of subtractive color mixing.

Teal in RGB light

RGB creates teal using high green and blue values with a much lower red value.

A typical teal is #0D9488, which is rgb(13, 148, 136).

Increasing green makes the result greener, while increasing blue shifts it toward cyan or blue-teal.

Unlike paint, RGB is additive, so you are combining emitted light rather than physical pigments.

Teal in CMYK printing

CMYK teal relies heavily on cyan with some yellow.

A starting reference is about C90 M0 Y40 K20.

Cyan establishes the blue-green direction, while yellow moves cyan toward green. Black deepens the color.

Actual CMYK values depend on the ICC profile, paper, inks, and printing conditions.

Teal HEX examples

• Muted teal #5F8A8B
• Medium teal #0D9488
• Bright teal #14B8A6
• Dark teal #115E59

These examples show how teal ranges from muted gray-green to vivid blue-green.

How to adjust teal

Add white to create lighter turquoise, aqua, or seafoam variations. Add black carefully to create deep teal.

For a muted teal, introduce a tiny amount of its warm complement, red-orange. This reduces saturation and produces subdued blue-green colors.

Use the color mixer to experiment with paint, RGB, CMYK, and OKLCH mixing modes. Then use color name lookup to find the closest name for the result.

FAQ

What two colors make teal?

Blue and green make teal in traditional paint mixing. Adjusting their proportions changes whether the result looks more blue or more green.

How do you make light teal?

Add white gradually to a blue-green mixture. More white moves the result toward pale turquoise or seafoam.

Is teal blue or green?

Teal is a blue-green color. Individual teal shades can lean more strongly toward either blue or green.