Cyan is green and blue at full output with red switched off. That single fact is what makes it worth having as a separate page: it is the only common test colour on which a red subpixel has nowhere to hide.
The red channel test
On a white field a stuck red subpixel is invisible, because white already contains red. On a red field it blends in completely. On cyan it appears as a warm pink or orange point against a cold background, which is about as obvious as a subpixel fault ever gets. Together with yellow for blue and magenta for green, cyan completes a check that the three primaries cannot do on their own.
Cyan in print and video work
Cyan is one of the four process inks, and a screen showing it is a quick way to see how a particular display renders the ink primaries , useful when a design looks right on one monitor and wrong on the next. The caveat is the usual one: a display and a printing press use fundamentally different colour models, and a screen cannot preview an ink result accurately without a soft proofing profile.
As a background
Cyan sits high in luminance while reading as cool and calm, which makes it a workable ambient background , a second monitor that lights the room slightly without the glare of white. It is also a strong signal colour for anything that needs to read as informational rather than urgent.
What this cyan screen offers
- Full
#00FFFFwith no gradient or texture - Isolates a stuck red subpixel, which no primary colour can
- High luminance, so faint mottling still shows
- Free hex entry for softer or deeper cyans
- Live preview as the colour changes
- One press fullscreen with no browser interface
- PNG, JPG, WebP or SVG export at common presets or any custom size
- Generated in the browser; nothing uploaded
- No account required and no watermark added to generated files
- Keyboard accessible with visible focus states
- Core tools do not require an account
Related screens
Yellow and magenta are the other two secondaries. Turquoise and teal are gentler relatives. For the primaries see red, green and blue.
Cyan screen questions
What is a cyan screen used for?
Mainly for finding a red subpixel that is stuck on. Cyan is built from green and blue with red switched off, so any warm pink or orange dot on a cyan field is a defect. It also works as a cool, bright background and as a quick look at how a display renders one of the four process ink colours.
Is cyan the same as turquoise or teal?
No. Cyan is the pure secondary at #00FFFF , green and blue at maximum. Turquoise is softer and slightly green leaning, and teal is a much darker, desaturated version. All three are on this site as separate pages.
Can I use a cyan screen to check print colours?
Only loosely. Screens mix light and presses mix ink, so what you see is how your display renders cyan, not how the ink will print. Real proofing needs a colour managed workflow with the right profile.