Drained Halcyon
Drained Halcyon (#014D16) is a deep green with a jewel character. It carries the deep, saturated richness of a gemstone. Authoritative and slightly formal, it works well for type and heavy UI elements. Its HSL profile (137°, 97%, 15%) places it in the highly saturated band at a dark lightness. Best used in small doses, like logos, CTAs, focus rings, or highlight text, where its saturation becomes a feature rather than noise. For a confident two-color system, pair it with its complementary magenta. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.
Etymology
Old English drēahnian, to filter — past-participle of drain. As a color modifier, drained implies a deep-and-emptied-and-pallid quality where the hue's vital warmth has been removed. Sits at the deep-and-cool end of the grid, parallel to deathly with desaturation overtone.
The Greek mythological bird of calm seas — and the modern genus Halcyon of Old World kingfishers. Halcyon days names the seven days before and after winter solstice when, according to Greek myth, the halcyon bird nested on calm seas. The color refers to a male Halcyon kingfisher's head: a saturated, slightly cool deep blue-green.
Closest matches
The nearest named color in three reference sources, ranked by perceptual distance (ΔE76 in CIELAB). ΔE < 1 is imperceptible to most viewers; ΔE > 10 is clearly different. When two sources point to the same hex they’re merged into one tile; click any to open that color’s page.
Variations
Click any swatch to exploreHarmonies
Accessibility
How this color appears to viewers with the four major color-vision-deficiency types. Computed via the Machado (2009) physiologically-based model. If a tile matches the original, the color reads the same to that viewer.
The color used as foreground text against pure white and pure black, with the contrast ratio and WCAG 2.1 grade. Aim for AA (4.5:1) for body text and AA Large (3:1) for 18 pt+ headlines; AAA (7:1) is the gold standard for long-form reading surfaces.