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Hemmed Bothnia

#03abb1
Notes

Hemmed Bothnia (#03ABB1) is a true cyan 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 (182°, 97%, 35%) places it in the highly saturated band at a mid 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 red. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#03abb1
RGB
rgb(3, 171, 177)
HSL
hsl(182, 97%, 35%)
HWB
hwb(182 1% 31%)
OKLCH
oklch(67.3% 0.114 199.2)
P3
color(display-p3 0.2996 0.6605 0.6871)
HSV
hsv(182, 98%, 69%)
LAB
lab(63.60% -33.67 -13.51)
LCH
lch(63.60% 36.28 201.87)
CMYK
cmyk(98%, 3%, 0%, 31%)

Etymology

Hemmed
adjective

Old English hem, border — past-participle of hem. As a color modifier, hemmed implies a clear-and-finished-and-bordered quality where the hue carries the visual register of carefully-hemmed-and-finished textile-edge. Sits at the crisp-and-finished end of the grid, parallel to trim and finished in usage.

Bothnia
noun

The Gulf of Bothnia — the northernmost arm of the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Finland. Bothnia color refers to mid-depth Gulf of Bothnia water at midsummer: a saturated, slightly cool deep blue with the optical complexity of low-salinity high-latitude brackish water.

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 explore

Harmonies

Accessibility

Color-vision simulation

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.

#03abb1
Original
#9da3b2
Protanopia
#8994b2
Deuteranopia
#00b2ac
Tritanopia
#888888
Achromatopsia
WCAG contrast

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.

The quick brown foxSample body text at normal size. The wcag minimum for body contrast is 4.5:1 (AA) or 7:1 (AAA).
Failon White
2.81:1
The quick brown foxSample body text at normal size. The wcag minimum for body contrast is 4.5:1 (AA) or 7:1 (AAA).
AAAon Black
7.46:1

Wide gamut

Display P3 representation

The CSS Color 4 wide-gamut form of this color. Both swatches render the same color on every display — the P3 form only diverges from sRGB when a designer pushes channels outside sRGB's reach.

sRGB hex
sRGB hex
##03ABB1
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.2996 0.6605 0.6871)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.114

Moderately saturated colors gain a small bump in P3 — the difference is usually visible side-by-side on wide-gamut hardware but won't change the character of the color.

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