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Reliable Heaven

#03bcc5
Notes

Reliable Heaven (#03BCC5) is a true cyan with a cool character. It leans cool, sitting on the blue, green, and violet side of the wheel. Quiet and dependable, a fit for product UI and data visualization. Its HSL profile (183°, 97%, 39%) 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
#03bcc5
RGB
rgb(3, 188, 197)
HSL
hsl(183, 97%, 39%)
HWB
hwb(183 1% 23%)
OKLCH
oklch(72.3% 0.123 200.9)
HSV
hsv(183, 98%, 77%)
LAB
lab(69.48% -35.38 -15.73)
LCH
lch(69.48% 38.72 203.96)
CMYK
cmyk(98%, 5%, 0%, 23%)

Etymology

Reliable
adjective

Latin re-ligāre, to bind back — adjectival suffix -able. As a color modifier, reliable implies a clear-and-trustworthy-and-consistent quality where the hue carries the visual register of dependable-and-consistent design-element. Sits at the crisp-and-honest end of the grid, parallel to dependable and trustworthy in usage.

Heaven
noun

The vault of the sky and (in religious vocabulary) the realm of the divine — and the saturated blue used in medieval European religious painting for sky, Mary's mantle, and divine background. Heaven color refers to a Florentine Annunciation azure background: a saturated, slightly cool deep blue with the matte finish of ultramarine pigment in tempera.

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

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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.

#03bcc5
Original
#acb3c6
Protanopia
#96a3c6
Deuteranopia
#00c4be
Tritanopia
#959595
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
2.33:1
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
9.00:1

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