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Alight Brood Turquoise

#03d9c9
Notes

Alight Brood Turquoise (#03D9C9) is a true cyan with a vibrant character. It holds its own as a focal accent, carrying visual weight without tipping into neon territory. Its HSL profile (176°, 97%, 43%) 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
#03d9c9
RGB
rgb(3, 217, 201)
HSL
hsl(176, 97%, 43%)
HWB
hwb(176 1% 15%)
OKLCH
oklch(79.6% 0.140 185.4)
P3
color(display-p3 0.3870 0.8383 0.7870)
HSV
hsv(176, 99%, 85%)
LAB
lab(78.38% -47.10 -4.62)
LCH
lch(78.38% 47.33 185.60)
CMYK
cmyk(99%, 0%, 7%, 15%)

Etymology

Alight
adjective

Old English ā-lihtan, to set alight — past-participle of alight. As a color modifier, alight implies a saturated-and-currently-illuminated quality, the bright color of Christmas-tree and Diwali-lamp festival-decoration illuminated-and-twinkling emission. Sits at the bright-and-warm end of the grid, parallel to aflame and aglow in usage.

Brood
modifier

Old English brōd, young-of-birds-or-to-ponder. As a color modifier, brood implies a hen-and-pondering-and-darkly-thinking quality, the visual register of Heathcliff-and-Hamlet-brood hand-hen-and-pondering-and-darkly-thinking Heathcliff-and-Hamlet-and-Byronic-hero brooded-and-pondering-and-darkly-thinking surfaces under Heathcliff-and-Hamlet-and-Byronic-hero stormy-and-overcast-and-introspective Yorkshire-moor-light. Sits at the modifier-and-mood end of the grid, parallel to mope and sigh in usage.

Turquoise
noun

The hydrated copper-aluminum phosphate mined in Persia and the American Southwest for thousands of years — the firuze of Iran, the chalchihuitl of Mesoamerica, the heart of Pueblo and Navajo silverwork. The color refers to a fine Sleeping Beauty turquoise from Arizona: a saturated, slightly green-shifted blue with the slight matrix of host-rock veining. Brighter than persian, lighter than cerulean.

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.

#03d9c9
Original
#cdccc9
Protanopia
#b5bbcb
Deuteranopia
#00ded4
Tritanopia
#aaaaaa
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
1.78:1
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
11.77:1

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
##03D9C9
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.3870 0.8383 0.7870)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.140

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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