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Buttoned Mirth Lagoon

#04a8c6
Notes

Buttoned Mirth Lagoon (#04A8C6) 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 (189°, 96%, 40%) 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
#04a8c6
RGB
rgb(4, 168, 198)
HSL
hsl(189, 96%, 40%)
HWB
hwb(189 2% 22%)
OKLCH
oklch(67.5% 0.120 216.6)
P3
color(display-p3 0.2944 0.6489 0.7627)
HSV
hsv(189, 98%, 78%)
LAB
lab(63.43% -25.28 -25.49)
LCH
lch(63.43% 35.90 225.23)
CMYK
cmyk(98%, 15%, 0%, 22%)

Etymology

Buttoned
adjective

Old French bouton, button — past-participle of button. As a color modifier, buttoned implies a clear-and-fastened-and-formal quality, the crisp color of Edwardian-period formal-attire fully-fastened-and-formally-dressed gentleman's-attire. Sits at the crisp-and-finished end of the grid, parallel to trim and pressed in usage.

Mirth
modifier

Old English myrgth, joy-or-pleasure. As a color modifier, mirth implies a hearty-and-laughing-and-festive quality, the visual register of Twelfth-Night-and-Mardi-Gras-mirth hand-hearty-and-laughing-and-festive Twelfth-Night-and-Mardi-Gras-and-Saturnalia mirthed-and-hearty-and-laughing-and-festive surfaces under Twelfth-Night-and-Mardi-Gras-and-Saturnalia banquet-hall-and-festival-square candlelit-revelry-light. Sits at the modifier-and-mood end of the grid, parallel to glee and merry in usage.

Lagoon
noun

A shallow body of saltwater partially or fully enclosed by a barrier — coral atoll lagoons in the Pacific, Venice's Laguna Veneta, the Florida Keys' backcountry. The color refers to the average reflectance of a calm tropical lagoon at midday: a saturated, slightly muted blue-green with the optical clarity of shallow water over white sand. Brighter than reef, cooler than aquamarine, with the postcard weight of a Pacific atoll seen from above.

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.

#04a8c6
Original
#94a3c8
Protanopia
#7e93c6
Deuteranopia
#00b2b1
Tritanopia
#878787
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
2.83:1
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
7.42:1

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
##04A8C6
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.2944 0.6489 0.7627)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.120

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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