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Level Meteor Turquoise

#08aab4
Notes

Level Meteor Turquoise (#08AAB4) 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 (183°, 91%, 37%) 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
#08aab4
RGB
rgb(8, 170, 180)
HSL
hsl(183, 91%, 37%)
HWB
hwb(183 3% 29%)
OKLCH
oklch(67.2% 0.113 202.3)
P3
color(display-p3 0.3003 0.6566 0.6977)
HSV
hsv(183, 96%, 71%)
LAB
lab(63.42% -32.07 -15.46)
LCH
lch(63.42% 35.60 205.74)
CMYK
cmyk(96%, 6%, 0%, 29%)

Etymology

Level
adjective

Latin libella, small-balance / level-tool — sharing root with libra (balance). As a color modifier, level implies a clear-and-horizontal-true quality where the hue carries the visual register of gravity-perpendicular-and-perfectly-horizontal surface. Sits at the crisp-and-balanced end of the grid, parallel to plumb and flat in usage.

Meteor
modifier

Greek μετέωρος, suspended-in-air. As a color modifier, meteor implies a streaking-and-burning-and-shooting-star quality, the visual register of Perseids-and-Leonids-meteor hand-streaking-and-burning-and-shooting-star Perseids-and-Leonids-and-Geminids-meteor meteor-and-streaking-and-burning-and-shooting-star surfaces under Perseids-and-Leonids-and-Geminids-meteor August-and-November-and-December-night-sky shooting-star-light. Sits at the modifier-and-cosmic end of the grid, parallel to comet and nova 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.

#08aab4
Original
#9ba2b5
Protanopia
#8793b5
Deuteranopia
#00b1ad
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
2.83:1
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
##08AAB4
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.3003 0.6566 0.6977)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.113

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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