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Tracer Selkie

#09eac4
Notes

Tracer Selkie (#09EAC4) is a true teal with a neon character. It sits at the high-saturation edge of its family. Use it sparingly, as signage, accent, or highlight against darker surfaces. Its HSL profile (170°, 93%, 48%) 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
#09eac4
RGB
rgb(9, 234, 196)
HSL
hsl(170, 93%, 48%)
HWB
hwb(170 4% 8%)
OKLCH
oklch(83.7% 0.157 175.1)
P3
color(display-p3 0.4213 0.9041 0.7749)
HSV
hsv(170, 96%, 92%)
LAB
lab(83.38% -55.26 5.34)
LCH
lch(83.38% 55.52 174.48)
CMYK
cmyk(96%, 0%, 16%, 8%)

Etymology

Tracer
adjective

Old French tracier, to trace — sharing root with English trace and track. As a color modifier, tracer implies a saturated-and-streak-of-light quality, the bright color of military-tracer-round and long-exposure-photography light-trail visual streak. Sits at the bright-and-active end of the grid, parallel to flashing and streaking in usage.

Selkie
noun

The seal-people of Celtic folklore — particularly Scottish, Irish, and Faroese mythology — beings who shed sealskin to take human form. Selkie color refers to the deep blue-green of Atlantic waters where the seal-folk are said to live: a deep, slightly cool deep blue-green with the optical complexity of cold Atlantic open 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.

#09eac4
Original
#e1dac2
Protanopia
#c9c8c7
Deuteranopia
#00eddf
Tritanopia
#b7b7b7
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
1.55:1
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
13.58:1

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
##09EAC4
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.4213 0.9041 0.7749)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.157

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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