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Hellish Spirulina

#0c3e1b
Notes

Hellish Spirulina (#0C3E1B) is a deep green 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 (138°, 68%, 15%) places it in the balanced band at a dark lightness. It works well as a headline, icon, or deep background in an otherwise light layout, pairing cleanly with cream, bone, and warm neutrals. For a confident two-color system, pair it with its complementary magenta. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#0c3e1b
RGB
rgb(12, 62, 27)
HSL
hsl(138, 68%, 15%)
HWB
hwb(138 5% 76%)
OKLCH
oklch(32.2% 0.080 149.2)
HSV
hsv(138, 81%, 24%)
LAB
lab(22.31% -25.46 16.83)
LCH
lch(22.31% 30.52 146.53)
CMYK
cmyk(81%, 0%, 56%, 76%)

Etymology

Hellish
adjective

Old English helle, hell — adjectival suffix -ish. As a color modifier, hellish implies the deep-glowing-furnace-darkness of Dante-and-Bosch infernal-imagery, where heat and shadow combine in the painted-and-poetic Christian underworld. Sits at the deep-and-warm end of the grid, parallel to infernal and warmer than plutonian.

Spirulina
noun

Arthrospira platensis, the cyanobacterium harvested from alkaline lakes since the time of the Aztecs and now sold globally as a nutritional supplement and natural food coloring. The color refers to fresh-dried spirulina powder in a small bowl: a saturated, slightly cool deep blue-green with the matte finish of dehydrated cyanobacterial cells. Cooler than algae.

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.

#0c3e1b
Original
#3f3818
Protanopia
#39341e
Deuteranopia
#003d36
Tritanopia
#313131
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).
AAAon White
12.21:1
The quick brown foxSample body text at normal size. The wcag minimum for body contrast is 4.5:1 (AA) or 7:1 (AAA).
Failon Black
1.72:1

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