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Stable Catmint

#109990
Notes

Stable Catmint (#109990) is a deep 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 (176°, 81%, 33%) places it in the highly saturated band at a dark 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
#109990
RGB
rgb(16, 153, 144)
HSL
hsl(176, 81%, 33%)
HWB
hwb(176 6% 40%)
OKLCH
oklch(61.6% 0.105 187.4)
P3
color(display-p3 0.2735 0.5910 0.5630)
HSV
hsv(176, 90%, 60%)
LAB
lab(56.98% -34.89 -4.76)
LCH
lch(56.98% 35.21 187.77)
CMYK
cmyk(90%, 0%, 6%, 40%)

Etymology

Stable
adjective

Latin stabilis, standing-firm — sharing root with stand. As a color modifier, stable implies a clear-and-firm-and-unchanging quality where the hue carries the visual register of resistant-to-modulation-and-fade pigmentation. Sits at the crisp-and-firm end of the grid, parallel to steady and settled in usage.

Catmint
noun

The genus Nepeta — particularly N. mussinii (catmint), the cottage-garden perennial with silver-green foliage and lavender-blue flower spikes. The color refers to a fresh catmint clump in May: a soft, slightly cool gray-green with the matte finish of small mint-family leaves. Cooler than santolina.

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.

#109990
Original
#909090
Protanopia
#7f8491
Deuteranopia
#009d96
Tritanopia
#7b7b7b
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).
AA Largeon White
3.51:1
The quick brown foxSample body text at normal size. The wcag minimum for body contrast is 4.5:1 (AA) or 7:1 (AAA).
AAon Black
5.98:1

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
##109990
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.2735 0.5910 0.5630)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.105

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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