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Starched Sagittarius Lagoon

#10b9d4
Notes

Starched Sagittarius Lagoon (#10B9D4) is a true cyan 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 (188°, 86%, 45%) 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
#10b9d4
RGB
rgb(16, 185, 212)
HSL
hsl(188, 86%, 45%)
HWB
hwb(188 6% 17%)
OKLCH
oklch(72.3% 0.125 213.2)
P3
color(display-p3 0.3325 0.7147 0.8179)
HSV
hsv(188, 92%, 83%)
LAB
lab(69.15% -28.74 -24.44)
LCH
lch(69.15% 37.72 220.38)
CMYK
cmyk(92%, 13%, 0%, 17%)

Etymology

Starched
adjective

Old English stercan, to stiffen — past-participle of starch. As a color modifier, starched implies a clear-and-stiff-and-formal quality, the crisp color of Edwardian-period formal-evening-shirt-and-collar starched-and-pressed dress-attire. Sits at the crisp-and-finished end of the grid, parallel to pressed and ironed in usage.

Sagittarius
modifier

Latin sagittarius, archer-of-the-zodiac. As a color modifier, sagittarius implies a centaur-archer-and-fire-sign-and-Jupiter-ruled-mutable-fire quality, the visual register of Hellenic-Sagittarius-and-Chiron-centaur-archer hand-centaur-archer-and-fire-sign-and-Jupiter-ruled-mutable-fire Hellenic-Sagittarius-and-Chiron-centaur-archer-and-galactic-center sagittarius-and-centaur-archer-and-fire-sign surfaces under Hellenic-Sagittarius-and-Chiron-centaur-archer-and-galactic-center late-autumn-and-November-and-December mutable-fire-sign-light. Sits at the modifier-and-zodiac end of the grid, parallel to scorpio and capricorn 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.

#10b9d4
Original
#a5b2d6
Protanopia
#8ea2d4
Deuteranopia
#00c3c1
Tritanopia
#979797
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
2.36:1
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
8.91:1

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
##10B9D4
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.3325 0.7147 0.8179)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.125

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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