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Surveyed Freshet

#1296b2
Notes

Surveyed Freshet (#1296B2) 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 (191°, 82%, 38%) 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
#1296b2
RGB
rgb(18, 150, 178)
HSL
hsl(191, 82%, 38%)
HWB
hwb(191 7% 30%)
OKLCH
oklch(62.2% 0.109 217.8)
HSV
hsv(191, 90%, 70%)
LAB
lab(57.22% -22.31 -23.77)
LCH
lch(57.22% 32.60 226.82)
CMYK
cmyk(90%, 16%, 0%, 30%)

Etymology

Surveyed
adjective

Old French surveer, to look upon — past-participle of survey. As a color modifier, surveyed implies a clear-and-measured-and-coordinated quality, the crisp color of Mason-Dixon-Line-and-Royal-Navy-Hydrographic scientific-and-cadastral land-and-sea surveying tradition. Sits at the crisp-and-mapped end of the grid, parallel to mapped and plotted in usage.

Freshet
noun

A sudden flood of fresh water — particularly the spring runoff of melting mountain snow into rivers. Freshet color refers to a freshet-swollen mountain river in late April: a soft, slightly cool deep blue-white with the optical complexity of snowmelt-suspended sediment.

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.

#1296b2
Original
#8491b4
Protanopia
#7083b2
Deuteranopia
#00a09f
Tritanopia
#7c7c7c
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
3.48:1
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
6.03:1

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