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Vibrant Suave Turquoise

#12e2cf
Notes

Vibrant Suave Turquoise (#12E2CF) 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 (175°, 85%, 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
#12e2cf
RGB
rgb(18, 226, 207)
HSL
hsl(175, 85%, 48%)
HWB
hwb(175 7% 11%)
OKLCH
oklch(82.1% 0.144 184.1)
HSV
hsv(175, 92%, 89%)
LAB
lab(81.30% -48.81 -3.50)
LCH
lch(81.30% 48.94 184.10)
CMYK
cmyk(92%, 0%, 8%, 11%)

Etymology

Vibrant
adjective

From the Latin vibrare, to shake — used as a color word since the seventeenth century for hues that read as alive and resonant. Vibrant orange, vibrant green: the implication is saturation combined with the optical impression of slight motion or energy. Sits at the bright-bucket center alongside vivid and lively.

Suave
modifier

French suave, smooth / sweet. As a color modifier, suave implies a smooth-and-polished-and-elegant quality, the visual register of Belle-Époque-and-Mid-Century-Modern polished-and-elegant-and-smooth Belle-Époque-and-Mid-Century-Modern interior-decoration smooth-and-polished surfaces under Belle-Époque-and-Mid-Century-Modern smooth-and-polished elegance light. Sits at the modifier-and-texture end of the grid, parallel to sleek and gloss in usage.

Turquoise
noun

The hydrated copper-aluminum phosphate mined in Persia and the American Southwest for thousands of years — the firuze of Iran, the chalchihuitl of Mesoamerica, the heart of Pueblo and Navajo silverwork. The color refers to a fine Sleeping Beauty turquoise from Arizona: a saturated, slightly green-shifted blue with the slight matrix of host-rock veining. Brighter than persian, lighter than cerulean.

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.

#12e2cf
Original
#d6d4ce
Protanopia
#bec3d1
Deuteranopia
#00e7dc
Tritanopia
#b4b4b4
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
1.64:1
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
12.81:1

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