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Refreshing Rigel Topaz

#13bdb8
Notes

Refreshing Rigel Topaz (#13BDB8) is a true cyan with a vibrant character. It holds its own as a focal accent, carrying visual weight without tipping into neon territory. Its HSL profile (178°, 82%, 41%) 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
#13bdb8
RGB
rgb(19, 189, 184)
HSL
hsl(178, 82%, 41%)
HWB
hwb(178 7% 26%)
OKLCH
oklch(72.2% 0.122 191.4)
HSV
hsv(178, 90%, 74%)
LAB
lab(69.46% -39.23 -8.61)
LCH
lch(69.46% 40.16 192.37)
CMYK
cmyk(90%, 0%, 3%, 26%)

Etymology

Refreshing
adjective

Old French refreschir, to make fresh again — present-participle of refresh. As a color modifier, refreshing implies a clear-and-cool-and-revitalizing quality, the crisp color of Cornish-coast and Hebridean-island fresh-sea-air-and-cool-water revitalization. Sits at the crisp-and-cool end of the grid, parallel to fresh and bracing in usage.

Rigel
modifier

Arabic rijl-al-jawzā', foot-of-Orion. As a color modifier, rigel implies a blue-supergiant-and-Orion-foot quality, the visual register of Orion-Hunter-and-winter-blue-supergiant-Rigel hand-blue-supergiant-and-Orion-foot Orion-Hunter-and-winter-blue-supergiant-and-Bortle-1 rigel-and-blue-supergiant-and-winter-zenith surfaces under Orion-Hunter-and-winter-blue-supergiant-and-Bortle-1 January-and-February-winter-Orion deep-blue-stellar-light. Sits at the modifier-and-cosmic end of the grid, parallel to vega and deneb in usage.

Topaz
noun

A fluorine aluminum silicate gem, hardness 8 on the Mohs scale, mined for centuries in Ouro Preto, Brazil. Imperial topaz is the prized variety: a warm, slightly pink-shifted gold-orange with the high refractive index of a quality cut stone. Cooler than amber, brighter than honey, with the gem's signature internal fire when held to light. Named for the island of Topazos in the Red Sea, though that source produced peridot instead.

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.

#13bdb8
Original
#b1b3b8
Protanopia
#9ca3b9
Deuteranopia
#00c3bb
Tritanopia
#989898
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
2.33:1
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
9.00:1

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