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Drafted Pang Lagoon

#14bcd4
Notes

Drafted Pang Lagoon (#14BCD4) 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 (188°, 83%, 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
#14bcd4
RGB
rgb(20, 188, 212)
HSL
hsl(188, 83%, 45%)
HWB
hwb(188 8% 17%)
OKLCH
oklch(73.0% 0.124 211.1)
HSV
hsv(188, 91%, 83%)
LAB
lab(70.08% -30.04 -23.02)
LCH
lch(70.08% 37.84 217.46)
CMYK
cmyk(91%, 11%, 0%, 17%)

Etymology

Drafted
adjective

Old English draht, draft — past-participle of draft. As a color modifier, drafted implies a clear-and-line-and-measured quality, the crisp color of Mid-Century-Modern hand-drafted architectural-and-engineering studio-drawing precision-tool-rendered lines. Sits at the crisp-and-incised end of the grid, parallel to drawn and plotted in usage.

Pang
modifier

Middle English pang, sudden-sharp-pain. As a color modifier, pang implies a sudden-and-piercing-and-sharp quality, the visual register of Petrarchan-sonnet-and-courtly-love-pang hand-sudden-and-piercing-and-sharp Petrarchan-sonnet-and-courtly-love-and-troubadour-lyric panged-and-sudden-and-piercing-and-sharp surfaces under Petrarchan-sonnet-and-courtly-love-and-troubadour-lyric pierced-and-yearning-and-stricken candlelit-poet-light. Sits at the modifier-and-mood end of the grid, parallel to ache and throb 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

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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.

#14bcd4
Original
#a9b5d5
Protanopia
#91a4d4
Deuteranopia
#00c6c3
Tritanopia
#9a9a9a
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
2.29:1
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
9.17:1

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