Sunlit Neptune Malachite
Sunlit Neptune Malachite (#14BD71) is a true teal with a vibrant character. It holds its own as a focal accent, carrying visual weight without tipping into neon territory. Its HSL profile (153°, 81%, 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 magenta. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.
Etymology
Old English sunne (sun) plus past-participle līehted. As a color modifier, sunlit implies a saturated-and-direct-sunlight-illuminated quality, the bright color of southern-Mediterranean and Greek-island afternoon-sun direct-illumination surface emission. Sits at the bright-and-warm end of the grid, parallel to radiant and brilliant in usage.
Latin Neptunus, Roman-god-of-sea-and-eighth-planet. As a color modifier, neptune implies a Roman-god-of-sea-and-deep-blue-eighth-planet quality, the visual register of Roman-Neptune-and-Voyager-2-deep-blue hand-Roman-god-of-sea-and-deep-blue-eighth-planet Roman-Neptune-and-Voyager-2-deep-blue-and-Trevi-Fountain neptune-and-Roman-god-of-sea surfaces under Roman-Neptune-and-Voyager-2-deep-blue-and-Trevi-Fountain Voyager-2-flyby-and-Trevi-Fountain deep-blue-planet-light. Sits at the modifier-and-zodiac end of the grid, parallel to uranus and saturn in usage.
A copper carbonate mineral — Cu₂CO₃(OH)₂ — that crystallizes as concentric green bands in oxidized copper deposits. Mined for ornamental stone since ancient Egypt, ground into pigment for medieval European painting, polished into the malachite columns of the Russian Hermitage. The color refers to a polished cabochon: a saturated, slightly muted green with the high shine of stone and the visible banding of growth rings.
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 exploreHarmonies
Accessibility
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.
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.
Wide gamut
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.
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.