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Direct Artemisia

#15a898
Notes

Direct Artemisia (#15A898) is a true teal 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 (173°, 78%, 37%) 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
#15a898
RGB
rgb(21, 168, 152)
HSL
hsl(173, 78%, 37%)
HWB
hwb(173 8% 34%)
OKLCH
oklch(65.8% 0.114 182.8)
P3
color(display-p3 0.3049 0.6490 0.5964)
HSV
hsv(173, 87%, 66%)
LAB
lab(62.02% -39.03 -1.85)
LCH
lch(62.02% 39.07 182.72)
CMYK
cmyk(87%, 0%, 10%, 34%)

Etymology

Direct
adjective

From the Latin directus, straight — used as a color modifier since the eighteenth century for hues that read as straightforward and unambiguous. Direct red, direct green: moderate-to-high saturation combined with optical clarity. Sits at the crisp-bucket center alongside clear and frank.

Artemisia
noun

The genus Artemisia — sage-and-wormwood-and-mugwort relatives whose silver-green leaves define Mediterranean dry-garden landscaping. The color refers to a fresh Artemisia ludoviciana cultivated in a Provençal garden: a soft, slightly cool gray-green with the matte velvet finish of pubescent silver leaf.

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.

#15a898
Original
#9f9e97
Protanopia
#8d909a
Deuteranopia
#00aca3
Tritanopia
#888888
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
2.96:1
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
7.09:1

Wide gamut

Display P3 representation

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.

sRGB hex
sRGB hex
##15A898
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.3049 0.6490 0.5964)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.114

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.

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