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Clean Tropics

#15b091
Notes

Clean Tropics (#15B091) is a true teal with a cool character. It leans cool, sitting on the blue, green, and violet side of the wheel. Quiet and dependable, a fit for product UI and data visualization. Its HSL profile (168°, 79%, 39%) 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
#15b091
RGB
rgb(21, 176, 145)
HSL
hsl(168, 79%, 39%)
HWB
hwb(168 8% 31%)
OKLCH
oklch(67.7% 0.126 173.7)
HSV
hsv(168, 88%, 69%)
LAB
lab(64.36% -44.40 5.45)
LCH
lch(64.36% 44.73 173.00)
CMYK
cmyk(88%, 0%, 18%, 31%)

Etymology

Clean
adjective

Old English clǣne, pure, free of dirt — used as a color modifier since the medieval period for hues that read as crisp and uncontaminated by other pigments. Clean white, clean blue: moderate saturation combined with optical clarity. Sits at the crisp-bucket center alongside clear and true.

Tropics
noun

The Earth's equatorial belt between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn — the region of the world where the sun reaches direct overhead at some point of the year. Tropics refers to the unifying blue-green of tropical-zone ocean and lagoon water: a saturated, slightly cool deep blue-green.

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.

#15b091
Original
#aaa490
Protanopia
#989793
Deuteranopia
#00b2a7
Tritanopia
#8d8d8d
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
2.74:1
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
7.65:1

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