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Truthful Hull Topaz

#15bfb7
Notes

Truthful Hull Topaz (#15BFB7) 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 (177°, 80%, 42%) 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
#15bfb7
RGB
rgb(21, 191, 183)
HSL
hsl(177, 80%, 42%)
HWB
hwb(177 8% 25%)
OKLCH
oklch(72.7% 0.123 189.4)
HSV
hsv(177, 89%, 75%)
LAB
lab(70.06% -40.32 -7.17)
LCH
lch(70.06% 40.95 190.08)
CMYK
cmyk(89%, 0%, 4%, 25%)

Etymology

Truthful
adjective

Old English trēowth, truth — adjectival suffix -ful. As a color modifier, truthful implies a clear-and-honest-and-direct quality where the hue carries the visual register of accurate-and-faithful-representation declaration. Sits at the crisp-and-honest end of the grid, parallel to candid and honest in usage.

Hull
modifier

Old English hulu, husk / shell. As a color modifier, hull implies a ship's-body-and-skin quality, the visual register of Royal-Navy-and-merchant-marine-hull hand-laid clinker-and-carvel-built timber-and-iron-and-steel ship's-hull-and-skin maritime-architecture surfaces under ship-hull-and-waterline maritime-and-dry-dock light. Sits at the modifier-and-nautical end of the grid, parallel to keel and prow 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

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.

#15bfb7
Original
#b3b4b7
Protanopia
#9ea5b8
Deuteranopia
#00c4bc
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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