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Unblemished Baltic

#164f62
Notes

Unblemished Baltic (#164F62) is a deep cyan 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 (195°, 63%, 24%) places it in the balanced band at a dark lightness. It works well as a headline, icon, or deep background in an otherwise light layout, pairing cleanly with cream, bone, and warm neutrals. For a confident two-color system, pair it with its complementary orange. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#164f62
RGB
rgb(22, 79, 98)
HSL
hsl(195, 63%, 24%)
HWB
hwb(195 9% 62%)
OKLCH
oklch(40.0% 0.065 224.5)
P3
color(display-p3 0.1538 0.3052 0.3765)
HSV
hsv(195, 78%, 38%)
LAB
lab(30.98% -11.12 -16.34)
LCH
lch(30.98% 19.77 235.77)
CMYK
cmyk(78%, 19%, 0%, 62%)

Etymology

Unblemished
adjective

Old French blesmir, to wound — negative-prefix un- plus past-participle of blemish. As a color modifier, unblemished implies a clear-and-flawless quality where the hue carries no defect or imperfection. Sits at the crisp-and-clean end of the grid, parallel to pristine and spotless in usage.

Baltic
noun

The northern European brackish sea between Scandinavia and the European mainland — the source of Baltic amber and the route of medieval Hanseatic League trade. Baltic color refers to mid-depth Baltic water at the Helsinki archipelago: a saturated, slightly cool deep blue with the optical complexity of low-salinity high-latitude inland sea.

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.

#164f62
Original
#444d63
Protanopia
#3a4662
Deuteranopia
#005555
Tritanopia
#444444
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).
AAAon White
9.02:1
The quick brown foxSample body text at normal size. The wcag minimum for body contrast is 4.5:1 (AA) or 7:1 (AAA).
Failon Black
2.33:1

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
##164F62
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.1538 0.3052 0.3765)
Inside sRGBOKLCH chroma 0.065

This color sits well within the sRGB cube. P3 and sRGB share the gray axis and most desaturated tones, so a P3 display renders this identically to an sRGB display.

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