Imperial Beryl
Imperial Beryl (#169557) is a deep 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 (151°, 74%, 34%) 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 magenta. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.
Etymology
From the Latin imperialis, of the empire — applied to color since the medieval period for the hues reserved for sovereigns and empires: imperial purple of Tyrian dye, imperial yellow of Ming-dynasty porcelain. As a modifier, imperial implies saturation combined with the institutional weight of a color owned by a court. Sits in the bold-and-deep corner, alongside royal.
The mineral Be₃Al₂(SiO₃)₆ — the gem family that includes emerald (chromium-tinted), aquamarine (iron-tinted), and morganite (manganese-tinted). The color beryl refers to the transparent yellow-green variety heliodor or pale common beryl: a soft, slightly muted yellow-green with the high refractive index of a faceted gem. Cleaner than sage, lighter than emerald, with the gem-trade specificity of a single mineral name.
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.