colors
Back to gallery

Pleasant Mistral Kingfisher

#16a1bd
Notes

Pleasant Mistral Kingfisher (#16A1BD) 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 (190°, 79%, 41%) 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
#16a1bd
RGB
rgb(22, 161, 189)
HSL
hsl(190, 79%, 41%)
HWB
hwb(190 9% 26%)
OKLCH
oklch(65.5% 0.113 216.6)
P3
color(display-p3 0.2931 0.6220 0.7283)
HSV
hsv(190, 88%, 74%)
LAB
lab(61.07% -24.03 -24.07)
LCH
lch(61.07% 34.01 225.05)
CMYK
cmyk(88%, 15%, 0%, 26%)

Etymology

Pleasant
adjective

From the French plaisant, pleasing — used as a color modifier since the fifteenth century for hues that read as agreeable, the kind of color that wears well over a long viewing without becoming demanding or fatiguing. Pleasant green, pleasant rose: moderate saturation combined with optical comfort. Sits at the crisp-bucket alongside easy and calm.

Mistral
modifier

Provençal mistral, cold-northwest-wind-of-Provence. As a color modifier, mistral implies a cold-Provençal-and-Rhône-Valley-wind quality, the visual register of Provençal-and-Rhône-Valley-mistral hand-cold-Provençal-and-Rhône-Valley-wind Provençal-and-Rhône-Valley-mistral-and-Alpilles mistral-and-cold-Provençal-and-Rhône-Valley-wind surfaces under Provençal-and-Rhône-Valley-mistral-and-Alpilles Avignon-and-Saint-Rémy-and-Camargue cold-Rhône-Valley-wind-light. Sits at the modifier-and-weather end of the grid, parallel to sirocco and gust in usage.

Kingfisher
noun

The family Alcedinidae — particularly Alcedo atthis, the European common kingfisher whose iridescent turquoise-blue plumage gives the color its name. The color refers to a male European kingfisher's wing: a saturated, slightly cool deep blue-green with the iridescent satin finish of structurally colored feathers.

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.

#16a1bd
Original
#8e9cbf
Protanopia
#7a8dbd
Deuteranopia
#00abaa
Tritanopia
#858585
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).
AA Largeon White
3.06:1
The quick brown foxSample body text at normal size. The wcag minimum for body contrast is 4.5:1 (AA) or 7:1 (AAA).
AAon Black
6.87:1

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
##16A1BD
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.2931 0.6220 0.7283)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.113

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.

Related Colors

Canvas