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Luminous Stalk Turquoise

#16d5c4
Notes

Luminous Stalk Turquoise (#16D5C4) 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 (175°, 81%, 46%) 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
#16d5c4
RGB
rgb(22, 213, 196)
HSL
hsl(175, 81%, 46%)
HWB
hwb(175 9% 16%)
OKLCH
oklch(78.6% 0.136 184.6)
P3
color(display-p3 0.3882 0.8230 0.7680)
HSV
hsv(175, 90%, 84%)
LAB
lab(77.13% -46.17 -3.78)
LCH
lch(77.13% 46.33 184.67)
CMYK
cmyk(90%, 0%, 8%, 16%)

Etymology

Luminous
adjective

Latin lūminōsus, full of light — adjectival suffix -ous, derived from lūmen (light). As a color modifier, luminous implies a saturated-and-light-emitting quality where the hue carries internal-glow visual register. Sits at the bright-and-saturated end of the grid, parallel to radiant and resplendent in usage.

Stalk
modifier

Old English stealcung, to-walk-stealthily. As a color modifier, stalk implies a deliberate-and-stealthy-and-tracked quality, the visual register of Highland-stalker-and-stag-stalk hand-deliberate-and-stealthy-and-tracked Highland-stalker-and-stag-and-tracker stalked-and-deliberate-and-stealthy-and-tracked surfaces under Highland-stalker-and-stag-and-tracker heather-moor-and-corrie-and-deer-forest tracked-and-stealthy-light. Sits at the modifier-and-mood end of the grid, parallel to prowl and creep in usage.

Turquoise
noun

The hydrated copper-aluminum phosphate mined in Persia and the American Southwest for thousands of years — the firuze of Iran, the chalchihuitl of Mesoamerica, the heart of Pueblo and Navajo silverwork. The color refers to a fine Sleeping Beauty turquoise from Arizona: a saturated, slightly green-shifted blue with the slight matrix of host-rock veining. Brighter than persian, lighter than cerulean.

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.

#16d5c4
Original
#cac8c3
Protanopia
#b3b7c6
Deuteranopia
#00dad0
Tritanopia
#ababab
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
1.85:1
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
11.35:1

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
##16D5C4
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.3882 0.8230 0.7680)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.136

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.

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