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Settled Reservoir

#176c91
Notes

Settled Reservoir (#176C91) 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 (198°, 73%, 33%) 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
#176c91
RGB
rgb(23, 108, 145)
HSL
hsl(198, 73%, 33%)
HWB
hwb(198 9% 43%)
OKLCH
oklch(50.1% 0.096 233.0)
P3
color(display-p3 0.2018 0.4172 0.5553)
HSV
hsv(198, 84%, 57%)
LAB
lab(42.69% -10.61 -27.07)
LCH
lch(42.69% 29.07 248.60)
CMYK
cmyk(84%, 26%, 0%, 43%)

Etymology

Settled
adjective

The past participle of settle, to come to rest — used as a color modifier since the seventeenth century for hues that read as stabilized after a process. Settled green, settled brown: moderate saturation combined with optical permanence. Sits at the crisp-bucket alongside steady and composed.

Reservoir
noun

A constructed body of water — particularly the dam-impounded reservoirs of arid-region water supply: Lake Mead, Hetch Hetchy, Lake Powell. Reservoir color refers to mid-depth Lake Mead water: a saturated, slightly cool deep blue with the optical depth of stored desert water.

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.

#176c91
Original
#5a6b93
Protanopia
#4a6090
Deuteranopia
#007679
Tritanopia
#5d5d5d
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).
AAon White
5.85:1
The quick brown foxSample body text at normal size. The wcag minimum for body contrast is 4.5:1 (AA) or 7:1 (AAA).
AA Largeon Black
3.59:1

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
##176C91
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.2018 0.4172 0.5553)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.096

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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