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Frank Boracay

#176ca3
Notes

Frank Boracay (#176CA3) is a true azure 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 (204°, 75%, 36%) places it in the balanced band at a mid lightness. It works across type, buttons, and borders, saturated enough to feel deliberate but balanced enough to not fight the rest of the palette. 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
#176ca3
RGB
rgb(23, 108, 163)
HSL
hsl(204, 75%, 36%)
HWB
hwb(204 9% 36%)
OKLCH
oklch(51.1% 0.115 243.5)
P3
color(display-p3 0.2018 0.4172 0.6217)
HSV
hsv(204, 86%, 64%)
LAB
lab(43.58% -3.74 -36.35)
LCH
lch(43.58% 36.54 264.12)
CMYK
cmyk(86%, 34%, 0%, 36%)

Etymology

Frank
adjective

From the Old French franc, free, sincere — used as a color modifier since the seventeenth century for hues that read as direct and unhedged. Frank red, frank brown: moderate-to-high saturation combined with optical directness. Sits at the crisp-bucket alongside direct and honest.

Boracay
noun

The Philippine resort island in the western Visayas — and the saturated deep blue of White Beach lagoon water and the surrounding Sulu Sea. Boracay refers to White Beach lagoon at midday: a saturated, slightly cool deep blue with the optical clarity of warm Pacific water against pure white silica sand.

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.

#176ca3
Original
#526ea5
Protanopia
#3e61a2
Deuteranopia
#007a80
Tritanopia
#5e5e5e
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
5.66:1
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
3.71:1

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
##176CA3
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.2018 0.4172 0.6217)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.115

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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