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Refreshing Zenith Lagoon

#17aecb
Notes

Refreshing Zenith Lagoon (#17AECB) 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°, 80%, 44%) 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
#17aecb
RGB
rgb(23, 174, 203)
HSL
hsl(190, 80%, 44%)
HWB
hwb(190 9% 20%)
OKLCH
oklch(69.3% 0.119 215.8)
P3
color(display-p3 0.3175 0.6723 0.7825)
HSV
hsv(190, 89%, 80%)
LAB
lab(65.56% -25.90 -24.98)
LCH
lch(65.56% 35.98 223.97)
CMYK
cmyk(89%, 14%, 0%, 20%)

Etymology

Refreshing
adjective

Old French refreschir, to make fresh again — present-participle of refresh. As a color modifier, refreshing implies a clear-and-cool-and-revitalizing quality, the crisp color of Cornish-coast and Hebridean-island fresh-sea-air-and-cool-water revitalization. Sits at the crisp-and-cool end of the grid, parallel to fresh and bracing in usage.

Zenith
modifier

Arabic samt-al-ra's, path-overhead. As a color modifier, zenith implies an overhead-pointing-and-high-point quality, the visual register of celestial-sphere-and-overhead-Zenith hand-overhead-pointing-and-high-point celestial-sphere-and-overhead-and-Zenith-pole zenith-and-overhead-pointing-and-high-point surfaces under celestial-sphere-and-overhead-and-Zenith-pole astronomical-and-celestial-mechanics overhead-axis-light. Sits at the modifier-and-cosmic end of the grid, parallel to nadir and axis in usage.

Lagoon
noun

A shallow body of saltwater partially or fully enclosed by a barrier — coral atoll lagoons in the Pacific, Venice's Laguna Veneta, the Florida Keys' backcountry. The color refers to the average reflectance of a calm tropical lagoon at midday: a saturated, slightly muted blue-green with the optical clarity of shallow water over white sand. Brighter than reef, cooler than aquamarine, with the postcard weight of a Pacific atoll seen from above.

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.

#17aecb
Original
#9aa8cd
Protanopia
#8498cb
Deuteranopia
#00b8b7
Tritanopia
#909090
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
2.64:1
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
7.95:1

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
##17AECB
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.3175 0.6723 0.7825)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.119

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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