Pithed Lesbos
Pithed Lesbos (#1E4B5F) is a deep cyan with an earthy character. It leans grounded and natural, the kind of color that plays well with wood, clay, linen, and warm neutrals. Its HSL profile (198°, 52%, 25%) 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.
Etymology
Old English piþa, pith / inner stalk — past-participle of pith. As a color modifier, pithed implies a deep-and-cored-out quality where the visual surface has been excavated to reveal interior darkness. Sits at the deep-and-architectural end of the grid, parallel to hollowed and cored.
The Greek island in the eastern Aegean — and the saturated deep blue of Lesbos's Petrified Forest coastline and Sigri harbor. Lesbos color refers to the harbor water at sunset: a saturated, slightly cool deep blue with the optical depth of warm Aegean coastal 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 exploreHarmonies
Accessibility
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.
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.