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Pleasant Savory Kingfisher

#21a8c2
Notes

Pleasant Savory Kingfisher (#21A8C2) 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°, 71%, 45%) 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 red. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#21a8c2
RGB
rgb(33, 168, 194)
HSL
hsl(190, 71%, 45%)
HWB
hwb(190 13% 24%)
OKLCH
oklch(67.6% 0.113 214.9)
P3
color(display-p3 0.3172 0.6492 0.7483)
HSV
hsv(190, 83%, 76%)
LAB
lab(63.52% -25.16 -23.09)
LCH
lch(63.52% 34.15 222.55)
CMYK
cmyk(83%, 13%, 0%, 24%)

Etymology

Pleasant
adjective

From the French plaisant, pleasing — used as a color modifier since the fifteenth century for hues that read as agreeable, the kind of color that wears well over a long viewing without becoming demanding or fatiguing. Pleasant green, pleasant rose: moderate saturation combined with optical comfort. Sits at the crisp-bucket alongside easy and calm.

Savory
modifier

Latin satureia, peppery-Mediterranean-herb. As a color modifier, savory implies a peppery-Mediterranean-herb-and-Provençal-bouquet quality, the visual register of Provençal-bouquet-garni-and-summer-savory hand-peppery-Mediterranean-herb-and-Provençal-bouquet Provençal-bouquet-garni-and-summer-savory-and-herbes-de-Provence savory-and-peppery-Mediterranean-herb surfaces under Provençal-bouquet-garni-and-summer-savory-and-herbes-de-Provence Provençal-and-Tuscan-and-Catalan herb-garden-light. Sits at the modifier-and-flavor end of the grid, parallel to hyssop and lovage in usage.

Kingfisher
noun

The family Alcedinidae — particularly Alcedo atthis, the European common kingfisher whose iridescent turquoise-blue plumage gives the color its name. The color refers to a male European kingfisher's wing: a saturated, slightly cool deep blue-green with the iridescent satin finish of structurally colored feathers.

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.

#21a8c2
Original
#96a2c3
Protanopia
#8193c2
Deuteranopia
#00b2b0
Tritanopia
#8d8d8d
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
2.82:1
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
7.44:1

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
##21A8C2
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.3172 0.6492 0.7483)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.113

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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