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Glowy Stir Sky

#21adf0
Notes

Glowy Stir Sky (#21ADF0) is a true cyan with a neon character. It sits at the high-saturation edge of its family. Use it sparingly, as signage, accent, or highlight against darker surfaces. Its HSL profile (199°, 87%, 54%) 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 orange. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#21adf0
RGB
rgb(33, 173, 240)
HSL
hsl(199, 87%, 54%)
HWB
hwb(199 13% 6%)
OKLCH
oklch(70.9% 0.147 236.7)
HSV
hsv(199, 86%, 94%)
LAB
lab(66.90% -12.07 -43.24)
LCH
lch(66.90% 44.89 254.41)
CMYK
cmyk(86%, 28%, 0%, 6%)

Etymology

Glowy
adjective

Old English glōwan, to glow — adjectival suffix -y. As a color modifier, glowy implies a saturated-and-soft-emitting-and-warm quality, the bright color of fireside-and-candle-lit interior atmospheric-warmth surface emission. Sits at the bright-and-warm end of the grid, parallel to glowing and luminous in usage.

Stir
modifier

Old English styrian, to-move-or-agitate. As a color modifier, stir implies a slow-moved-and-rippled-and-agitated quality, the visual register of cauldron-and-tea-cup-stir hand-slow-moved-and-rippled-and-agitated cauldron-and-tea-cup-and-pot-au-feu stirred-and-slow-moved-and-rippled-and-agitated surfaces under cauldron-and-tea-cup-and-pot-au-feu kitchen-hearth-and-witch's-fire-and-parlor-tea-table simmer-and-eddy-light. Sits at the modifier-and-mood end of the grid, parallel to swirl and eddy in usage.

Sky
noun

The blue of a clear sky at noon — produced by Rayleigh scattering, the preferential dispersion of shorter wavelengths through atmospheric molecules. Air itself is colorless; the color we see is sunlight scattered toward our eyes by every cubic kilometer above. The reference shade is mid-latitude noon under a high pressure system: a clean, slightly green-shifted blue with the luminous depth of light scattered across an entire hemisphere of air.

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.

#21adf0
Original
#8cadf3
Protanopia
#719bef
Deuteranopia
#00bec4
Tritanopia
#949494
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
2.53:1
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
8.30:1

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