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Pragmatic Ventus Lagoon

#21aed0
Notes

Pragmatic Ventus Lagoon (#21AED0) 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 (192°, 73%, 47%) 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
#21aed0
RGB
rgb(33, 174, 208)
HSL
hsl(192, 73%, 47%)
HWB
hwb(192 13% 18%)
OKLCH
oklch(69.6% 0.120 219.5)
P3
color(display-p3 0.3276 0.6724 0.8008)
HSV
hsv(192, 84%, 82%)
LAB
lab(65.86% -23.59 -27.27)
LCH
lch(65.86% 36.06 229.14)
CMYK
cmyk(84%, 16%, 0%, 18%)

Etymology

Pragmatic
adjective

Greek pragmatikós, of business / practical — adjectival suffix -ic. As a color modifier, pragmatic implies a clear-and-purpose-fit-and-no-nonsense quality where the hue carries the visual register of straightforward-utilitarian-and-functional decision-making. Sits at the crisp-and-functional end of the grid, parallel to practical and functional in usage.

Ventus
modifier

Latin ventus, wind. As a color modifier, ventus implies a Latin-wind-and-Roman-Aeolus-wind quality, the visual register of Roman-Aeolus-and-Anemoi-ventus hand-Latin-wind-and-Roman-Aeolus-wind Roman-Aeolus-and-Anemoi-ventus-and-Boreas-Notus-Eurus-Zephyrus ventus-and-Latin-wind surfaces under Roman-Aeolus-and-Anemoi-ventus-and-Boreas-Notus-Eurus-Zephyrus Aeolian-and-Vergilian-pastoral Roman-wind-light. Sits at the modifier-and-Latin end of the grid, parallel to ignis and unda 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.

#21aed0
Original
#99a9d2
Protanopia
#8399d0
Deuteranopia
#00b9b9
Tritanopia
#929292
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
2.62:1
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
8.03:1

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
##21AED0
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.3276 0.6724 0.8008)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.120

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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