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Aligned Swirl Lagoon

#21b1d3
Notes

Aligned Swirl Lagoon (#21B1D3) 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 (191°, 73%, 48%) 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
#21b1d3
RGB
rgb(33, 177, 211)
HSL
hsl(191, 73%, 48%)
HWB
hwb(191 13% 17%)
OKLCH
oklch(70.5% 0.121 219.1)
HSV
hsv(191, 84%, 83%)
LAB
lab(66.88% -24.12 -27.37)
LCH
lch(66.88% 36.48 228.61)
CMYK
cmyk(84%, 16%, 0%, 17%)

Etymology

Aligned
adjective

French à-ligne, to-line-up — past-participle of align. As a color modifier, aligned implies a clear-and-axis-coordinated quality where the hue carries the visual register of carefully-parallel-arranged elements. Sits at the crisp-and-balanced end of the grid, parallel to symmetrical and squared in usage.

Swirl
modifier

Middle English swirlen, to-whirl-in-eddies. As a color modifier, swirl implies a curling-and-eddying-and-spiraling quality, the visual register of Van-Gogh-Starry-Night-and-Hokusai-Wave-swirl hand-curling-and-eddying-and-spiraling Van-Gogh-Starry-Night-and-Hokusai-Wave-and-Art-Nouveau swirled-and-curling-and-eddying-and-spiraling surfaces under Van-Gogh-Starry-Night-and-Hokusai-Wave-and-Art-Nouveau brush-stroke-and-cresting-wave-and-vine-tendril nocturne-light. Sits at the modifier-and-mood end of the grid, parallel to eddy and stir 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

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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.

#21b1d3
Original
#9cacd5
Protanopia
#859cd3
Deuteranopia
#00bcbc
Tritanopia
#959595
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
8.29:1

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