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Serviceable Thoth Turquoise

#21b2bf
Notes

Serviceable Thoth Turquoise (#21B2BF) 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 (185°, 71%, 44%) 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
#21b2bf
RGB
rgb(33, 178, 191)
HSL
hsl(185, 71%, 44%)
HWB
hwb(185 13% 25%)
OKLCH
oklch(69.9% 0.114 204.6)
P3
color(display-p3 0.3346 0.6879 0.7399)
HSV
hsv(185, 83%, 75%)
LAB
lab(66.46% -31.08 -16.96)
LCH
lch(66.46% 35.40 208.62)
CMYK
cmyk(83%, 7%, 0%, 25%)

Etymology

Serviceable
adjective

Latin servītium, service — adjectival suffix -able. As a color modifier, serviceable implies a clear-and-fit-for-purpose-and-durable quality where the hue carries the visual register of long-lasting-and-functional everyday-use design. Sits at the crisp-and-functional end of the grid, parallel to practical and utilitarian in usage.

Thoth
modifier

Egyptian Djehuty, ibis-headed-god-of-writing. As a color modifier, thoth implies an ibis-headed-and-scribe-and-moon-god quality, the visual register of Egyptian-Thoth-and-Hermopolis-temple hand-ibis-headed-and-scribe-and-moon-god Egyptian-Thoth-and-Hermopolis-temple-and-Hermes-Trismegistus thoth-and-ibis-headed-and-scribe-and-moon-god surfaces under Egyptian-Thoth-and-Hermopolis-temple-and-Hermes-Trismegistus papyrus-and-reed-pen-and-Hermopolis ibis-scribe-light. Sits at the modifier-and-myth end of the grid, parallel to isis and horus in usage.

Turquoise
noun

The hydrated copper-aluminum phosphate mined in Persia and the American Southwest for thousands of years — the firuze of Iran, the chalchihuitl of Mesoamerica, the heart of Pueblo and Navajo silverwork. The color refers to a fine Sleeping Beauty turquoise from Arizona: a saturated, slightly green-shifted blue with the slight matrix of host-rock veining. Brighter than persian, lighter than cerulean.

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.

#21b2bf
Original
#a3aac0
Protanopia
#8e9bbf
Deuteranopia
#00bab6
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
2.57:1
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
8.19:1

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
##21B2BF
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.3346 0.6879 0.7399)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.114

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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