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Unblemished Nymph Turquoise

#21bbc8
Notes

Unblemished Nymph Turquoise (#21BBC8) 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°, 72%, 46%) 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
#21bbc8
RGB
rgb(33, 187, 200)
HSL
hsl(185, 72%, 46%)
HWB
hwb(185 13% 22%)
OKLCH
oklch(72.4% 0.118 204.1)
P3
color(display-p3 0.3504 0.7227 0.7749)
HSV
hsv(185, 84%, 78%)
LAB
lab(69.49% -32.59 -17.33)
LCH
lch(69.49% 36.92 208.00)
CMYK
cmyk(84%, 7%, 0%, 22%)

Etymology

Unblemished
adjective

Old French blesmir, to wound — negative-prefix un- plus past-participle of blemish. As a color modifier, unblemished implies a clear-and-flawless quality where the hue carries no defect or imperfection. Sits at the crisp-and-clean end of the grid, parallel to pristine and spotless in usage.

Nymph
modifier

Greek νύμφη, nature-spirit-and-young-bride. As a color modifier, nymph implies a nature-spirit-and-grove-and-spring quality, the visual register of Hellenic-nymph-and-grove-and-spring hand-nature-spirit-and-grove-and-spring Hellenic-nymph-and-grove-and-spring-and-Arcadian-pastoral nymph-and-nature-spirit-and-grove surfaces under Hellenic-nymph-and-grove-and-spring-and-Arcadian-pastoral Mediterranean-grove-and-stream dappled-grove-light. Sits at the modifier-and-myth end of the grid, parallel to dryad and nereid 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.

#21bbc8
Original
#abb3c9
Protanopia
#95a3c8
Deuteranopia
#00c3bf
Tritanopia
#9b9b9b
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
2.33:1
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
9.01:1

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
##21BBC8
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.3504 0.7227 0.7749)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.118

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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