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Dependable Chili Lagoon

#23b8de
Notes

Dependable Chili Lagoon (#23B8DE) 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°, 74%, 50%) 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
#23b8de
RGB
rgb(35, 184, 222)
HSL
hsl(192, 74%, 50%)
HWB
hwb(192 14% 13%)
OKLCH
oklch(72.6% 0.127 220.8)
P3
color(display-p3 0.3474 0.7111 0.8544)
HSV
hsv(192, 84%, 87%)
LAB
lab(69.40% -23.90 -29.51)
LCH
lch(69.40% 37.97 230.99)
CMYK
cmyk(84%, 17%, 0%, 13%)

Etymology

Dependable
adjective

Latin dē-pendere, to hang from — adjectival suffix -able. As a color modifier, dependable implies a clear-and-trustworthy-and-consistent quality where the hue carries the visual register of consistently-performing-and-counted-on design-element. Sits at the crisp-and-honest end of the grid, parallel to reliable and trustworthy in usage.

Chili
modifier

Nahuatl chīlli, capsicum-fruit. As a color modifier, chili implies a Mesoamerican-capsicum-and-fiery quality, the visual register of Mesoamerican-and-Oaxacan-chili hand-Mesoamerican-capsicum-and-fiery Mesoamerican-and-Oaxacan-chili-and-Yucatec-and-Veracruzano chili-and-Mesoamerican-capsicum surfaces under Mesoamerican-and-Oaxacan-chili-and-Yucatec-and-Veracruzano Oaxaca-and-Veracruz-and-Yucatán Mesoamerican-spice-light. Sits at the modifier-and-flavor end of the grid, parallel to pepper and pimento 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.

#23b8de
Original
#a1b3e0
Protanopia
#8aa2de
Deuteranopia
#00c4c4
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
2.34:1
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
8.98:1

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
##23B8DE
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.3474 0.7111 0.8544)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.127

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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