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Charged Smock Turquoise

#23e3e1
Notes

Charged Smock Turquoise (#23E3E1) 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 (179°, 77%, 51%) places it in the highly saturated band at a mid lightness. Best used in small doses, like logos, CTAs, focus rings, or highlight text, where its saturation becomes a feature rather than noise. 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
#23e3e1
RGB
rgb(35, 227, 225)
HSL
hsl(179, 77%, 51%)
HWB
hwb(179 14% 11%)
OKLCH
oklch(83.1% 0.138 193.7)
HSV
hsv(179, 85%, 89%)
LAB
lab(82.23% -43.34 -11.66)
LCH
lch(82.23% 44.88 195.06)
CMYK
cmyk(85%, 0%, 1%, 11%)

Etymology

Charged
adjective

Old French chargier, to load — past-participle of charge, sharing root with cargo. As a color modifier, charged implies a saturated-and-electrically-loaded quality where the hue carries visual potential-energy. Sits at the bright-and-active end of the grid, parallel to electrified and energetic in usage.

Smock
modifier

Old English smoc, loose-shift-or-shepherd's-smock. As a color modifier, smock implies a shepherd's-smock-and-artist's-smock-and-pleated quality, the visual register of English-shepherd's-smock-and-artist's-smock hand-shepherd's-smock-and-artist's-smock-and-pleated English-shepherd's-smock-and-artist's-smock-and-Sussex-Surrey-rural smock-and-shepherd's-smock surfaces under English-shepherd's-smock-and-artist's-smock-and-Sussex-Surrey-rural Sussex-Downs-and-Surrey-village shepherd-and-painter-light. Sits at the modifier-and-textile end of the grid, parallel to frock and tunic 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

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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.

#23e3e1
Original
#d4d7e1
Protanopia
#bbc5e2
Deuteranopia
#00eae2
Tritanopia
#bababa
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
1.60:1
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
13.15:1

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