colors
Back to gallery

Mapped Gnome Teal

#26bca0
Notes

Mapped Gnome Teal (#26BCA0) is a true teal with a vibrant character. It holds its own as a focal accent, carrying visual weight without tipping into neon territory. Its HSL profile (169°, 66%, 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
#26bca0
RGB
rgb(38, 188, 160)
HSL
hsl(169, 66%, 44%)
HWB
hwb(169 15% 26%)
OKLCH
oklch(71.4% 0.126 176.1)
HSV
hsv(169, 80%, 74%)
LAB
lab(68.69% -44.15 3.45)
LCH
lch(68.69% 44.28 175.53)
CMYK
cmyk(80%, 0%, 15%, 26%)

Etymology

Mapped
adjective

Latin mappa, cloth / napkin — past-participle of map. As a color modifier, mapped implies a clear-and-cartographic-and-surveyed quality, the crisp color of Ordnance-Survey-and-USGS scientific-and-cadastral cartographic-and-topographic mapping-and-projection. Sits at the crisp-and-mapped end of the grid, parallel to plotted and surveyed in usage.

Gnome
modifier

Latin gnomus, earth-elemental-of-Paracelsus. As a color modifier, gnome implies an earth-elemental-and-subterranean-and-mining quality, the visual register of Paracelsian-gnome-and-Alpine-mining-folk hand-earth-elemental-and-subterranean-and-mining Paracelsian-gnome-and-Alpine-mining-folk-and-Renaissance-occult gnome-and-earth-elemental-and-subterranean surfaces under Paracelsian-gnome-and-Alpine-mining-folk-and-Renaissance-occult Alpine-mountain-and-mine-shaft underground-elemental-light. Sits at the modifier-and-myth end of the grid, parallel to sprite and pixie in usage.

Teal
noun

Anas crecca, the small dabbling duck whose male in breeding plumage sports a chestnut head crossed by a glossy green-blue stripe. The color refers to that stripe — the iridescent panel just behind the eye: a saturated, slightly muted blue-green with the optical depth of structural color rather than pigment. Cooler than cypress, warmer than cerulean, with the ornithological specificity of a color named for one feather of one bird.

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.

#26bca0
Original
#b5b09f
Protanopia
#a2a2a2
Deuteranopia
#00bfb4
Tritanopia
#9a9a9a
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
2.39:1
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
8.78:1

Related Colors

Canvas