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Serviceable Torrent Teal

#278784
Notes

Serviceable Torrent Teal (#278784) is a deep cyan with an earthy character. It leans grounded and natural, the kind of color that plays well with wood, clay, linen, and warm neutrals. Its HSL profile (178°, 55%, 34%) places it in the balanced band at a dark lightness. It works well as a headline, icon, or deep background in an otherwise light layout, pairing cleanly with cream, bone, and warm neutrals. 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
#278784
RGB
rgb(39, 135, 132)
HSL
hsl(178, 55%, 34%)
HWB
hwb(178 15% 47%)
OKLCH
oklch(56.9% 0.086 191.9)
P3
color(display-p3 0.2710 0.5219 0.5148)
HSV
hsv(178, 71%, 53%)
LAB
lab(51.18% -27.64 -6.40)
LCH
lch(51.18% 28.37 193.04)
CMYK
cmyk(71%, 0%, 2%, 47%)

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.

Torrent
modifier

Latin torrens, rushing-or-burning-stream. As a color modifier, torrent implies a rushing-and-deluge-and-flash-flood quality, the visual register of Alpine-and-Pyrenean-torrent hand-rushing-and-deluge-and-flash-flood Alpine-and-Pyrenean-torrent-and-monsoon-deluge torrent-and-rushing-and-deluge surfaces under Alpine-and-Pyrenean-torrent-and-monsoon-deluge Alpine-Dolomites-and-Pyrenean-cirque deluge-rushing-water-light. Sits at the modifier-and-weather end of the grid, parallel to rain and thaw 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.

#278784
Original
#7f8084
Protanopia
#707685
Deuteranopia
#008b86
Tritanopia
#727272
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).
AA Largeon White
4.30:1
The quick brown foxSample body text at normal size. The wcag minimum for body contrast is 4.5:1 (AA) or 7:1 (AAA).
AAon Black
4.89:1

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
##278784
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.2710 0.5219 0.5148)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.086

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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