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Praetorian Zephyr Forest

#278a26
Notes

Praetorian Zephyr Forest (#278A26) is a true green with a cool character. It leans cool, sitting on the blue, green, and violet side of the wheel. Quiet and dependable, a fit for product UI and data visualization. Its HSL profile (119°, 57%, 35%) 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 violet. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#278a26
RGB
rgb(39, 138, 38)
HSL
hsl(119, 57%, 35%)
HWB
hwb(119 15% 46%)
OKLCH
oklch(55.7% 0.163 142.9)
P3
color(display-p3 0.2758 0.5335 0.2103)
HSV
hsv(119, 72%, 54%)
LAB
lab(50.39% -47.98 43.28)
LCH
lch(50.39% 64.61 137.95)
CMYK
cmyk(72%, 0%, 72%, 46%)

Etymology

Praetorian
adjective

Latin praetōriānus, of the praetor — adjectival suffix, referring to the Roman-Imperial elite guard-cohorts. As a color modifier, praetorian implies a saturated-and-elite-and-imperial-guard quality, the deep-rich color of Roman-Praetorian-Guard elite-imperial-bodyguard scarlet-tunic-and-bronze-armor military-formation. Sits at the bold-and-formal end of the grid, parallel to spartan and imperial.

Zephyr
modifier

Greek ζέφυρος, gentle-west-wind. As a color modifier, zephyr implies a gentle-west-wind-and-Mediterranean-breeze quality, the visual register of Greek-Zephyrus-and-Botticelli-Primavera-zephyr hand-gentle-west-wind-and-Mediterranean-breeze Greek-Zephyrus-and-Botticelli-Primavera-zephyr-and-Hellenic-Anemoi zephyr-and-gentle-west-wind surfaces under Greek-Zephyrus-and-Botticelli-Primavera-zephyr-and-Hellenic-Anemoi Hellenic-Mediterranean-and-Florentine-spring gentle-Mediterranean-breeze-light. Sits at the modifier-and-weather end of the grid, parallel to gust and mistral in usage.

Forest
noun

The dense canopy of a temperate or tropical woodland — oak, beech, pine, eucalyptus, mahogany — wherever leaves close above to filter the light below. Forest green refers to the average reflectance of a healthy mid-summer canopy seen from below: a saturated, slightly muted green with the matte finish of layered chlorophyll. Deeper than fern, cooler than olive, with the ecological weight of a word that has named every wooded biome on Earth.

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.

#278a26
Original
#8d7d16
Protanopia
#827530
Deuteranopia
#088676
Tritanopia
#6e6e6e
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
4.42:1
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
4.75:1

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
##278A26
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.2758 0.5335 0.2103)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.163

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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