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Lucid Mizu

#27b5de
Notes

Lucid Mizu (#27B5DE) 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 (193°, 73%, 51%) 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
#27b5de
RGB
rgb(39, 181, 222)
HSL
hsl(193, 73%, 51%)
HWB
hwb(193 15% 13%)
OKLCH
oklch(72.0% 0.126 223.2)
P3
color(display-p3 0.3470 0.6996 0.8537)
HSV
hsv(193, 82%, 87%)
LAB
lab(68.57% -22.06 -30.79)
LCH
lch(68.57% 37.88 234.38)
CMYK
cmyk(82%, 18%, 0%, 13%)

Etymology

Lucid
adjective

Latin lūcidus, clear / bright — derived from lūx (light). As a color modifier, lucid implies a clear-and-readable quality where the hue is unambiguous and free of optical clutter. Sits at the crisp-and-clear end of the grid, parallel to pellucid and plain in usage.

Mizu
noun

The Japanese word for water — used as a color word for the saturated pale blue of fresh spring water and the mizu-iro of traditional kimono linings. Mizu spans the cyan-blue boundary in Japanese color vocabulary. The color refers to fresh spring water in a Kyoto stone basin: a soft, slightly cool pale blue with the optical clarity of cold mineral water.

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.

#27b5de
Original
#9eb1e0
Protanopia
#86a0de
Deuteranopia
#00c1c2
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
2.40:1
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
8.75:1

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
##27B5DE
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.3470 0.6996 0.8537)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.126

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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