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Sanitary Pillar Turquoise

#28737e
Notes

Sanitary Pillar Turquoise (#28737E) 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 (188°, 52%, 33%) 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
#28737e
RGB
rgb(40, 115, 126)
HSL
hsl(188, 52%, 33%)
HWB
hwb(188 16% 51%)
OKLCH
oklch(51.5% 0.074 208.8)
P3
color(display-p3 0.2424 0.4448 0.4876)
HSV
hsv(188, 68%, 49%)
LAB
lab(44.54% -19.01 -12.82)
LCH
lch(44.54% 22.93 213.98)
CMYK
cmyk(68%, 9%, 0%, 51%)

Etymology

Sanitary
adjective

Latin sānitās, health — adjectival suffix -ary. As a color modifier, sanitary implies a clear-and-clean-and-medical quality, the crisp color of Bauhaus-and-Modern clinical-and-hospital interior-architecture white-tile-and-stainless-steel surfaces. Sits at the crisp-and-clean end of the grid, parallel to hygienic and sterile in usage.

Pillar
modifier

Latin pīla, pillar. As a color modifier, pillar implies a vertical-load-bearing-and-monumental quality, the visual register of Roman-and-Greek-and-Egyptian-Pillar hand-cut Doric-and-Ionic-and-Corinthian-Egyptian column-and-pillar monumental-architecture surfaces under classical-pillar monumental-architecture light. Sits at the modifier-and-architecture end of the grid, parallel to column and plinth 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

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.

#28737e
Original
#696f7f
Protanopia
#5c657e
Deuteranopia
#007876
Tritanopia
#646464
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).
AAon White
5.46:1
The quick brown foxSample body text at normal size. The wcag minimum for body contrast is 4.5:1 (AA) or 7:1 (AAA).
AA Largeon Black
3.84:1

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
##28737E
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.2424 0.4448 0.4876)
Inside sRGBOKLCH chroma 0.074

This color sits well within the sRGB cube. P3 and sRGB share the gray axis and most desaturated tones, so a P3 display renders this identically to an sRGB display.

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