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Acidic End Turquoise

#28d4c9
Notes

Acidic End Turquoise (#28D4C9) 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 (176°, 68%, 49%) 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
#28d4c9
RGB
rgb(40, 212, 201)
HSL
hsl(176, 68%, 49%)
HWB
hwb(176 16% 17%)
OKLCH
oklch(78.7% 0.131 188.0)
P3
color(display-p3 0.4021 0.8194 0.7857)
HSV
hsv(176, 81%, 83%)
LAB
lab(77.13% -43.20 -6.43)
LCH
lch(77.13% 43.67 188.47)
CMYK
cmyk(81%, 0%, 5%, 17%)

Etymology

Acidic
adjective

Latin acidus, sour — adjectival suffix -ic, sharing root with acetic and acerbic. As a color modifier, acidic implies a saturated-and-citric-and-sour quality, the bright color of lime-zest-and-pickled-lime citrus-fruit pulp surface. Sits at the bright-and-cool end of the grid, parallel to acid and electric in usage.

End
modifier

Old English ende, end / finish. As a color modifier, end implies a final-and-conclusion quality, the visual register of day's-end-and-year's-end final-and-conclusion close-of-period-and-end-of-day twilight-and-final-light surfaces under twilight close-of-period light. Sits at the modifier-and-time end of the grid, parallel to fall and eve 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.

#28d4c9
Original
#c8c8c9
Protanopia
#b1b7cb
Deuteranopia
#00d9d0
Tritanopia
#afafaf
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
1.85:1
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
11.35:1

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
##28D4C9
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.4021 0.8194 0.7857)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.131

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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