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Inviting Mater Lagoon

#29bcd8
Notes

Inviting Mater Lagoon (#29BCD8) 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 (190°, 69%, 50%) 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
#29bcd8
RGB
rgb(41, 188, 216)
HSL
hsl(190, 69%, 50%)
HWB
hwb(190 16% 15%)
OKLCH
oklch(73.4% 0.122 214.5)
P3
color(display-p3 0.3616 0.7267 0.8334)
HSV
hsv(190, 81%, 85%)
LAB
lab(70.45% -27.39 -24.62)
LCH
lch(70.45% 36.83 221.95)
CMYK
cmyk(81%, 13%, 0%, 15%)

Etymology

Inviting
adjective

Latin invītāre, to invite — present-participle of invite. As a color modifier, inviting implies a clear-and-cordial-and-encouraging quality where the hue carries the visual register of warm-inviting-and-encouraging entrance-foyer color tone. Sits at the crisp-and-cheerful end of the grid, parallel to welcoming and hospitable in usage.

Mater
modifier

Latin mater, mother. As a color modifier, mater implies a Latin-mother-and-Stabat-Mater-and-Madonna quality, the visual register of Stabat-Mater-and-Pietà-mater hand-Latin-mother-and-Stabat-Mater-and-Madonna Stabat-Mater-and-Pietà-mater-and-Marian-iconography mater-and-Latin-mother surfaces under Stabat-Mater-and-Pietà-mater-and-Marian-iconography Roman-and-Counter-Reformation Madonna-iconographic-light. Sits at the modifier-and-Latin end of the grid, parallel to pater and amor in usage.

Lagoon
noun

A shallow body of saltwater partially or fully enclosed by a barrier — coral atoll lagoons in the Pacific, Venice's Laguna Veneta, the Florida Keys' backcountry. The color refers to the average reflectance of a calm tropical lagoon at midday: a saturated, slightly muted blue-green with the optical clarity of shallow water over white sand. Brighter than reef, cooler than aquamarine, with the postcard weight of a Pacific atoll seen from above.

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.

#29bcd8
Original
#a8b6da
Protanopia
#91a5d8
Deuteranopia
#00c6c5
Tritanopia
#9f9f9f
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
2.26:1
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
9.28:1

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
##29BCD8
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.3616 0.7267 0.8334)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.122

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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