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Level Baltic

#2b90b9
Notes

Level Baltic (#2B90B9) is a true cyan 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 (197°, 62%, 45%) 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 orange. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#2b90b9
RGB
rgb(43, 144, 185)
HSL
hsl(197, 62%, 45%)
HWB
hwb(197 17% 27%)
OKLCH
oklch(61.5% 0.108 230.0)
P3
color(display-p3 0.2921 0.5568 0.7100)
HSV
hsv(197, 77%, 73%)
LAB
lab(56.05% -14.54 -29.54)
LCH
lch(56.05% 32.92 243.79)
CMYK
cmyk(77%, 22%, 0%, 27%)

Etymology

Level
adjective

Latin libella, small-balance / level-tool — sharing root with libra (balance). As a color modifier, level implies a clear-and-horizontal-true quality where the hue carries the visual register of gravity-perpendicular-and-perfectly-horizontal surface. Sits at the crisp-and-balanced end of the grid, parallel to plumb and flat in usage.

Baltic
noun

The northern European brackish sea between Scandinavia and the European mainland — the source of Baltic amber and the route of medieval Hanseatic League trade. Baltic color refers to mid-depth Baltic water at the Helsinki archipelago: a saturated, slightly cool deep blue with the optical complexity of low-salinity high-latitude inland sea.

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.

#2b90b9
Original
#7b8ebb
Protanopia
#6880b8
Deuteranopia
#009b9e
Tritanopia
#7d7d7d
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
3.63:1
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
5.79:1

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
##2B90B9
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.2921 0.5568 0.7100)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.108

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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