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Orderly Smock Lagoon

#2bb5d9
Notes

Orderly Smock Lagoon (#2BB5D9) 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 (192°, 70%, 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
#2bb5d9
RGB
rgb(43, 181, 217)
HSL
hsl(192, 70%, 51%)
HWB
hwb(192 17% 15%)
OKLCH
oklch(71.8% 0.122 220.5)
HSV
hsv(192, 80%, 85%)
LAB
lab(68.44% -23.37 -28.25)
LCH
lch(68.44% 36.67 230.40)
CMYK
cmyk(80%, 17%, 0%, 15%)

Etymology

Orderly
adjective

Latin ōrdō, order — adjectival suffix -ly. As a color modifier, orderly implies a clear-and-arranged-and-organized quality where the hue carries the visual register of carefully-ordered-and-classified placement. Sits at the crisp-and-orderly end of the grid, parallel to methodical and organized in usage.

Smock
modifier

Old English smoc, loose-shift-or-shepherd's-smock. As a color modifier, smock implies a shepherd's-smock-and-artist's-smock-and-pleated quality, the visual register of English-shepherd's-smock-and-artist's-smock hand-shepherd's-smock-and-artist's-smock-and-pleated English-shepherd's-smock-and-artist's-smock-and-Sussex-Surrey-rural smock-and-shepherd's-smock surfaces under English-shepherd's-smock-and-artist's-smock-and-Sussex-Surrey-rural Sussex-Downs-and-Surrey-village shepherd-and-painter-light. Sits at the modifier-and-textile end of the grid, parallel to frock and tunic 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

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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.

#2bb5d9
Original
#9fb0db
Protanopia
#89a0d9
Deuteranopia
#00c1c1
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
2.41:1
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
8.71:1

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