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Plainspoken Mykonos

#2bc9d8
Notes

Plainspoken Mykonos (#2BC9D8) 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 (185°, 69%, 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
#2bc9d8
RGB
rgb(43, 201, 216)
HSL
hsl(185, 69%, 51%)
HWB
hwb(185 17% 15%)
OKLCH
oklch(76.6% 0.123 205.0)
P3
color(display-p3 0.3864 0.7769 0.8367)
HSV
hsv(185, 80%, 85%)
LAB
lab(74.34% -33.53 -18.69)
LCH
lch(74.34% 38.39 209.14)
CMYK
cmyk(80%, 7%, 0%, 15%)

Etymology

Plainspoken
adjective

English compound plain + spoken — past-participle of speak. As a color modifier, plainspoken implies a clear-and-direct-and-straightforward quality where the hue carries the visual register of unembellished-honest declaration. Sits at the crisp-and-honest end of the grid, parallel to candid and direct in usage.

Mykonos
noun

The Cycladic island — and the saturated blue of Mykonos's painted shutters and the deep Aegean water around Paradise Beach. Mykonos color refers to a Mykonos painted-shutter blue: a saturated, slightly cool deep blue with the matte finish of weathered limewash-and-cobalt paint.

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.

#2bc9d8
Original
#b8c0d9
Protanopia
#a1b0d8
Deuteranopia
#00d2cd
Tritanopia
#a8a8a8
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
2.01:1
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
10.45:1

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
##2BC9D8
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.3864 0.7769 0.8367)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.123

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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