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Squared Pool

#2d8aa6
Notes

Squared Pool (#2D8AA6) 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 (194°, 57%, 41%) 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
#2d8aa6
RGB
rgb(45, 138, 166)
HSL
hsl(194, 57%, 41%)
HWB
hwb(194 18% 35%)
OKLCH
oklch(59.2% 0.094 222.1)
P3
color(display-p3 0.2864 0.5337 0.6391)
HSV
hsv(194, 73%, 65%)
LAB
lab(53.48% -17.48 -22.63)
LCH
lch(53.48% 28.60 232.32)
CMYK
cmyk(73%, 17%, 0%, 35%)

Etymology

Squared
adjective

Latin quadrātus, four-sided — past-participle of square. As a color modifier, squared implies a clear-and-rectilinear-and-orthogonal quality where the hue carries the visual register of right-angle architectural-and-grid alignment. Sits at the crisp-and-balanced end of the grid, parallel to aligned and plumb in usage.

Pool
noun

A constructed body of water — the residential or municipal swimming pool, almost universally lined with white plaster or pale tile that filters the water's color toward blue-green. The color refers to a sunlit pool at noon: a clean, slightly green-shifted light blue with the optical density of chlorinated water in a treated basin. Cooler than aqua, warmer than turquoise, with the suburban weight of mid-century leisure.

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.

#2d8aa6
Original
#7a87a7
Protanopia
#697ba6
Deuteranopia
#009393
Tritanopia
#787878
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
3.96:1
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
5.30:1

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
##2D8AA6
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.2864 0.5337 0.6391)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.094

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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