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Spectral Agua

#2ebd8f
Notes

Spectral Agua (#2EBD8F) is a true teal 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 (161°, 61%, 46%) 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
#2ebd8f
RGB
rgb(46, 189, 143)
HSL
hsl(161, 61%, 46%)
HWB
hwb(161 18% 26%)
OKLCH
oklch(71.4% 0.136 166.1)
P3
color(display-p3 0.3700 0.7307 0.5725)
HSV
hsv(161, 76%, 74%)
LAB
lab(68.72% -47.92 12.79)
LCH
lch(68.72% 49.60 165.05)
CMYK
cmyk(76%, 0%, 24%, 26%)

Etymology

Spectral
adjective

Latin spectrum, appearance — adjectival suffix -al. As a color modifier, spectral implies a saturated-and-rainbow-decomposed-and-pure quality, the bright color of Newton-prism sunlight-decomposed seven-color spectrum band. Sits at the bright-and-pure end of the grid, parallel to prismatic and pure in usage.

Agua
noun

The Spanish word for water — used in agua fresca, agua marina (sea water), and the pale blue-green tile of Andalusian fountains. The color refers to a Sevillian agua-tile fountain: a soft, slightly cool pale blue-green with the high gloss of fired Andalusian ceramic.

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.

#2ebd8f
Original
#b9af8d
Protanopia
#a7a292
Deuteranopia
#00beb0
Tritanopia
#9b9b9b
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
2.39:1
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
8.79:1

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
##2EBD8F
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.3700 0.7307 0.5725)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.136

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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