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Pellucid Aquarius Lagoon

#30b5cd
Notes

Pellucid Aquarius Lagoon (#30B5CD) 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 (189°, 62%, 50%) 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
#30b5cd
RGB
rgb(48, 181, 205)
HSL
hsl(189, 62%, 50%)
HWB
hwb(189 19% 20%)
OKLCH
oklch(71.4% 0.114 212.9)
P3
color(display-p3 0.3597 0.6998 0.7917)
HSV
hsv(189, 77%, 80%)
LAB
lab(68.08% -26.75 -22.20)
LCH
lch(68.08% 34.76 219.70)
CMYK
cmyk(77%, 12%, 0%, 20%)

Etymology

Pellucid
adjective

Latin pellūcidus, transparent — derived from per-lūcēre (to shine through). As a color modifier, pellucid implies a clear-and-translucent quality where the hue reads with optical clarity and minimal turbidity. Sits at the crisp-and-clear end of the grid, parallel to lucid and translucent in usage.

Aquarius
modifier

Latin aquarius, water-bearer-of-the-zodiac. As a color modifier, aquarius implies a water-bearer-and-air-sign-and-Saturn-Uranus-ruled-fixed-air quality, the visual register of Hellenic-Aquarius-and-Ganymede-water-bearer hand-water-bearer-and-air-sign-and-Saturn-Uranus-ruled-fixed-air Hellenic-Aquarius-and-Ganymede-water-bearer-and-cup-bearer aquarius-and-water-bearer-and-air-sign surfaces under Hellenic-Aquarius-and-Ganymede-water-bearer-and-cup-bearer mid-winter-and-January-and-February fixed-air-sign-light. Sits at the modifier-and-zodiac end of the grid, parallel to pisces and capricorn 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

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.

#30b5cd
Original
#a3afce
Protanopia
#8e9fcd
Deuteranopia
#00bebc
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
2.44:1
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
8.62:1

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
##30B5CD
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.3597 0.6998 0.7917)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.114

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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