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Vitreous Orbit Teal

#31b99d
Notes

Vitreous Orbit Teal (#31B99D) 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 (168°, 58%, 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
#31b99d
RGB
rgb(49, 185, 157)
HSL
hsl(168, 58%, 46%)
HWB
hwb(168 19% 27%)
OKLCH
oklch(70.8% 0.121 175.4)
HSV
hsv(168, 74%, 73%)
LAB
lab(67.86% -42.40 3.92)
LCH
lch(67.86% 42.58 174.72)
CMYK
cmyk(74%, 0%, 15%, 27%)

Etymology

Vitreous
adjective

Latin vitreus, glass-like — derived from vitrum (glass). As a color modifier, vitreous implies a clear-and-glassy quality where the hue carries the optical clarity of polished crown-glass. Sits at the crisp-and-clear end of the grid, parallel to pellucid and crystalline in usage.

Orbit
modifier

Latin orbita, track-or-wheel-rut. As a color modifier, orbit implies a Keplerian-ellipse-and-circling quality, the visual register of Keplerian-ellipse-and-Newton-Principia-orbit hand-Keplerian-ellipse-and-circling Keplerian-ellipse-and-Newton-Principia-and-Tycho-orbit orbit-and-Keplerian-ellipse-and-circling surfaces under Keplerian-ellipse-and-Newton-Principia-and-Tycho-orbit Royal-Society-and-celestial-mechanics 17th-century-observation-light. Sits at the modifier-and-cosmic end of the grid, parallel to axis and parsec in usage.

Teal
noun

Anas crecca, the small dabbling duck whose male in breeding plumage sports a chestnut head crossed by a glossy green-blue stripe. The color refers to that stripe — the iridescent panel just behind the eye: a saturated, slightly muted blue-green with the optical depth of structural color rather than pigment. Cooler than cypress, warmer than cerulean, with the ornithological specificity of a color named for one feather of one bird.

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.

#31b99d
Original
#b2ad9c
Protanopia
#a0a09f
Deuteranopia
#00bbb1
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
2.45:1
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
8.56:1

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