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Plainspoken Gnome Kingfisher

#32a6b6
Notes

Plainspoken Gnome Kingfisher (#32A6B6) 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 (187°, 57%, 45%) 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
#32a6b6
RGB
rgb(50, 166, 182)
HSL
hsl(187, 57%, 45%)
HWB
hwb(187 20% 29%)
OKLCH
oklch(66.9% 0.102 208.5)
P3
color(display-p3 0.3388 0.6420 0.7043)
HSV
hsv(187, 73%, 71%)
LAB
lab(62.78% -26.24 -17.50)
LCH
lch(62.78% 31.54 213.70)
CMYK
cmyk(73%, 9%, 0%, 29%)

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.

Gnome
modifier

Latin gnomus, earth-elemental-of-Paracelsus. As a color modifier, gnome implies an earth-elemental-and-subterranean-and-mining quality, the visual register of Paracelsian-gnome-and-Alpine-mining-folk hand-earth-elemental-and-subterranean-and-mining Paracelsian-gnome-and-Alpine-mining-folk-and-Renaissance-occult gnome-and-earth-elemental-and-subterranean surfaces under Paracelsian-gnome-and-Alpine-mining-folk-and-Renaissance-occult Alpine-mountain-and-mine-shaft underground-elemental-light. Sits at the modifier-and-myth end of the grid, parallel to sprite and pixie in usage.

Kingfisher
noun

The family Alcedinidae — particularly Alcedo atthis, the European common kingfisher whose iridescent turquoise-blue plumage gives the color its name. The color refers to a male European kingfisher's wing: a saturated, slightly cool deep blue-green with the iridescent satin finish of structurally colored feathers.

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.

#32a6b6
Original
#97a0b7
Protanopia
#8592b6
Deuteranopia
#00aeab
Tritanopia
#8e8e8e
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
2.89:1
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
7.27:1

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
##32A6B6
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.3388 0.6420 0.7043)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.102

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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