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Plainspoken Icicle Verdigris

#32b6b6
Notes

Plainspoken Icicle Verdigris (#32B6B6) 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 (180°, 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
#32b6b6
RGB
rgb(50, 182, 182)
HSL
hsl(180, 57%, 45%)
HWB
hwb(180 20% 29%)
OKLCH
oklch(70.8% 0.109 195.0)
HSV
hsv(180, 73%, 71%)
LAB
lab(67.66% -34.02 -10.16)
LCH
lch(67.66% 35.50 196.63)
CMYK
cmyk(73%, 0%, 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.

Icicle
modifier

Old English īsgicel, ice-and-icicle. As a color modifier, icicle implies a hanging-ice-and-eaves-frozen-drip quality, the visual register of Alpine-eaves-and-Norwegian-stave-icicle hand-hanging-ice-and-eaves-frozen-drip Alpine-eaves-and-Norwegian-stave-icicle-and-Cairngorm-ledge icicle-and-hanging-ice-and-eaves-frozen-drip surfaces under Alpine-eaves-and-Norwegian-stave-icicle-and-Cairngorm-ledge Alpine-Dolomites-and-Norwegian-stave-church frozen-drip-light. Sits at the modifier-and-weather end of the grid, parallel to floe and berg in usage.

Verdigris
noun

The basic copper carbonate that forms on weathered copper and bronze — the pigment scraped from oxidized metal and used in Renaissance painting before being supplanted by more stable greens. The color refers to a thick verdigris on aged copper roofing or the Statue of Liberty's surface: a soft, slightly muted blue-green with the powdery finish of mineral oxide. Cooler than patina, warmer than seafoam, with the archaeological weight of a mineral made by time.

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.

#32b6b6
Original
#aaadb6
Protanopia
#979fb7
Deuteranopia
#00bcb6
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
2.47:1
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
8.50:1

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