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Bright Kattegat

#33cdfe
Notes

Bright Kattegat (#33CDFE) is a true cyan with a neon character. It sits at the high-saturation edge of its family. Use it sparingly, as signage, accent, or highlight against darker surfaces. Its HSL profile (194°, 99%, 60%) places it in the highly saturated band at a mid lightness. Best used in small doses, like logos, CTAs, focus rings, or highlight text, where its saturation becomes a feature rather than noise. 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
#33cdfe
RGB
rgb(51, 205, 254)
HSL
hsl(194, 99%, 60%)
HWB
hwb(194 20% 0%)
OKLCH
oklch(79.2% 0.139 225.0)
HSV
hsv(194, 80%, 100%)
LAB
lab(76.99% -22.79 -35.06)
LCH
lch(76.99% 41.82 236.97)
CMYK
cmyk(80%, 19%, 0%, 0%)

Etymology

Bright
adjective

Old English beorht, shining, luminous — cognate with the German Bracht, splendor. Applied to color since at least the medieval period for hues that read as luminous: not just light in value but optically active, as if scattering more light back than a dimmer color of the same lightness would. Sits at the bright-bucket center alongside vivid and brilliant.

Kattegat
noun

The body of saltwater between the Jutland peninsula and southwestern Sweden — separating the Baltic from the North Sea via the Skagerrak. Kattegat refers to mid-depth Kattegat water near Hesselø: a saturated, slightly cool deep blue with the optical depth of brackish Scandinavian water.

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.

#33cdfe
Original
#b2c9ff
Protanopia
#97b6fd
Deuteranopia
#00dbdd
Tritanopia
#b0b0b0
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
1.86:1
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
11.30:1

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