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Tracer Catmint

#33dfa8
Notes

Tracer Catmint (#33DFA8) is a true teal with a vibrant character. It holds its own as a focal accent, carrying visual weight without tipping into neon territory. Its HSL profile (161°, 73%, 54%) 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
#33dfa8
RGB
rgb(51, 223, 168)
HSL
hsl(161, 73%, 54%)
HWB
hwb(161 20% 13%)
OKLCH
oklch(80.6% 0.157 165.8)
HSV
hsv(161, 77%, 87%)
LAB
lab(79.79% -55.11 15.00)
LCH
lch(79.79% 57.12 164.77)
CMYK
cmyk(77%, 0%, 25%, 13%)

Etymology

Tracer
adjective

Old French tracier, to trace — sharing root with English trace and track. As a color modifier, tracer implies a saturated-and-streak-of-light quality, the bright color of military-tracer-round and long-exposure-photography light-trail visual streak. Sits at the bright-and-active end of the grid, parallel to flashing and streaking in usage.

Catmint
noun

The genus Nepeta — particularly N. mussinii (catmint), the cottage-garden perennial with silver-green foliage and lavender-blue flower spikes. The color refers to a fresh catmint clump in May: a soft, slightly cool gray-green with the matte finish of small mint-family leaves. Cooler than santolina.

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

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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.

#33dfa8
Original
#dacfa5
Protanopia
#c5c0ac
Deuteranopia
#00e0d0
Tritanopia
#b6b6b6
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
1.71:1
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
12.26:1

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