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Spirited Firmament

#33e3e5
Notes

Spirited Firmament (#33E3E5) is a true cyan with a vibrant character. It holds its own as a focal accent, carrying visual weight without tipping into neon territory. Its HSL profile (181°, 77%, 55%) 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
#33e3e5
RGB
rgb(51, 227, 229)
HSL
hsl(181, 77%, 55%)
HWB
hwb(181 20% 10%)
OKLCH
oklch(83.4% 0.133 196.1)
P3
color(display-p3 0.4412 0.8776 0.8909)
HSV
hsv(181, 78%, 90%)
LAB
lab(82.54% -40.98 -13.31)
LCH
lch(82.54% 43.08 197.99)
CMYK
cmyk(78%, 1%, 0%, 10%)

Etymology

Spirited
adjective

An adjectival form of spirit — used as a color modifier since the seventeenth century for hues that read as animate and characterful. Spirited orange, spirited green: the implication is saturation combined with personality, a color that feels like it has agency. Sits at the bright-bucket center alongside lively and vibrant.

Firmament
noun

The biblical sky-vault — and God called the firmament Heaven (Genesis). Firmament in literary and religious color vocabulary refers to the saturated deep blue of the cloudless midday sky as seen from a desert or mountain: a saturated, slightly cool deep blue with the optical brightness of a clear high-altitude atmosphere.

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.

#33e3e5
Original
#d3d8e5
Protanopia
#bbc6e6
Deuteranopia
#00ebe3
Tritanopia
#bebebe
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
1.58:1
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
13.26:1

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
##33E3E5
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.4412 0.8776 0.8909)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.133

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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