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Buttoned Tang Verdigris

#36a9a1
Notes

Buttoned Tang Verdigris (#36A9A1) is a true cyan with an earthy character. It leans grounded and natural, the kind of color that plays well with wood, clay, linen, and warm neutrals. Its HSL profile (176°, 52%, 44%) 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
#36a9a1
RGB
rgb(54, 169, 161)
HSL
hsl(176, 52%, 44%)
HWB
hwb(176 21% 34%)
OKLCH
oklch(67.0% 0.101 188.3)
P3
color(display-p3 0.3505 0.6537 0.6293)
HSV
hsv(176, 68%, 66%)
LAB
lab(63.12% -33.39 -5.22)
LCH
lch(63.12% 33.80 188.88)
CMYK
cmyk(68%, 0%, 5%, 34%)

Etymology

Buttoned
adjective

Old French bouton, button — past-participle of button. As a color modifier, buttoned implies a clear-and-fastened-and-formal quality, the crisp color of Edwardian-period formal-attire fully-fastened-and-formally-dressed gentleman's-attire. Sits at the crisp-and-finished end of the grid, parallel to trim and pressed in usage.

Tang
modifier

Old Norse tangi, sharp-projecting-taste. As a color modifier, tang implies a sharp-and-projecting-and-bright-bite quality, the visual register of Atlantic-and-Hebridean-sea-tang hand-sharp-and-projecting-and-bright-bite Atlantic-and-Hebridean-sea-tang-and-tide-pool-bite tang-and-sharp-and-projecting surfaces under Atlantic-and-Hebridean-sea-tang-and-tide-pool-bite Outer-Hebrides-and-North-Cornish-tide-pool sharp-bite-light. Sits at the modifier-and-flavor end of the grid, parallel to zest and tart 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.

#36a9a1
Original
#a0a0a1
Protanopia
#8f94a2
Deuteranopia
#00ada6
Tritanopia
#909090
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
2.86:1
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
7.35:1

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
##36A9A1
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.3505 0.6537 0.6293)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.101

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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