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Refreshing Twine Verdigris

#36b5b7
Notes

Refreshing Twine Verdigris (#36B5B7) 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 (181°, 54%, 46%) 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
#36b5b7
RGB
rgb(54, 181, 183)
HSL
hsl(181, 54%, 46%)
HWB
hwb(181 21% 28%)
OKLCH
oklch(70.7% 0.107 196.6)
P3
color(display-p3 0.3693 0.7000 0.7120)
HSV
hsv(181, 70%, 72%)
LAB
lab(67.46% -32.75 -10.99)
LCH
lch(67.46% 34.54 198.56)
CMYK
cmyk(70%, 1%, 0%, 28%)

Etymology

Refreshing
adjective

Old French refreschir, to make fresh again — present-participle of refresh. As a color modifier, refreshing implies a clear-and-cool-and-revitalizing quality, the crisp color of Cornish-coast and Hebridean-island fresh-sea-air-and-cool-water revitalization. Sits at the crisp-and-cool end of the grid, parallel to fresh and bracing in usage.

Twine
modifier

Old English twīn, double-thread. As a color modifier, twine implies a hand-twisted-string quality, the visual register of hand-twisted-and-laid-twine hand-twisted-and-laid string-and-twine-and-cord hand-twisted-twine-and-cord surfaces under hand-twisted-and-laid-twine working light. Sits at the modifier-and-texture end of the grid, parallel to cord and twined 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.

#36b5b7
Original
#a9acb7
Protanopia
#969eb8
Deuteranopia
#00bbb5
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
2.49:1
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
8.45:1

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
##36B5B7
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.3693 0.7000 0.7120)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.107

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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