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Organized Throne Kingfisher

#38a5b3
Notes

Organized Throne Kingfisher (#38A5B3) 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 (187°, 52%, 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
#38a5b3
RGB
rgb(56, 165, 179)
HSL
hsl(187, 52%, 46%)
HWB
hwb(187 22% 30%)
OKLCH
oklch(66.7% 0.098 207.3)
P3
color(display-p3 0.3481 0.6383 0.6932)
HSV
hsv(187, 69%, 70%)
LAB
lab(62.51% -25.84 -16.22)
LCH
lch(62.51% 30.51 212.11)
CMYK
cmyk(69%, 8%, 0%, 30%)

Etymology

Organized
adjective

Greek órganon, instrument / tool — past-participle of organize. As a color modifier, organized implies a clear-and-coordinated-and-systematic quality where the hue carries the visual register of well-coordinated-and-classified arrangement. Sits at the crisp-and-orderly end of the grid, parallel to orderly and methodical in usage.

Throne
modifier

Latin thronus, seat-of-state. As a color modifier, throne implies a king-and-queen-ceremonial-seat quality, the visual register of Russian-Imperial-and-Tudor-Court hand-carved jeweled-and-gilt-and-velvet ceremonial-seat-of-state surfaces under Russian-Imperial-Romanov-and-Tudor-Court hand-carved ceremonial-seat candlelight. Sits at the modifier-and-cultural end of the grid, parallel to crown and manor in usage.

Kingfisher
noun

The family Alcedinidae — particularly Alcedo atthis, the European common kingfisher whose iridescent turquoise-blue plumage gives the color its name. The color refers to a male European kingfisher's wing: a saturated, slightly cool deep blue-green with the iridescent satin finish of structurally colored feathers.

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.

#38a5b3
Original
#979fb4
Protanopia
#8592b3
Deuteranopia
#00aca9
Tritanopia
#8f8f8f
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
2.92:1
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
7.20:1

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
##38A5B3
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.3481 0.6383 0.6932)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.098

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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