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Effective Glide Turquoise

#38b4bf
Notes

Effective Glide Turquoise (#38B4BF) 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 (185°, 55%, 48%) 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
#38b4bf
RGB
rgb(56, 180, 191)
HSL
hsl(185, 55%, 48%)
HWB
hwb(185 22% 25%)
OKLCH
oklch(70.8% 0.106 203.7)
P3
color(display-p3 0.3712 0.6962 0.7407)
HSV
hsv(185, 71%, 75%)
LAB
lab(67.46% -29.63 -15.41)
LCH
lch(67.46% 33.40 207.49)
CMYK
cmyk(71%, 6%, 0%, 25%)

Etymology

Effective
adjective

Latin effectīvus, productive — adjectival suffix -ive. As a color modifier, effective implies a clear-and-purpose-achieving quality where the hue carries the visual register of successful-task-completion design-element. Sits at the crisp-and-functional end of the grid, parallel to practical and useful in usage.

Glide
modifier

Old English glīdan, to-move-smoothly. As a color modifier, glide implies a smooth-and-silent-and-frictionless quality, the visual register of swan-and-skater-glide hand-smooth-and-silent-and-frictionless swan-and-skater-and-soaring-albatross glided-and-smooth-and-silent-and-frictionless surfaces under swan-and-skater-and-soaring-albatross frozen-pond-and-Hyde-Park-Serpentine-and-open-ocean smooth-flight-light. Sits at the modifier-and-mood end of the grid, parallel to float and hover in usage.

Turquoise
noun

The hydrated copper-aluminum phosphate mined in Persia and the American Southwest for thousands of years — the firuze of Iran, the chalchihuitl of Mesoamerica, the heart of Pueblo and Navajo silverwork. The color refers to a fine Sleeping Beauty turquoise from Arizona: a saturated, slightly green-shifted blue with the slight matrix of host-rock veining. Brighter than persian, lighter than cerulean.

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.

#38b4bf
Original
#a6acc0
Protanopia
#929ebf
Deuteranopia
#00bbb7
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
##38B4BF
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.3712 0.6962 0.7407)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.106

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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