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Luminous Selkie

#38b963
Notes

Luminous Selkie (#38B963) is a true green 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 (140°, 54%, 47%) 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 magenta. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#38b963
RGB
rgb(56, 185, 99)
HSL
hsl(140, 54%, 47%)
HWB
hwb(140 22% 27%)
OKLCH
oklch(69.6% 0.167 150.3)
P3
color(display-p3 0.3791 0.7155 0.4228)
HSV
hsv(140, 70%, 73%)
LAB
lab(66.85% -53.75 33.66)
LCH
lch(66.85% 63.42 147.94)
CMYK
cmyk(70%, 0%, 46%, 27%)

Etymology

Luminous
adjective

Latin lūminōsus, full of light — adjectival suffix -ous, derived from lūmen (light). As a color modifier, luminous implies a saturated-and-light-emitting quality where the hue carries internal-glow visual register. Sits at the bright-and-saturated end of the grid, parallel to radiant and resplendent in usage.

Selkie
noun

The seal-people of Celtic folklore — particularly Scottish, Irish, and Faroese mythology — beings who shed sealskin to take human form. Selkie color refers to the deep blue-green of Atlantic waters where the seal-folk are said to live: a deep, slightly cool deep blue-green with the optical complexity of cold Atlantic open water.

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.

#38b963
Original
#baa95c
Protanopia
#aa9e69
Deuteranopia
#00b6a4
Tritanopia
#979797
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
2.53:1
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
8.29:1

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
##38B963
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.3791 0.7155 0.4228)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.167

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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