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Methodical Hawkseye

#39abd2
Notes

Methodical Hawkseye (#39ABD2) is a true cyan with a cool character. It leans cool, sitting on the blue, green, and violet side of the wheel. Quiet and dependable, a fit for product UI and data visualization. Its HSL profile (195°, 63%, 52%) 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 orange. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#39abd2
RGB
rgb(57, 171, 210)
HSL
hsl(195, 63%, 52%)
HWB
hwb(195 22% 18%)
OKLCH
oklch(69.4% 0.114 225.2)
HSV
hsv(195, 73%, 82%)
LAB
lab(65.47% -18.96 -28.95)
LCH
lch(65.47% 34.60 236.77)
CMYK
cmyk(73%, 19%, 0%, 18%)

Etymology

Methodical
adjective

Greek méthodos, systematic-procedure — adjectival suffix -al. As a color modifier, methodical implies a clear-and-systematic-and-step-by-step quality where the hue carries the visual register of careful-procedure-followed design-element. Sits at the crisp-and-orderly end of the grid, parallel to orderly and organized in usage.

Hawkseye
noun

A blue-gray variety of tigereye quartz — colored by crocidolite asbestos inclusions that scatter light into a chatoyant band like the eye of a raptor. The color refers to a polished Hawkseye cabochon: a soft, slightly cool deep blue-gray with the optical complexity of chatoyant silicate fibers.

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

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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.

#39abd2
Original
#96a7d4
Protanopia
#8198d2
Deuteranopia
#00b7b8
Tritanopia
#969696
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
2.65:1
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
7.93:1

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