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Aligned Nadir Lagoon

#39b0c9
Notes

Aligned Nadir Lagoon (#39B0C9) 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 (190°, 57%, 51%) 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
#39b0c9
RGB
rgb(57, 176, 201)
HSL
hsl(190, 57%, 51%)
HWB
hwb(190 22% 21%)
OKLCH
oklch(70.3% 0.108 214.9)
P3
color(display-p3 0.3667 0.6808 0.7760)
HSV
hsv(190, 72%, 79%)
LAB
lab(66.62% -24.43 -22.20)
LCH
lch(66.62% 33.01 222.27)
CMYK
cmyk(72%, 12%, 0%, 21%)

Etymology

Aligned
adjective

French à-ligne, to-line-up — past-participle of align. As a color modifier, aligned implies a clear-and-axis-coordinated quality where the hue carries the visual register of carefully-parallel-arranged elements. Sits at the crisp-and-balanced end of the grid, parallel to symmetrical and squared in usage.

Nadir
modifier

Arabic naẓīr, opposite-of-zenith. As a color modifier, nadir implies a downward-pointing-and-low-point quality, the visual register of celestial-sphere-and-downward-Nadir hand-downward-pointing-and-low-point celestial-sphere-and-downward-and-Nadir-pole nadir-and-downward-pointing-and-low-point surfaces under celestial-sphere-and-downward-and-Nadir-pole astronomical-and-celestial-mechanics downward-axis-light. Sits at the modifier-and-cosmic end of the grid, parallel to zenith and axis in usage.

Lagoon
noun

A shallow body of saltwater partially or fully enclosed by a barrier — coral atoll lagoons in the Pacific, Venice's Laguna Veneta, the Florida Keys' backcountry. The color refers to the average reflectance of a calm tropical lagoon at midday: a saturated, slightly muted blue-green with the optical clarity of shallow water over white sand. Brighter than reef, cooler than aquamarine, with the postcard weight of a Pacific atoll seen from above.

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.

#39b0c9
Original
#9eaaca
Protanopia
#8a9cc9
Deuteranopia
#00b9b8
Tritanopia
#999999
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
2.55:1
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
8.23:1

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
##39B0C9
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.3667 0.6808 0.7760)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.108

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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