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Squared Tower Verdigris

#39bdb8
Notes

Squared Tower Verdigris (#39BDB8) 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 (178°, 54%, 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
#39bdb8
RGB
rgb(57, 189, 184)
HSL
hsl(178, 54%, 48%)
HWB
hwb(178 22% 26%)
OKLCH
oklch(72.8% 0.111 191.3)
P3
color(display-p3 0.3871 0.7310 0.7179)
HSV
hsv(178, 70%, 74%)
LAB
lab(69.98% -35.82 -7.78)
LCH
lch(69.98% 36.65 192.26)
CMYK
cmyk(70%, 0%, 3%, 26%)

Etymology

Squared
adjective

Latin quadrātus, four-sided — past-participle of square. As a color modifier, squared implies a clear-and-rectilinear-and-orthogonal quality where the hue carries the visual register of right-angle architectural-and-grid alignment. Sits at the crisp-and-balanced end of the grid, parallel to aligned and plumb in usage.

Tower
modifier

Latin turris, tower. As a color modifier, tower implies a tall-fortified-or-cathedral-tower quality, the visual register of Tower-of-London-and-Italian-bell-tower hand-built tall-fortified-or-bell-tower medieval-and-Renaissance-tower architectural surfaces under medieval-and-Renaissance tower-and-belfry monumental light. Sits at the modifier-and-architecture end of the grid, parallel to turret and keep in usage.

Verdigris
noun

The basic copper carbonate that forms on weathered copper and bronze — the pigment scraped from oxidized metal and used in Renaissance painting before being supplanted by more stable greens. The color refers to a thick verdigris on aged copper roofing or the Statue of Liberty's surface: a soft, slightly muted blue-green with the powdery finish of mineral oxide. Cooler than patina, warmer than seafoam, with the archaeological weight of a mineral made by time.

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.

#39bdb8
Original
#b2b3b8
Protanopia
#9ea5b9
Deuteranopia
#00c2bb
Tritanopia
#a1a1a1
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
2.30:1
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
9.15:1

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
##39BDB8
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.3871 0.7310 0.7179)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.111

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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