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Untroubled Surf

#39c2bf
Notes

Untroubled Surf (#39C2BF) 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 (179°, 55%, 49%) 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
#39c2bf
RGB
rgb(57, 194, 191)
HSL
hsl(179, 55%, 49%)
HWB
hwb(179 22% 24%)
OKLCH
oklch(74.3% 0.114 192.8)
P3
color(display-p3 0.3951 0.7503 0.7446)
HSV
hsv(179, 71%, 76%)
LAB
lab(71.70% -36.15 -9.06)
LCH
lch(71.70% 37.27 194.06)
CMYK
cmyk(71%, 0%, 2%, 24%)

Etymology

Untroubled
adjective

Latin turbāre, to disturb — negative-prefix un- plus past-participle of trouble. As a color modifier, untroubled implies a clear-and-calm-and-undisturbed quality where the hue carries no visual agitation. Sits at the crisp-and-calm end of the grid, parallel to serene and placid in usage.

Surf
noun

The white water produced where waves break — bubbles of compressed air carried in shallow water and dispersing as the wave reforms. The color refers to surf retreating across wet sand: a soft, very pale blue-green with the optical brightness of bubble dispersion. Lighter than seafoam, cooler than frost, with the kinetic weight of a color that's never still — every photograph of surf is already obsolete.

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.

#39c2bf
Original
#b6b8bf
Protanopia
#a2a9c0
Deuteranopia
#00c8c1
Tritanopia
#a5a5a5
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
2.18:1
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
9.64:1

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
##39C2BF
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.3951 0.7503 0.7446)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.114

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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