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Genuine Boom Lagoon

#3ab3cc
Notes

Genuine Boom Lagoon (#3AB3CC) 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°, 59%, 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
#3ab3cc
RGB
rgb(58, 179, 204)
HSL
hsl(190, 59%, 51%)
HWB
hwb(190 23% 20%)
OKLCH
oklch(71.1% 0.109 214.6)
P3
color(display-p3 0.3732 0.6924 0.7877)
HSV
hsv(190, 72%, 80%)
LAB
lab(67.65% -24.88 -22.29)
LCH
lch(67.65% 33.40 221.87)
CMYK
cmyk(72%, 12%, 0%, 20%)

Etymology

Genuine
adjective

Latin genuinus, natural, innate — used as a color modifier since the sixteenth century for hues that read as authentic rather than imitated. Genuine indigo, genuine ochre: moderate-to-high saturation combined with the optical impression of a hue from real pigment rather than synthetic dye. Sits at the crisp-bucket alongside true and honest.

Boom
modifier

Dutch boom, tree / spar. As a color modifier, boom implies a horizontal-spar-attached-to-mast quality, the visual register of Tall-Ship-and-yacht-boom hand-cut horizontal-spar-attached-to-mast-foot boom-and-mainsail tall-ship-and-yacht maritime-rigging surfaces under tall-ship-and-yacht boom-and-mainsail maritime light. Sits at the modifier-and-nautical end of the grid, parallel to spar and mast 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.

#3ab3cc
Original
#a1adcd
Protanopia
#8d9ecc
Deuteranopia
#00bcbb
Tritanopia
#9b9b9b
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
2.47:1
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
8.50:1

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
##3AB3CC
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.3732 0.6924 0.7877)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.109

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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