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Reposeful Cay Mint

#3b9983
Notes

Reposeful Cay Mint (#3B9983) is a true teal 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 (166°, 44%, 42%) 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
#3b9983
RGB
rgb(59, 153, 131)
HSL
hsl(166, 44%, 42%)
HWB
hwb(166 23% 40%)
OKLCH
oklch(62.1% 0.095 174.9)
P3
color(display-p3 0.3363 0.5921 0.5174)
HSV
hsv(166, 61%, 60%)
LAB
lab(57.41% -33.14 3.38)
LCH
lch(57.41% 33.31 174.18)
CMYK
cmyk(61%, 0%, 14%, 40%)

Etymology

Reposeful
adjective

Latin repōnere, to put back — adjectival suffix -ful. As a color modifier, reposeful implies a clear-and-restful-and-still quality, the calm color of pre-modern monastic cloister-and-refectory meditative-and-silent interior architecture. Sits at the crisp-and-calm end of the grid, parallel to peaceful and placid in usage.

Cay
modifier

Spanish cayo via Taíno cayo, low-island. As a color modifier, cay implies a tropical-coral-and-sand-spit quality, the visual register of Caribbean-and-Bahamian small low-tide reef-and-sand-spit sun-bleached-coral coastal surfaces in turquoise-water shallow-tropical light. Sits at the modifier-and-place end of the grid, parallel to isle and spit in usage.

Mint
noun

The genus Mentha — peppermint, spearmint, apple mint, water mint — the cooling herb whose menthol gives it that quality at the molecular level. The color refers to fresh peppermint leaves before drying: a clean, slightly cool green with the matte finish of trichome-rich leaf surface. Lighter than basil, cooler than parsley, with the mojito-and-Pimm's association of a herb tied to summer drinks across two continents.

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.

#3b9983
Original
#949082
Protanopia
#868685
Deuteranopia
#009b92
Tritanopia
#838383
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).
AA Largeon White
3.46:1
The quick brown foxSample body text at normal size. The wcag minimum for body contrast is 4.5:1 (AA) or 7:1 (AAA).
AAon Black
6.07:1

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
##3B9983
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.3363 0.5921 0.5174)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.095

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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