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Dependable Cowl Turquoise

#3babb8
Notes

Dependable Cowl Turquoise (#3BABB8) 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 (186°, 51%, 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
#3babb8
RGB
rgb(59, 171, 184)
HSL
hsl(186, 51%, 48%)
HWB
hwb(186 23% 28%)
OKLCH
oklch(68.4% 0.100 206.1)
P3
color(display-p3 0.3628 0.6616 0.7130)
HSV
hsv(186, 68%, 72%)
LAB
lab(64.57% -26.88 -15.88)
LCH
lch(64.57% 31.22 210.57)
CMYK
cmyk(68%, 7%, 0%, 28%)

Etymology

Dependable
adjective

Latin dē-pendere, to hang from — adjectival suffix -able. As a color modifier, dependable implies a clear-and-trustworthy-and-consistent quality where the hue carries the visual register of consistently-performing-and-counted-on design-element. Sits at the crisp-and-honest end of the grid, parallel to reliable and trustworthy in usage.

Cowl
modifier

Latin cuculla, monk's-hood-or-hood-of-habit. As a color modifier, cowl implies a monk's-hood-and-deeply-folded-hood quality, the visual register of Benedictine-and-Cistercian-monk's-cowl hand-monk's-hood-and-deeply-folded-hood Benedictine-and-Cistercian-monk's-cowl-and-Cluny-Abbey cowl-and-monk's-hood surfaces under Benedictine-and-Cistercian-monk's-cowl-and-Cluny-Abbey Cluny-and-Cîteaux-Abbey monastic-cloister-light. Sits at the modifier-and-textile end of the grid, parallel to cloak and frock in usage.

Turquoise
noun

The hydrated copper-aluminum phosphate mined in Persia and the American Southwest for thousands of years — the firuze of Iran, the chalchihuitl of Mesoamerica, the heart of Pueblo and Navajo silverwork. The color refers to a fine Sleeping Beauty turquoise from Arizona: a saturated, slightly green-shifted blue with the slight matrix of host-rock veining. Brighter than persian, lighter than cerulean.

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.

#3babb8
Original
#9da4b9
Protanopia
#8b97b8
Deuteranopia
#00b2af
Tritanopia
#949494
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
2.73:1
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
7.70:1

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
##3BABB8
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.3628 0.6616 0.7130)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.100

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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