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True Shamrock

#3e8421
Notes

True Shamrock (#3E8421) is a deep green with a jewel character. It carries the deep, saturated richness of a gemstone. Authoritative and slightly formal, it works well for type and heavy UI elements. Its HSL profile (102°, 60%, 32%) places it in the balanced band at a dark lightness. It works well as a headline, icon, or deep background in an otherwise light layout, pairing cleanly with cream, bone, and warm neutrals. For a confident two-color system, pair it with its complementary violet. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#3e8421
RGB
rgb(62, 132, 33)
HSL
hsl(102, 60%, 32%)
HWB
hwb(102 13% 48%)
OKLCH
oklch(54.7% 0.149 138.3)
P3
color(display-p3 0.3144 0.5113 0.1944)
HSV
hsv(102, 75%, 52%)
LAB
lab(49.05% -40.39 44.11)
LCH
lch(49.05% 59.81 132.48)
CMYK
cmyk(53%, 0%, 75%, 48%)

Etymology

True
adjective

Old English trēowe, faithful — used as a color modifier since the seventeenth century for hues that read as the canonical version of their family. True red, true blue: the saturation is full, the hue is neither shifted nor adulterated. Sits at the center of the bold and crisp buckets, marking the unequivocal middle of any chromatic family.

Shamrock
noun

Trifolium dubium or Oxalis acetosella — the three-leaf clover that Saint Patrick reportedly used to teach the Trinity, and that since became the unifying icon of Irish national identity. The color refers to the leaves of fresh shamrock in spring: a saturated, slightly yellow-shifted green with the matte finish of small leguminous foliage. Brighter than spinach, lighter than fern, with the cultural weight of a single word that means Ireland.

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.

#3e8421
Original
#88780f
Protanopia
#7f722b
Deuteranopia
#387f71
Tritanopia
#6e6e6e
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).
AAon White
4.64:1
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
4.53:1

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
##3E8421
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.3144 0.5113 0.1944)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.149

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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