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Direct Nymph Lagoon

#40bedf
Notes

Direct Nymph Lagoon (#40BEDF) is a true cyan with a vibrant character. It holds its own as a focal accent, carrying visual weight without tipping into neon territory. Its HSL profile (192°, 71%, 56%) 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
#40bedf
RGB
rgb(64, 190, 223)
HSL
hsl(192, 71%, 56%)
HWB
hwb(192 25% 13%)
OKLCH
oklch(74.7% 0.117 219.1)
P3
color(display-p3 0.4010 0.7350 0.8597)
HSV
hsv(192, 71%, 87%)
LAB
lab(71.72% -23.71 -26.45)
LCH
lch(71.72% 35.52 228.13)
CMYK
cmyk(71%, 15%, 0%, 13%)

Etymology

Direct
adjective

From the Latin directus, straight — used as a color modifier since the eighteenth century for hues that read as straightforward and unambiguous. Direct red, direct green: moderate-to-high saturation combined with optical clarity. Sits at the crisp-bucket center alongside clear and frank.

Nymph
modifier

Greek νύμφη, nature-spirit-and-young-bride. As a color modifier, nymph implies a nature-spirit-and-grove-and-spring quality, the visual register of Hellenic-nymph-and-grove-and-spring hand-nature-spirit-and-grove-and-spring Hellenic-nymph-and-grove-and-spring-and-Arcadian-pastoral nymph-and-nature-spirit-and-grove surfaces under Hellenic-nymph-and-grove-and-spring-and-Arcadian-pastoral Mediterranean-grove-and-stream dappled-grove-light. Sits at the modifier-and-myth end of the grid, parallel to dryad and nereid 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.

#40bedf
Original
#a9b9e1
Protanopia
#93a9df
Deuteranopia
#00c9c8
Tritanopia
#a6a6a6
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
9.65:1

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
##40BEDF
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.4010 0.7350 0.8597)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.117

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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