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Organized Glass Verdigris

#42a8a1
Notes

Organized Glass Verdigris (#42A8A1) 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 (176°, 44%, 46%) 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
#42a8a1
RGB
rgb(66, 168, 161)
HSL
hsl(176, 44%, 46%)
HWB
hwb(176 26% 34%)
OKLCH
oklch(67.1% 0.094 188.9)
P3
color(display-p3 0.3724 0.6503 0.6293)
HSV
hsv(176, 61%, 66%)
LAB
lab(63.12% -30.92 -5.18)
LCH
lch(63.12% 31.35 189.51)
CMYK
cmyk(61%, 0%, 4%, 34%)

Etymology

Organized
adjective

Greek órganon, instrument / tool — past-participle of organize. As a color modifier, organized implies a clear-and-coordinated-and-systematic quality where the hue carries the visual register of well-coordinated-and-classified arrangement. Sits at the crisp-and-orderly end of the grid, parallel to orderly and methodical in usage.

Glass
modifier

Old English glæs, glass. As a color modifier, glass implies a transparent-and-vitreous quality, the visual register of Murano-and-Bohemian-glass hand-blown-and-cut crystal-and-leaded-glass Venetian-and-Bohemian glass-and-crystal surfaces under Murano-and-Bohemian-glass workshop-light. Sits at the modifier-and-texture end of the grid, parallel to gloss and shine in usage.

Verdigris
noun

The basic copper carbonate that forms on weathered copper and bronze — the pigment scraped from oxidized metal and used in Renaissance painting before being supplanted by more stable greens. The color refers to a thick verdigris on aged copper roofing or the Statue of Liberty's surface: a soft, slightly muted blue-green with the powdery finish of mineral oxide. Cooler than patina, warmer than seafoam, with the archaeological weight of a mineral made by time.

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.

#42a8a1
Original
#9fa0a1
Protanopia
#8f94a2
Deuteranopia
#00aca6
Tritanopia
#929292
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
2.86:1
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
7.35:1

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
##42A8A1
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.3724 0.6503 0.6293)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.094

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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