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Easy Inlet

#42bbe1
Notes

Easy Inlet (#42BBE1) 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 (194°, 73%, 57%) 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
#42bbe1
RGB
rgb(66, 187, 225)
HSL
hsl(194, 73%, 57%)
HWB
hwb(194 26% 12%)
OKLCH
oklch(74.1% 0.118 222.9)
HSV
hsv(194, 71%, 88%)
LAB
lab(70.96% -21.29 -28.70)
LCH
lch(70.96% 35.73 233.43)
CMYK
cmyk(71%, 17%, 0%, 12%)

Etymology

Easy
adjective

Old French aisié, comfortable, at rest — used as a color modifier since the eighteenth century for hues that read as visually undemanding. Easy beige, easy gray: moderate saturation combined with optical restfulness. Sits at the crisp-bucket center alongside calm and settled.

Inlet
noun

A narrow body of water leading inland from a sea or lake — particularly the saltwater inlets of the Pacific Northwest and Norway. Inlet color refers to a Pacific Northwest fjord inlet at midday: a saturated, slightly cool deep blue with the optical depth of cold-water tidal inlet.

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.

#42bbe1
Original
#a5b7e3
Protanopia
#8fa7e1
Deuteranopia
#00c7c7
Tritanopia
#a4a4a4
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
2.23:1
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
9.43:1

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