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Throbbing Hull Turquoise

#45e0ca
Notes

Throbbing Hull Turquoise (#45E0CA) is a true teal with a vibrant character. It holds its own as a focal accent, carrying visual weight without tipping into neon territory. Its HSL profile (171°, 71%, 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
#45e0ca
RGB
rgb(69, 224, 202)
HSL
hsl(171, 71%, 57%)
HWB
hwb(171 27% 12%)
OKLCH
oklch(82.2% 0.131 181.4)
P3
color(display-p3 0.4629 0.8664 0.7934)
HSV
hsv(171, 69%, 88%)
LAB
lab(81.20% -45.01 -0.92)
LCH
lch(81.20% 45.02 181.17)
CMYK
cmyk(69%, 0%, 10%, 12%)

Etymology

Throbbing
adjective

Imitative-onomatopoeic origin — present-participle of throb, with sound-and-action mimicry. As a color modifier, throbbing implies a saturated-and-pulsing-and-resonant quality, the bright color of bass-drop-and-rave-light low-frequency rhythm-pulse emission. Sits at the bright-and-active end of the grid, parallel to pulsating and strobing in usage.

Hull
modifier

Old English hulu, husk / shell. As a color modifier, hull implies a ship's-body-and-skin quality, the visual register of Royal-Navy-and-merchant-marine-hull hand-laid clinker-and-carvel-built timber-and-iron-and-steel ship's-hull-and-skin maritime-architecture surfaces under ship-hull-and-waterline maritime-and-dry-dock light. Sits at the modifier-and-nautical end of the grid, parallel to keel and prow 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.

#45e0ca
Original
#d6d3c9
Protanopia
#c0c3cc
Deuteranopia
#00e4d9
Tritanopia
#bdbdbd
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
1.64:1
The quick brown foxSample body text at normal size. The wcag minimum for body contrast is 4.5:1 (AA) or 7:1 (AAA).
AAAon Black
12.77:1

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
##45E0CA
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.4629 0.8664 0.7934)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.131

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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