Tucked Yarn Lazuli
Tucked Yarn Lazuli (#45E0DC) 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 (178°, 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.
Etymology
Old English tūcian, to torment / pull — past-participle of tuck. As a color modifier, tucked implies a clear-and-fitted-and-arranged quality where the hue carries the visual register of carefully-tucked-and-neatly-fitted shirt-into-trouser dress-attire. Sits at the crisp-and-finished end of the grid, parallel to trim and pressed in usage.
Old English gearn, spun-thread. As a color modifier, yarn implies a hand-spun-thread-and-skein quality, the visual register of hand-spun-yarn-skein hand-spun-and-skeined wool-and-cotton-and-linen hand-spun-yarn-and-skein surfaces under hand-spun-and-skeined yarn-and-skein workshop-light. Sits at the modifier-and-texture end of the grid, parallel to spun and knit in usage.
Passerina amoena, the lazuli bunting — a North American songbird whose males display saturated deep-blue plumage with white wing bars and chestnut breasts. Named for the gemstone (lapis lazuli) the bird's plumage resembles. The color refers to a male lazuli bunting in breeding plumage: a saturated, slightly cool deep blue.
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 exploreHarmonies
Accessibility
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.
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.