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Stable Spar Turquoise

#45e4dd
Notes

Stable Spar Turquoise (#45E4DD) 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 (177°, 75%, 58%) 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
#45e4dd
RGB
rgb(69, 228, 221)
HSL
hsl(177, 75%, 58%)
HWB
hwb(177 27% 11%)
OKLCH
oklch(83.7% 0.129 190.6)
P3
color(display-p3 0.4693 0.8819 0.8627)
HSV
hsv(177, 70%, 89%)
LAB
lab(82.90% -41.72 -8.50)
LCH
lch(82.90% 42.58 191.52)
CMYK
cmyk(70%, 0%, 3%, 11%)

Etymology

Stable
adjective

Latin stabilis, standing-firm — sharing root with stand. As a color modifier, stable implies a clear-and-firm-and-unchanging quality where the hue carries the visual register of resistant-to-modulation-and-fade pigmentation. Sits at the crisp-and-firm end of the grid, parallel to steady and settled in usage.

Spar
modifier

Old Norse sparri, long-pole. As a color modifier, spar implies a long-wooden-pole-for-sail quality, the visual register of Tall-Ship-and-Royal-Navy-spar hand-cut long-wooden-pole-and-spar-for-sail mast-and-yard-and-boom maritime-rigging surfaces under tall-ship-spar-and-yard maritime-rigging light. Sits at the modifier-and-nautical end of the grid, parallel to mast and boom 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.

#45e4dd
Original
#d7d8dd
Protanopia
#c0c7de
Deuteranopia
#00eae1
Tritanopia
#c2c2c2
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
1.57:1
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
13.39:1

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
##45E4DD
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.4693 0.8819 0.8627)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.129

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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