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Aligned Helen Verdigris

#46a7a0
Notes

Aligned Helen Verdigris (#46A7A0) 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°, 41%, 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
#46a7a0
RGB
rgb(70, 167, 160)
HSL
hsl(176, 41%, 46%)
HWB
hwb(176 27% 35%)
OKLCH
oklch(66.9% 0.091 188.7)
P3
color(display-p3 0.3795 0.6466 0.6255)
HSV
hsv(176, 58%, 65%)
LAB
lab(62.91% -29.96 -4.93)
LCH
lch(62.91% 30.36 189.34)
CMYK
cmyk(58%, 0%, 4%, 35%)

Etymology

Aligned
adjective

French à-ligne, to-line-up — past-participle of align. As a color modifier, aligned implies a clear-and-axis-coordinated quality where the hue carries the visual register of carefully-parallel-arranged elements. Sits at the crisp-and-balanced end of the grid, parallel to symmetrical and squared in usage.

Helen
modifier

Greek Ἑλένη, Helen-of-Troy. As a color modifier, helen implies a Helen-of-Troy-and-fairest-face quality, the visual register of Helen-of-Troy-and-Tyndareus-Sparta hand-Helen-of-Troy-and-fairest-face Helen-of-Troy-and-Tyndareus-Sparta-and-Iliad-Homeric helen-and-Helen-of-Troy-and-fairest-face surfaces under Helen-of-Troy-and-Tyndareus-Sparta-and-Iliad-Homeric Mycenaean-and-Trojan Bronze-Age-Aegean-light. Sits at the modifier-and-myth end of the grid, parallel to eros and hera 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.

#46a7a0
Original
#9e9fa0
Protanopia
#8f93a1
Deuteranopia
#00aba5
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
2.88:1
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
7.30:1

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
##46A7A0
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.3795 0.6466 0.6255)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.091

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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