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Unblemished Prism Turquoise

#46ddd4
Notes

Unblemished Prism Turquoise (#46DDD4) 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 (176°, 69%, 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
#46ddd4
RGB
rgb(70, 221, 212)
HSL
hsl(176, 69%, 57%)
HWB
hwb(176 27% 13%)
OKLCH
oklch(81.8% 0.125 189.2)
P3
color(display-p3 0.4598 0.8549 0.8283)
HSV
hsv(176, 68%, 87%)
LAB
lab(80.61% -40.91 -7.11)
LCH
lch(80.61% 41.52 189.87)
CMYK
cmyk(68%, 0%, 4%, 13%)

Etymology

Unblemished
adjective

Old French blesmir, to wound — negative-prefix un- plus past-participle of blemish. As a color modifier, unblemished implies a clear-and-flawless quality where the hue carries no defect or imperfection. Sits at the crisp-and-clean end of the grid, parallel to pristine and spotless in usage.

Prism
modifier

Greek πρῖσμα, something-sawn. As a color modifier, prism implies a Newtonian-rainbow-and-spectrum-splitting quality, the visual register of Newton-Optics-and-Cambridge-prism hand-Newtonian-rainbow-and-spectrum-splitting Newton-Optics-and-Cambridge-and-Trinity-College-prism prism-and-Newtonian-rainbow-and-spectrum-splitting surfaces under Newton-Optics-and-Cambridge-and-Trinity-College-prism 17th-century-natural-philosophy-and-rainbow-experiment spectrum-light. Sits at the modifier-and-cosmic end of the grid, parallel to corona and plasma 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.

#46ddd4
Original
#d1d1d4
Protanopia
#bbc1d5
Deuteranopia
#00e3da
Tritanopia
#bcbcbc
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
1.67:1
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
12.55:1

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
##46DDD4
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.4598 0.8549 0.8283)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.125

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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