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Plainspoken Kilt Kingfisher

#47cac2
Notes

Plainspoken Kilt Kingfisher (#47CAC2) is a true cyan with a cool character. It leans cool, sitting on the blue, green, and violet side of the wheel. Quiet and dependable, a fit for product UI and data visualization. Its HSL profile (176°, 55%, 54%) 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
#47cac2
RGB
rgb(71, 202, 194)
HSL
hsl(176, 55%, 54%)
HWB
hwb(176 28% 21%)
OKLCH
oklch(76.6% 0.113 189.3)
P3
color(display-p3 0.4324 0.7816 0.7580)
HSV
hsv(176, 65%, 79%)
LAB
lab(74.49% -37.03 -6.51)
LCH
lch(74.49% 37.59 189.97)
CMYK
cmyk(65%, 0%, 4%, 21%)

Etymology

Plainspoken
adjective

English compound plain + spoken — past-participle of speak. As a color modifier, plainspoken implies a clear-and-direct-and-straightforward quality where the hue carries the visual register of unembellished-honest declaration. Sits at the crisp-and-honest end of the grid, parallel to candid and direct in usage.

Kilt
modifier

Scots kilt, Highland-pleated-skirt. As a color modifier, kilt implies a Highland-tartan-and-pleated-skirt quality, the visual register of Highland-tartan-and-Black-Watch-kilt hand-Highland-tartan-and-pleated-skirt Highland-tartan-and-Black-Watch-kilt-and-clan-Macleod kilt-and-Highland-tartan surfaces under Highland-tartan-and-Black-Watch-kilt-and-clan-Macleod Highland-clan-and-Edinburgh-tartan-mill tartan-and-pleated-light. Sits at the modifier-and-textile end of the grid, parallel to sash and tabard in usage.

Kingfisher
noun

The family Alcedinidae — particularly Alcedo atthis, the European common kingfisher whose iridescent turquoise-blue plumage gives the color its name. The color refers to a male European kingfisher's wing: a saturated, slightly cool deep blue-green with the iridescent satin finish of structurally colored feathers.

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.

#47cac2
Original
#bfc0c2
Protanopia
#abb1c3
Deuteranopia
#00cfc7
Tritanopia
#aeaeae
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
2.00:1
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
10.50:1

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
##47CAC2
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.4324 0.7816 0.7580)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.113

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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