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Pragmatic Nereid Denim

#486688
Notes

Pragmatic Nereid Denim (#486688) is a true azure 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 (212°, 31%, 41%) 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 orange. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#486688
RGB
rgb(72, 102, 136)
HSL
hsl(212, 31%, 41%)
HWB
hwb(212 28% 47%)
OKLCH
oklch(50.1% 0.065 252.2)
P3
color(display-p3 0.3073 0.3968 0.5219)
HSV
hsv(212, 47%, 53%)
LAB
lab(42.24% -1.15 -22.22)
LCH
lch(42.24% 22.25 267.05)
CMYK
cmyk(47%, 25%, 0%, 47%)

Etymology

Pragmatic
adjective

Greek pragmatikós, of business / practical — adjectival suffix -ic. As a color modifier, pragmatic implies a clear-and-purpose-fit-and-no-nonsense quality where the hue carries the visual register of straightforward-utilitarian-and-functional decision-making. Sits at the crisp-and-functional end of the grid, parallel to practical and functional in usage.

Nereid
modifier

Greek Νηρηΐς, sea-nymph-daughter-of-Nereus. As a color modifier, nereid implies a sea-nymph-and-Aegean-foam quality, the visual register of Hellenic-Nereid-and-Aegean-sea-nymph hand-sea-nymph-and-Aegean-foam Hellenic-Nereid-and-Aegean-sea-nymph-and-Poseidon-court nereid-and-sea-nymph-and-Aegean-foam surfaces under Hellenic-Nereid-and-Aegean-sea-nymph-and-Poseidon-court Aegean-island-and-rocky-cove sea-nymph-light. Sits at the modifier-and-myth end of the grid, parallel to nymph and dryad in usage.

Denim
noun

The diagonal-twill cotton fabric originally woven in Nîmes, France — serge de Nîmes, contracted to denim — and dyed with indigo since at least the eighteenth century. The color refers to a worn but un-faded pair of raw denim jeans: a saturated, slightly muted blue with the matte finish of cotton fiber that has absorbed dye through generations of weft and warp. Cooler than royal, warmer than navy.

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.

#486688
Original
#59678a
Protanopia
#516187
Deuteranopia
#2e6e72
Tritanopia
#626262
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).
AAon White
5.95:1
The quick brown foxSample body text at normal size. The wcag minimum for body contrast is 4.5:1 (AA) or 7:1 (AAA).
AA Largeon Black
3.53:1

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
##486688
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.3073 0.3968 0.5219)
Inside sRGBOKLCH chroma 0.065

This color sits well within the sRGB cube. P3 and sRGB share the gray axis and most desaturated tones, so a P3 display renders this identically to an sRGB display.

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