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Blazing Frost

#48bdfa
Notes

Blazing Frost (#48BDFA) is a true azure with a neon character. It sits at the high-saturation edge of its family. Use it sparingly, as signage, accent, or highlight against darker surfaces. Its HSL profile (201°, 95%, 63%) places it in the highly saturated band at a mid lightness. Best used in small doses, like logos, CTAs, focus rings, or highlight text, where its saturation becomes a feature rather than noise. 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
#48bdfa
RGB
rgb(72, 189, 250)
HSL
hsl(201, 95%, 63%)
HWB
hwb(201 28% 2%)
OKLCH
oklch(75.8% 0.135 235.5)
P3
color(display-p3 0.4150 0.7315 0.9586)
HSV
hsv(201, 71%, 98%)
LAB
lab(72.67% -13.49 -39.58)
LCH
lch(72.67% 41.82 251.18)
CMYK
cmyk(71%, 24%, 0%, 2%)

Etymology

Blazing
adjective

Old English blǣse, flame — present-participle of blaze. As a color modifier, blazing implies a saturated-and-bright-flaming quality, the bright color of Yule-log and Bonfire-Night large-flame fire-emission. Sits at the bright-and-warm end of the grid, parallel to flaming and scorching in usage.

Frost
noun

The ice crystals that condense from atmospheric moisture onto cold surfaces — windowpanes, leaves, the windshield of a parked car at dawn. The color is barely a color: a very pale, slightly green-shifted blue with the optical brightness of micron-scale crystals scattering light. Lighter than glacier, warmer than ice, with the agricultural-calendar weight of a phenomenon that defines the growing season.

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.

#48bdfa
Original
#a0bcfd
Protanopia
#87abf9
Deuteranopia
#00cdd2
Tritanopia
#a9a9a9
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
2.11:1
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
9.94:1

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
##48BDFA
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.4150 0.7315 0.9586)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.135

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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