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Peaceful Cyaneus

#49a6ae
Notes

Peaceful Cyaneus (#49A6AE) 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 (185°, 41%, 48%) 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
#49a6ae
RGB
rgb(73, 166, 174)
HSL
hsl(185, 41%, 48%)
HWB
hwb(185 29% 32%)
OKLCH
oklch(67.3% 0.088 203.0)
P3
color(display-p3 0.3849 0.6429 0.6757)
HSV
hsv(185, 58%, 68%)
LAB
lab(63.13% -24.96 -12.43)
LCH
lch(63.13% 27.88 206.48)
CMYK
cmyk(58%, 5%, 0%, 32%)

Etymology

Peaceful
adjective

Latin pāx, peace — adjectival suffix -ful. As a color modifier, peaceful implies a clear-and-restful-and-calm quality where the hue carries the visual register of Quaker-meeting-house still-and-meditative interior atmosphere. Sits at the crisp-and-calm end of the grid, parallel to serene and placid in usage.

Cyaneus
noun

The Latin word for deep blue — used in Roman texts for the blue of cornflower (Centaurea cyanus) and the saturated blue of imperial-banquet kingfisher feathers. The color refers to a Roman-period kingfisher mosaic: a saturated, slightly cool deep blue with the matte finish of tessera-set glass mosaic.

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.

#49a6ae
Original
#9aa0af
Protanopia
#8b94ae
Deuteranopia
#00aca8
Tritanopia
#939393
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
2.86:1
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
7.35:1

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
##49A6AE
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.3849 0.6429 0.6757)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.088

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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