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Unblemished Chili Verdigris

#49a9a7
Notes

Unblemished Chili Verdigris (#49A9A7) 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 (179°, 40%, 47%) 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
#49a9a7
RGB
rgb(73, 169, 167)
HSL
hsl(179, 40%, 47%)
HWB
hwb(179 29% 34%)
OKLCH
oklch(67.7% 0.090 193.4)
P3
color(display-p3 0.3889 0.6544 0.6513)
HSV
hsv(179, 57%, 66%)
LAB
lab(63.82% -28.43 -7.48)
LCH
lch(63.82% 29.39 194.75)
CMYK
cmyk(57%, 0%, 1%, 34%)

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.

Chili
modifier

Nahuatl chīlli, capsicum-fruit. As a color modifier, chili implies a Mesoamerican-capsicum-and-fiery quality, the visual register of Mesoamerican-and-Oaxacan-chili hand-Mesoamerican-capsicum-and-fiery Mesoamerican-and-Oaxacan-chili-and-Yucatec-and-Veracruzano chili-and-Mesoamerican-capsicum surfaces under Mesoamerican-and-Oaxacan-chili-and-Yucatec-and-Veracruzano Oaxaca-and-Veracruz-and-Yucatán Mesoamerican-spice-light. Sits at the modifier-and-flavor end of the grid, parallel to pepper and pimento in usage.

Verdigris
noun

The basic copper carbonate that forms on weathered copper and bronze — the pigment scraped from oxidized metal and used in Renaissance painting before being supplanted by more stable greens. The color refers to a thick verdigris on aged copper roofing or the Statue of Liberty's surface: a soft, slightly muted blue-green with the powdery finish of mineral oxide. Cooler than patina, warmer than seafoam, with the archaeological weight of a mineral made by time.

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.

#49a9a7
Original
#9fa1a7
Protanopia
#9096a8
Deuteranopia
#00aea8
Tritanopia
#949494
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
2.79:1
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
7.52:1

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
##49A9A7
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.3889 0.6544 0.6513)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.090

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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