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Truthful Terra Turquoise

#4ab0e6
Notes

Truthful Terra Turquoise (#4AB0E6) is a true azure with a vibrant character. It holds its own as a focal accent, carrying visual weight without tipping into neon territory. Its HSL profile (201°, 76%, 60%) 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
#4ab0e6
RGB
rgb(74, 176, 230)
HSL
hsl(201, 76%, 60%)
HWB
hwb(201 29% 10%)
OKLCH
oklch(72.0% 0.122 235.3)
P3
color(display-p3 0.4008 0.6814 0.8824)
HSV
hsv(201, 68%, 90%)
LAB
lab(68.18% -12.75 -35.71)
LCH
lch(68.18% 37.92 250.35)
CMYK
cmyk(68%, 23%, 0%, 10%)

Etymology

Truthful
adjective

Old English trēowth, truth — adjectival suffix -ful. As a color modifier, truthful implies a clear-and-honest-and-direct quality where the hue carries the visual register of accurate-and-faithful-representation declaration. Sits at the crisp-and-honest end of the grid, parallel to candid and honest in usage.

Terra
modifier

Latin terra, earth-or-land. As a color modifier, terra implies a earth-globe-and-loamy-and-grounded quality, the visual register of Pale-Blue-Dot-and-Apollo-Terra hand-earth-globe-and-loamy-and-grounded Pale-Blue-Dot-and-Apollo-and-Earthrise terra-and-earth-globe-and-loamy-and-grounded surfaces under Pale-Blue-Dot-and-Apollo-and-Earthrise lunar-orbit-and-deep-space earth-globe-light. Sits at the modifier-and-cosmic end of the grid, parallel to luna and sol in usage.

Turquoise
noun

The hydrated copper-aluminum phosphate mined in Persia and the American Southwest for thousands of years — the firuze of Iran, the chalchihuitl of Mesoamerica, the heart of Pueblo and Navajo silverwork. The color refers to a fine Sleeping Beauty turquoise from Arizona: a saturated, slightly green-shifted blue with the slight matrix of host-rock veining. Brighter than persian, lighter than cerulean.

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.

#4ab0e6
Original
#96afe9
Protanopia
#819fe5
Deuteranopia
#00bec2
Tritanopia
#9e9e9e
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
2.43:1
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
8.64:1

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
##4AB0E6
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.4008 0.6814 0.8824)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.122

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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