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Folded Shawl Lagoon

#4b738c
Notes

Folded Shawl Lagoon (#4B738C) 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 (203°, 30%, 42%) 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
#4b738c
RGB
rgb(75, 115, 140)
HSL
hsl(203, 30%, 42%)
HWB
hwb(203 29% 45%)
OKLCH
oklch(53.6% 0.060 236.9)
P3
color(display-p3 0.3288 0.4468 0.5395)
HSV
hsv(203, 46%, 55%)
LAB
lab(46.51% -6.88 -18.03)
LCH
lch(46.51% 19.30 249.12)
CMYK
cmyk(46%, 18%, 0%, 45%)

Etymology

Folded
adjective

Old English fealdan, to fold — past-participle of fold. As a color modifier, folded implies a clear-and-creased-and-arranged quality where the hue carries the visual register of carefully-folded-and-neatly-arranged textile surface. Sits at the crisp-and-finished end of the grid, parallel to pressed and trim in usage.

Shawl
modifier

Persian shāl, long-folded-wrap. As a color modifier, shawl implies a Persian-Kashmiri-and-paisley-folded-wrap quality, the visual register of Persian-Kashmiri-and-paisley-shawl hand-Persian-Kashmiri-and-paisley-folded-wrap Persian-Kashmiri-and-paisley-shawl-and-Norwich-and-Paisley-loom shawl-and-Persian-Kashmiri-and-paisley-folded-wrap surfaces under Persian-Kashmiri-and-paisley-shawl-and-Norwich-and-Paisley-loom Mughal-Kashmir-and-Norwich-and-Paisley-loom paisley-shawl-light. Sits at the modifier-and-textile end of the grid, parallel to stole and sash in usage.

Lagoon
noun

A shallow body of saltwater partially or fully enclosed by a barrier — coral atoll lagoons in the Pacific, Venice's Laguna Veneta, the Florida Keys' backcountry. The color refers to the average reflectance of a calm tropical lagoon at midday: a saturated, slightly muted blue-green with the optical clarity of shallow water over white sand. Brighter than reef, cooler than aquamarine, with the postcard weight of a Pacific atoll seen from above.

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.

#4b738c
Original
#68728d
Protanopia
#5f6b8c
Deuteranopia
#2f797b
Tritanopia
#6c6c6c
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
5.08:1
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
4.13:1

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
##4B738C
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.3288 0.4468 0.5395)
Inside sRGBOKLCH chroma 0.060

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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