colors
Back to gallery

Clear Gaul Lagoon

#4bb8d2
Notes

Clear Gaul Lagoon (#4BB8D2) is a true cyan with a cool character. It leans cool, sitting on the blue, green, and violet side of the wheel. Quiet and dependable, a fit for product UI and data visualization. Its HSL profile (192°, 60%, 56%) 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
#4bb8d2
RGB
rgb(75, 184, 210)
HSL
hsl(192, 60%, 56%)
HWB
hwb(192 29% 18%)
OKLCH
oklch(73.0% 0.105 216.3)
P3
color(display-p3 0.4141 0.7123 0.8110)
HSV
hsv(192, 64%, 82%)
LAB
lab(69.77% -23.07 -22.31)
LCH
lch(69.77% 32.09 224.04)
CMYK
cmyk(64%, 12%, 0%, 18%)

Etymology

Clear
adjective

From the Latin clarus, bright, distinct — used as a color modifier since the medieval period for hues without haze or mixing. Clear blue sky, clear green water: the implication is moderate saturation combined with optical clarity. Sits at the crisp-bucket center alongside clean and true.

Gaul
modifier

Latin Gallia, Gaul. As a color modifier, gaul implies a pre-Roman-French-Celtic quality, the visual register of Gallia-Belgica-and-Gallia-Aquitania pre-Roman-period hand-carved bronze-and-iron Celtic-Gaulish chieftain-and-druid surfaces under pre-Roman Gallia-Aquitania-and-Gallia-Belgica Celtic-tribal forest light. Sits at the modifier-and-cultural end of the grid, parallel to celtic and roman 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.

#4bb8d2
Original
#a6b3d3
Protanopia
#93a4d2
Deuteranopia
#00c1c0
Tritanopia
#a3a3a3
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
2.31:1
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
9.09:1

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
##4BB8D2
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.4141 0.7123 0.8110)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.105

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.

Related Colors

Canvas