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Plain Rune Verdigris

#4bbfc0
Notes

Plain Rune Verdigris (#4BBFC0) 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 (181°, 48%, 52%) 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
#4bbfc0
RGB
rgb(75, 191, 192)
HSL
hsl(181, 48%, 52%)
HWB
hwb(181 29% 25%)
OKLCH
oklch(74.0% 0.103 196.0)
P3
color(display-p3 0.4241 0.7393 0.7477)
HSV
hsv(181, 61%, 75%)
LAB
lab(71.26% -31.77 -10.22)
LCH
lch(71.26% 33.37 197.83)
CMYK
cmyk(61%, 1%, 0%, 25%)

Etymology

Plain
adjective

Latin planus, flat, level — used as a color modifier since the medieval period for hues that read as undecorated and direct. Plain white, plain blue: moderate saturation, no shift, no surface effect. Sits in the crisp-bucket center, with the implication of restraint rather than absence.

Rune
modifier

Old Norse rún, secret-or-runic-letter. As a color modifier, rune implies a Norse-runic-letter-and-Futhark-and-incised-stone quality, the visual register of Elder-Futhark-and-Norse-runic-stone hand-Norse-runic-letter-and-Futhark-and-incised-stone Elder-Futhark-and-Norse-runic-stone-and-Viking-grave-marker rune-and-Norse-runic-letter-and-Futhark surfaces under Elder-Futhark-and-Norse-runic-stone-and-Viking-grave-marker Jelling-stone-and-Rök-runestone runic-incision-light. Sits at the modifier-and-myth end of the grid, parallel to omen and sigil 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.

#4bbfc0
Original
#b3b6c0
Protanopia
#a1a9c1
Deuteranopia
#00c5bf
Tritanopia
#a6a6a6
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
2.21:1
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
9.51:1

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
##4BBFC0
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.4241 0.7393 0.7477)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.103

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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