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Bright Sap

#4caa42
Notes

Bright Sap (#4CAA42) is a true green 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 (114°, 44%, 46%) 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 violet. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#4caa42
RGB
rgb(76, 170, 66)
HSL
hsl(114, 44%, 46%)
HWB
hwb(114 26% 33%)
OKLCH
oklch(65.8% 0.168 141.8)
P3
color(display-p3 0.3970 0.6584 0.3132)
HSV
hsv(114, 61%, 67%)
LAB
lab(62.23% -48.30 44.33)
LCH
lch(62.23% 65.56 137.46)
CMYK
cmyk(55%, 0%, 61%, 33%)

Etymology

Bright
adjective

Old English beorht, shining, luminous — cognate with the German Bracht, splendor. Applied to color since at least the medieval period for hues that read as luminous: not just light in value but optically active, as if scattering more light back than a dimmer color of the same lightness would. Sits at the bright-bucket center alongside vivid and brilliant.

Sap
noun

The watery solution that moves through xylem and phloem in vascular plants — sugars, amino acids, ions, and the occasional alkaloid. The color refers to fresh-cut grass sap or unconcentrated maple sap: a clear, slightly yellow-green with the optical quality of plant fluid. Lighter than chartreuse, cooler than wheat, with the green-tinged clarity of liquid that has just stopped being living tissue.

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.

#4caa42
Original
#ae9b37
Protanopia
#a2934a
Deuteranopia
#3fa594
Tritanopia
#8f8f8f
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
2.94:1
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
7.14:1

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
##4CAA42
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.3970 0.6584 0.3132)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.168

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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