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Practical Shawl Verdigris

#4cb9b6
Notes

Practical Shawl Verdigris (#4CB9B6) 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 (178°, 44%, 51%) 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
#4cb9b6
RGB
rgb(76, 185, 182)
HSL
hsl(178, 44%, 51%)
HWB
hwb(178 30% 27%)
OKLCH
oklch(72.3% 0.099 192.7)
P3
color(display-p3 0.4176 0.7162 0.7099)
HSV
hsv(178, 59%, 73%)
LAB
lab(69.19% -31.49 -7.81)
LCH
lch(69.19% 32.44 193.93)
CMYK
cmyk(59%, 0%, 2%, 27%)

Etymology

Practical
adjective

Greek praktikós, practical — adjectival suffix -al. As a color modifier, practical implies a clear-and-purpose-fit-and-everyday quality where the hue carries the visual register of Shaker-and-Quaker utilitarian-and-functional everyday-life craft. Sits at the crisp-and-functional end of the grid, parallel to functional and workmanlike 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.

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.

#4cb9b6
Original
#aeb0b6
Protanopia
#9da3b7
Deuteranopia
#00beb8
Tritanopia
#a2a2a2
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
2.35:1
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
8.92:1

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
##4CB9B6
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.4176 0.7162 0.7099)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.099

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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