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Surveyed Freshet

#4ce9f0
Notes

Surveyed Freshet (#4CE9F0) is a true cyan with a neon character. It sits at the high-saturation edge of its family. Use it sparingly, as signage, accent, or highlight against darker surfaces. Its HSL profile (183°, 85%, 62%) places it in the highly saturated band at a mid lightness. Best used in small doses, like logos, CTAs, focus rings, or highlight text, where its saturation becomes a feature rather than noise. 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
#4ce9f0
RGB
rgb(76, 233, 240)
HSL
hsl(183, 85%, 62%)
HWB
hwb(183 30% 6%)
OKLCH
oklch(85.7% 0.128 199.4)
HSV
hsv(183, 68%, 94%)
LAB
lab(85.05% -37.82 -15.31)
LCH
lch(85.05% 40.80 202.04)
CMYK
cmyk(68%, 3%, 0%, 6%)

Etymology

Surveyed
adjective

Old French surveer, to look upon — past-participle of survey. As a color modifier, surveyed implies a clear-and-measured-and-coordinated quality, the crisp color of Mason-Dixon-Line-and-Royal-Navy-Hydrographic scientific-and-cadastral land-and-sea surveying tradition. Sits at the crisp-and-mapped end of the grid, parallel to mapped and plotted in usage.

Freshet
noun

A sudden flood of fresh water — particularly the spring runoff of melting mountain snow into rivers. Freshet color refers to a freshet-swollen mountain river in late April: a soft, slightly cool deep blue-white with the optical complexity of snowmelt-suspended sediment.

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.

#4ce9f0
Original
#d8dff1
Protanopia
#c0cdf1
Deuteranopia
#00f1eb
Tritanopia
#c8c8c8
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
1.48:1
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
14.22:1

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