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Forthright Choy

#4e9803
Notes

Forthright Choy (#4E9803) is a deep lime with a jewel character. It carries the deep, saturated richness of a gemstone. Authoritative and slightly formal, it works well for type and heavy UI elements. Its HSL profile (90°, 96%, 30%) places it in the highly saturated band at a dark 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 indigo. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#4e9803
RGB
rgb(78, 152, 3)
HSL
hsl(90, 96%, 30%)
HWB
hwb(90 1% 40%)
OKLCH
oklch(60.7% 0.177 135.1)
P3
color(display-p3 0.3787 0.5892 0.1713)
HSV
hsv(90, 98%, 60%)
LAB
lab(56.17% -44.61 58.08)
LCH
lch(56.17% 73.23 127.53)
CMYK
cmyk(49%, 0%, 98%, 40%)

Etymology

Forthright
adjective

Old English forð-riht, straight ahead, direct. Used as a color modifier in Anglo-Saxon-revival contexts for hues that read as honest and unguarded. Forthright red, forthright blue: the saturation is full, the hue is presented without ornamentation or qualification. Sits in the bold-bucket center alongside frank and direct.

Choy
noun

The Cantonese family of brassica greens — bok choy (white-stem), choy sum (flowering choy), gai lan (Chinese broccoli). Choy color refers to fresh bok choy leaves: a saturated, slightly cool yellow-green with the satin finish of fresh brassica. Cooler than spinach.

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.

#4e9803
Original
#9e8a00
Protanopia
#94841f
Deuteranopia
#4c9281
Tritanopia
#7e7e7e
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).
AA Largeon White
3.61:1
The quick brown foxSample body text at normal size. The wcag minimum for body contrast is 4.5:1 (AA) or 7:1 (AAA).
AAon Black
5.82:1

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
##4E9803
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.3787 0.5892 0.1713)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.177

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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