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Sunlit Sphagnum

#4ea850
Notes

Sunlit Sphagnum (#4EA850) 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 (121°, 37%, 48%) 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
#4ea850
RGB
rgb(78, 168, 80)
HSL
hsl(121, 37%, 48%)
HWB
hwb(121 31% 34%)
OKLCH
oklch(65.6% 0.152 144.0)
P3
color(display-p3 0.3990 0.6508 0.3537)
HSV
hsv(121, 54%, 66%)
LAB
lab(61.83% -45.23 37.15)
LCH
lch(61.83% 58.52 140.60)
CMYK
cmyk(54%, 0%, 52%, 34%)

Etymology

Sunlit
adjective

Old English sunne (sun) plus past-participle līehted. As a color modifier, sunlit implies a saturated-and-direct-sunlight-illuminated quality, the bright color of southern-Mediterranean and Greek-island afternoon-sun direct-illumination surface emission. Sits at the bright-and-warm end of the grid, parallel to radiant and brilliant in usage.

Sphagnum
noun

The genus Sphagnum — peat mosses that form the dominant ground cover of bogs and high moors, and the source of peat fuel and horticultural growing medium. Sphagnum color refers to fresh living sphagnum moss: a saturated, slightly muted yellow-green with the velvet-matte finish of dense moss colonies.

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.

#4ea850
Original
#ab9a48
Protanopia
#9f9256
Deuteranopia
#40a494
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
2.98:1
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
7.04:1

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
##4EA850
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.3990 0.6508 0.3537)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.152

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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