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Polished Thor Verdigris

#4eb8b5
Notes

Polished Thor Verdigris (#4EB8B5) 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°, 43%, 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
#4eb8b5
RGB
rgb(78, 184, 181)
HSL
hsl(178, 43%, 51%)
HWB
hwb(178 31% 28%)
OKLCH
oklch(72.1% 0.097 192.7)
P3
color(display-p3 0.4206 0.7125 0.7061)
HSV
hsv(178, 58%, 72%)
LAB
lab(68.92% -30.91 -7.65)
LCH
lch(68.92% 31.84 193.90)
CMYK
cmyk(58%, 0%, 2%, 28%)

Etymology

Polished
adjective

Latin polīre, to polish — past-participle of polish. As a color modifier, polished implies a clear-and-smooth-and-glossy quality where the hue carries the visual register of buffed-and-burnished smooth-finish surface. Sits at the crisp-and-finished end of the grid, parallel to burnished and gleaming in usage.

Thor
modifier

Old Norse Þórr, god-of-thunder-and-Mjölnir. As a color modifier, thor implies a hammer-Mjölnir-and-thunderbolt-and-red-bearded quality, the visual register of Norse-Thor-and-Mjölnir-hammer hand-hammer-Mjölnir-and-thunderbolt-and-red-bearded Norse-Thor-and-Mjölnir-hammer-and-Asgard thor-and-hammer-Mjölnir-and-thunderbolt surfaces under Norse-Thor-and-Mjölnir-hammer-and-Asgard Bilskirnir-and-Thrudheim-and-thunder-cart thunder-storm-light. Sits at the modifier-and-myth end of the grid, parallel to odin and loki 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.

#4eb8b5
Original
#aeb0b5
Protanopia
#9da3b6
Deuteranopia
#00bdb7
Tritanopia
#a1a1a1
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
2.37:1
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
8.85:1

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
##4EB8B5
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.4206 0.7125 0.7061)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.097

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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