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Inscribed Agora Verdigris

#4eb8b9
Notes

Inscribed Agora Verdigris (#4EB8B9) 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 (181°, 43%, 52%) 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
#4eb8b9
RGB
rgb(78, 184, 185)
HSL
hsl(181, 43%, 52%)
HWB
hwb(181 31% 27%)
OKLCH
oklch(72.2% 0.097 196.1)
P3
color(display-p3 0.4206 0.7125 0.7205)
HSV
hsv(181, 58%, 73%)
LAB
lab(69.04% -29.81 -9.67)
LCH
lch(69.04% 31.34 197.98)
CMYK
cmyk(58%, 1%, 0%, 27%)

Etymology

Inscribed
adjective

Latin īnscrībere, to write upon — past-participle of inscribe. As a color modifier, inscribed implies a clear-and-text-or-pattern-cut quality, the crisp color of Roman-Imperial-period monumental-stone inscription-and-monumental-text incised-relief. Sits at the crisp-and-incised end of the grid, parallel to etched and engraved in usage.

Agora
modifier

Greek agora, Greek-marketplace. As a color modifier, agora implies a Greek-and-Athens-marketplace quality, the visual register of Athenian-and-Spartan-Agora hand-built marketplace-and-civic-meeting-square agora-and-stoa-and-bouleuterion classical-Greek architectural surfaces under Athenian-Agora-and-Spartan-Lacedaemon classical light. Sits at the modifier-and-architecture end of the grid, parallel to forum and stoa 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.

#4eb8b9
Original
#adb0b9
Protanopia
#9ba3ba
Deuteranopia
#00bdb8
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
2.36:1
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
8.88:1

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
##4EB8B9
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.4206 0.7125 0.7205)
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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