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Untroubled Borage

#4ebbd3
Notes

Untroubled Borage (#4EBBD3) 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 (191°, 60%, 57%) 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
#4ebbd3
RGB
rgb(78, 187, 211)
HSL
hsl(191, 60%, 57%)
HWB
hwb(191 31% 17%)
OKLCH
oklch(73.9% 0.104 214.8)
HSV
hsv(191, 63%, 83%)
LAB
lab(70.77% -23.80 -21.32)
LCH
lch(70.77% 31.95 221.86)
CMYK
cmyk(63%, 11%, 0%, 17%)

Etymology

Untroubled
adjective

Latin turbāre, to disturb — negative-prefix un- plus past-participle of trouble. As a color modifier, untroubled implies a clear-and-calm-and-undisturbed quality where the hue carries no visual agitation. Sits at the crisp-and-calm end of the grid, parallel to serene and placid in usage.

Borage
noun

Borago officinalis, the Mediterranean kitchen herb whose star-shaped blue flowers are edible (used in Pimm's Cup cocktails) and whose leaves taste of cucumber. The color refers to a fresh borage flower at peak bloom: a saturated, slightly cool deep blue with the matte finish of star-shaped Boraginaceae flower.

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

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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.

#4ebbd3
Original
#aab5d4
Protanopia
#96a7d3
Deuteranopia
#00c4c2
Tritanopia
#a6a6a6
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
2.24:1
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
9.37:1

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