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Chivalrous Pesto

#509609
Notes

Chivalrous Pesto (#509609) 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°, 89%, 31%) 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
#509609
RGB
rgb(80, 150, 9)
HSL
hsl(90, 89%, 31%)
HWB
hwb(90 4% 41%)
OKLCH
oklch(60.3% 0.172 134.7)
HSV
hsv(90, 94%, 59%)
LAB
lab(55.62% -43.01 56.72)
LCH
lch(55.62% 71.18 127.17)
CMYK
cmyk(47%, 0%, 94%, 41%)

Etymology

Chivalrous
adjective

Old French chevaleros, knightly — adjectival suffix -ous, derived from cheval (horse). As a color modifier, chivalrous implies a saturated-and-knightly-and-gallant quality, the deep-rich color of medieval-Romance chanson-de-geste hero-and-troubadour song tradition. Sits at the bold-and-chivalrous end of the grid, parallel to gallant and knightly.

Pesto
noun

The Italian basil-and-pine-nut sauce — pesto alla genovese of Liguria — made from fresh basil, pine nuts, garlic, parmigiano, and olive oil. The color refers to fresh-pounded pesto in a marble mortar: a saturated, slightly cool deep yellow-green with the matte finish of pureed basil-and-oil.

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.

#509609
Original
#9c8900
Protanopia
#938320
Deuteranopia
#4e907f
Tritanopia
#7d7d7d
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
3.68:1
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
5.71:1

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