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Serviceable Stockholm

#51a3cf
Notes

Serviceable Stockholm (#51A3CF) is a true azure 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 (201°, 57%, 56%) 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 orange. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#51a3cf
RGB
rgb(81, 163, 207)
HSL
hsl(201, 57%, 56%)
HWB
hwb(201 32% 19%)
OKLCH
oklch(68.2% 0.103 234.5)
P3
color(display-p3 0.3998 0.6317 0.7954)
HSV
hsv(201, 61%, 81%)
LAB
lab(63.71% -11.88 -29.95)
LCH
lch(63.71% 32.22 248.36)
CMYK
cmyk(61%, 21%, 0%, 19%)

Etymology

Serviceable
adjective

Latin servītium, service — adjectival suffix -able. As a color modifier, serviceable implies a clear-and-fit-for-purpose-and-durable quality where the hue carries the visual register of long-lasting-and-functional everyday-use design. Sits at the crisp-and-functional end of the grid, parallel to practical and utilitarian in usage.

Stockholm
noun

The Swedish capital — and the deep blue of the Stockholm archipelago (24,000 islands) lagoon water and Drottningholm Palace azure interiors. Stockholm color refers to mid-depth Baltic archipelago water at Sandhamn: a saturated, slightly cool deep blue with the optical depth of cold-temperate brackish water.

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.

#51a3cf
Original
#8ea2d1
Protanopia
#7c95ce
Deuteranopia
#00afb2
Tritanopia
#959595
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
2.80:1
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
7.49:1

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
##51A3CF
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.3998 0.6317 0.7954)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.103

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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