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Engraved Mesh Verdigris

#51b0aa
Notes

Engraved Mesh Verdigris (#51B0AA) is a true cyan with an earthy character. It leans grounded and natural, the kind of color that plays well with wood, clay, linen, and warm neutrals. Its HSL profile (176°, 38%, 50%) 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
#51b0aa
RGB
rgb(81, 176, 170)
HSL
hsl(176, 38%, 50%)
HWB
hwb(176 32% 31%)
OKLCH
oklch(69.8% 0.090 189.7)
P3
color(display-p3 0.4165 0.6818 0.6643)
HSV
hsv(176, 54%, 69%)
LAB
lab(66.29% -29.41 -5.46)
LCH
lch(66.29% 29.91 190.52)
CMYK
cmyk(54%, 0%, 3%, 31%)

Etymology

Engraved
adjective

Old French engraver, to dig in — past-participle of engrave. As a color modifier, engraved implies a clear-and-precisely-cut quality, the crisp color of Albrecht-Dürer-and-Hogarth hand-pulled engraving-print fine-line incised-image. Sits at the crisp-and-incised end of the grid, parallel to etched and inscribed in usage.

Mesh
modifier

Old English mæscre, netting. As a color modifier, mesh implies a netted-and-woven-network quality, the visual register of hand-knotted-and-woven-mesh hand-knotted-and-woven-net wire-and-fiber-and-cord-mesh hand-knotted-and-woven-mesh-and-net surfaces under hand-knotted-and-woven-mesh-and-net working light. Sits at the modifier-and-texture end of the grid, parallel to wire and web 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.

#51b0aa
Original
#a7a8aa
Protanopia
#989cab
Deuteranopia
#00b4ae
Tritanopia
#9b9b9b
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
2.58:1
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
8.14:1

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
##51B0AA
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.4165 0.6818 0.6643)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.090

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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