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Stimulating Aquamarine

#51e1bd
Notes

Stimulating Aquamarine (#51E1BD) is a true teal with a vibrant character. It holds its own as a focal accent, carrying visual weight without tipping into neon territory. Its HSL profile (165°, 71%, 60%) 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
#51e1bd
RGB
rgb(81, 225, 189)
HSL
hsl(165, 71%, 60%)
HWB
hwb(165 32% 12%)
OKLCH
oklch(82.3% 0.134 173.1)
P3
color(display-p3 0.4860 0.8707 0.7479)
HSV
hsv(165, 64%, 88%)
LAB
lab(81.44% -46.87 6.35)
LCH
lch(81.44% 47.30 172.29)
CMYK
cmyk(64%, 0%, 16%, 12%)

Etymology

Stimulating
adjective

Latin stimulāns, spurring on — present-participle of stimulate, derived from stimulus (a goad). As a color modifier, stimulating implies a saturated-and-arousing-and-attentive quality where the hue increases visual-and-cognitive engagement. Sits at the bright-and-active end of the grid, parallel to invigorating and bracing in usage.

Aquamarine
noun

An iron-tinged variety of beryl — the gemstone mined from pegmatite veins in Brazil, Madagascar, and the Pakistani Karakoram. Named for the Latin aqua marina, seawater. The color refers to a faceted Santa Maria aquamarine: a clean, slightly green-shifted blue with the gem's high refractive brilliance. Lighter than sapphire, deeper than seafoam, with the gem-trade specificity of a stone graded primarily for color depth.

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.

#51e1bd
Original
#dad3bb
Protanopia
#c6c4c0
Deuteranopia
#00e3d6
Tritanopia
#c0c0c0
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
1.63:1
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
12.85:1

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
##51E1BD
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.4860 0.8707 0.7479)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.134

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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