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Pellucid Malt Moss

#53812b
Notes

Pellucid Malt Moss (#53812B) is a deep lime 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 (92°, 50%, 34%) places it in the balanced band at a dark lightness. It works well as a headline, icon, or deep background in an otherwise light layout, pairing cleanly with cream, bone, and warm neutrals. 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
#53812b
RGB
rgb(83, 129, 43)
HSL
hsl(92, 50%, 34%)
HWB
hwb(92 17% 49%)
OKLCH
oklch(55.1% 0.127 133.1)
P3
color(display-p3 0.3658 0.5012 0.2191)
HSV
hsv(92, 67%, 51%)
LAB
lab(49.15% -31.00 40.32)
LCH
lch(49.15% 50.86 127.55)
CMYK
cmyk(36%, 0%, 67%, 49%)

Etymology

Pellucid
adjective

Latin pellūcidus, transparent — derived from per-lūcēre (to shine through). As a color modifier, pellucid implies a clear-and-translucent quality where the hue reads with optical clarity and minimal turbidity. Sits at the crisp-and-clear end of the grid, parallel to lucid and translucent in usage.

Malt
modifier

Old English mealt, germinated-grain. As a color modifier, malt implies a kilned-grain-and-amber-stout quality, the visual register of Burton-on-Trent-and-Bavarian-malt hand-kilned-grain-and-amber-stout Burton-on-Trent-and-Bavarian-malt-and-Munich-and-Pilsen malt-and-kilned-grain surfaces under Burton-on-Trent-and-Bavarian-malt-and-Munich-and-Pilsen Burton-and-Munich-and-Pilsen brewery-and-kiln-light. Sits at the modifier-and-flavor end of the grid, parallel to syrup and zest in usage.

Moss
noun

Bryophyta — the nonvascular plants that colonized land 470 million years ago, before vascular plants and far before flowers. The color refers to a thick mat of Hypnum or sphagnum on a temperate forest floor: a soft, slightly yellow-shifted green with the velvet texture of millimeter-scale leaves. Dustier than fern, deeper than lichen, with the slow patience of a plant that lives by absorbing rain through its surface.

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.

#53812b
Original
#867720
Protanopia
#807332
Deuteranopia
#537c6f
Tritanopia
#717171
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).
AAon White
4.62:1
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
4.54:1

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
##53812B
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.3658 0.5012 0.2191)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.127

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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