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Reposeful Ptah Verdigris

#53b8aa
Notes

Reposeful Ptah Verdigris (#53B8AA) is a true teal 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 (172°, 42%, 52%) 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
#53b8aa
RGB
rgb(83, 184, 170)
HSL
hsl(172, 42%, 52%)
HWB
hwb(172 33% 28%)
OKLCH
oklch(71.9% 0.097 183.2)
P3
color(display-p3 0.4318 0.7127 0.6668)
HSV
hsv(172, 55%, 72%)
LAB
lab(68.77% -32.83 -1.81)
LCH
lch(68.77% 32.88 183.15)
CMYK
cmyk(55%, 0%, 8%, 28%)

Etymology

Reposeful
adjective

Latin repōnere, to put back — adjectival suffix -ful. As a color modifier, reposeful implies a clear-and-restful-and-still quality, the calm color of pre-modern monastic cloister-and-refectory meditative-and-silent interior architecture. Sits at the crisp-and-calm end of the grid, parallel to peaceful and placid in usage.

Ptah
modifier

Egyptian Ptah, Memphis-creator-god. As a color modifier, ptah implies a Memphis-creator-and-craftsman-god quality, the visual register of Egyptian-Ptah-and-Memphis-temple hand-Memphis-creator-and-craftsman-god Egyptian-Ptah-and-Memphis-temple-and-Apis-bull ptah-and-Memphis-creator-and-craftsman-god surfaces under Egyptian-Ptah-and-Memphis-temple-and-Apis-bull Memphis-Saqqara-and-craftsman-workshop creator-craftsman-light. Sits at the modifier-and-myth end of the grid, parallel to thoth and isis 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.

#53b8aa
Original
#b0afaa
Protanopia
#a0a3ab
Deuteranopia
#00bbb4
Tritanopia
#a2a2a2
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
2.39:1
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
8.80:1

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
##53B8AA
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.4318 0.7127 0.6668)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.097

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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