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Sure Indicolite

#53c3d3
Notes

Sure Indicolite (#53C3D3) is a true cyan 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 (188°, 59%, 58%) 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
#53c3d3
RGB
rgb(83, 195, 211)
HSL
hsl(188, 59%, 58%)
HWB
hwb(188 33% 17%)
OKLCH
oklch(75.9% 0.103 208.1)
P3
color(display-p3 0.4468 0.7551 0.8176)
HSV
hsv(188, 61%, 83%)
LAB
lab(73.26% -26.94 -17.53)
LCH
lch(73.26% 32.14 213.05)
CMYK
cmyk(61%, 8%, 0%, 17%)

Etymology

Sure
adjective

Old French seur, certain — used as a color modifier since the medieval period for hues that read as confident and stable. Sure red, sure blue: moderate saturation combined with optical commitment. Sits at the crisp-bucket center alongside steady and true.

Indicolite
noun

A blue variety of tourmaline — colored by trace iron, mined principally in Brazil, Mozambique, and Pakistan. The color refers to a faceted Brazilian indicolite: a saturated, slightly cool deep blue-green with the gem's signature internal warmth. Cooler than aquamarine.

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.

#53c3d3
Original
#b4bcd4
Protanopia
#a0aed3
Deuteranopia
#00cbc8
Tritanopia
#acacac
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
2.08:1
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
10.11:1

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
##53C3D3
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.4468 0.7551 0.8176)
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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