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Sovereign Pickle

#559a1f
Notes

Sovereign Pickle (#559A1F) is a true lime with a jewel character. It carries the deep, saturated richness of a gemstone. Authoritative and slightly formal, it works well for type and heavy UI elements. Its HSL profile (94°, 66%, 36%) 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 indigo. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#559a1f
RGB
rgb(85, 154, 31)
HSL
hsl(94, 66%, 36%)
HWB
hwb(94 12% 40%)
OKLCH
oklch(61.7% 0.167 135.1)
HSV
hsv(94, 80%, 60%)
LAB
lab(57.21% -42.11 53.07)
LCH
lch(57.21% 67.75 128.43)
CMYK
cmyk(45%, 0%, 80%, 40%)

Etymology

Sovereign
adjective

Old French soverain, supreme — derived from Latin super (above). As a color modifier, sovereign implies a saturated-and-royal-supremacy quality where the hue carries imperial-ruling-class register. Sits at the bold-and-imperial end of the grid, parallel to regal and imperial in tone.

Pickle
noun

A vinegar-cured or lacto-fermented cucumber — the brining process turns the bright green of a fresh cuke into a slightly muted gray-green as the chlorophyll degrades. The color refers to a deli kosher-dill in cross-section: a soft, slightly muted yellow-green with the slight translucency of cell walls breached by acid. Drabber than fresh cucumber, more chromatic than celadon, with the kitchen-shorthand reach of an everyday word.

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

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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.

#559a1f
Original
#a08d00
Protanopia
#97872d
Deuteranopia
#539483
Tritanopia
#828282
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).
AA Largeon White
3.48:1
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
6.03:1

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