colors
Back to gallery

Stately Sprout

#559d21
Notes

Stately Sprout (#559D21) 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 (95°, 65%, 37%) 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
#559d21
RGB
rgb(85, 157, 33)
HSL
hsl(95, 65%, 37%)
HWB
hwb(95 13% 38%)
OKLCH
oklch(62.5% 0.169 135.5)
HSV
hsv(95, 79%, 62%)
LAB
lab(58.18% -43.23 53.35)
LCH
lch(58.18% 68.67 129.02)
CMYK
cmyk(46%, 0%, 79%, 38%)

Etymology

Stately
adjective

An adjectival form of state, condition of dignity. Used as a color modifier since the seventeenth century for the deep saturated jewel tones of formal ceremony — the deep blue of a robes-of-state, the deep red of a state-banquet velvet. Sits in the bold-and-formal corner alongside imperial and royal, with slightly less institutional weight.

Sprout
noun

A sprout is a newly emerged seedling — the first vascular leaves above the cotyledons, when chlorophyll is just developing. The color refers to a tray of pea or alfalfa sprouts: a soft, slightly yellow-shifted green with the optical translucency of cells full of water. Lighter than apple, cooler than wheat, with the optimism of growth visible over a single day.

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.

#559d21
Original
#a39000
Protanopia
#998a2f
Deuteranopia
#539786
Tritanopia
#858585
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
3.37:1
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
6.23:1

Related Colors

Canvas