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Combustive Brunnera

#55a4ee
Notes

Combustive Brunnera (#55A4EE) is a true azure with a vibrant character. It holds its own as a focal accent, carrying visual weight without tipping into neon territory. Its HSL profile (209°, 82%, 63%) places it in the highly saturated band at a mid lightness. Best used in small doses, like logos, CTAs, focus rings, or highlight text, where its saturation becomes a feature rather than noise. For a confident two-color system, pair it with its complementary orange. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#55a4ee
RGB
rgb(85, 164, 238)
HSL
hsl(209, 82%, 63%)
HWB
hwb(209 33% 7%)
OKLCH
oklch(70.1% 0.134 248.9)
P3
color(display-p3 0.4109 0.6358 0.9098)
HSV
hsv(209, 64%, 93%)
LAB
lab(65.48% -1.74 -44.29)
LCH
lch(65.48% 44.32 267.75)
CMYK
cmyk(64%, 31%, 0%, 7%)

Etymology

Combustive
adjective

Latin combūstus, burnt — adjectival suffix -ive, derived from com-burere (to burn-up). As a color modifier, combustive implies a saturated-and-burning-active quality, the bright color of blast-furnace-and-foundry combustion-chamber emission. Sits at the bright-and-warm end of the grid, parallel to fiery and blazing in usage.

Brunnera
noun

The genus BrunneraSiberian bugloss, the shade-garden perennial whose forget-me-not-style flowers appear in early spring. B. macrophylla 'Jack Frost' has silver-marbled foliage prized in shade gardens. The color refers to a fresh brunnera flower spike: a saturated, slightly cool deep blue with the matte finish of small five-petaled flower.

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.

#55a4ee
Original
#84a7f1
Protanopia
#6f98ed
Deuteranopia
#00b5be
Tritanopia
#999999
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
2.65:1
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
7.93:1

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
##55A4EE
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.4109 0.6358 0.9098)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.134

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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