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Flaming Pulmonaria

#55b9f9
Notes

Flaming Pulmonaria (#55B9F9) is a true azure with a neon character. It sits at the high-saturation edge of its family. Use it sparingly, as signage, accent, or highlight against darker surfaces. Its HSL profile (203°, 93%, 65%) 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
#55b9f9
RGB
rgb(85, 185, 249)
HSL
hsl(203, 93%, 65%)
HWB
hwb(203 33% 2%)
OKLCH
oklch(75.3% 0.131 239.9)
P3
color(display-p3 0.4377 0.7166 0.9543)
HSV
hsv(203, 66%, 98%)
LAB
lab(71.87% -9.80 -40.27)
LCH
lch(71.87% 41.44 256.32)
CMYK
cmyk(66%, 26%, 0%, 2%)

Etymology

Flaming
adjective

Old French flamme, flame — present-participle of flame. As a color modifier, flaming implies a saturated-and-fire-and-bright-color quality, the bright color of autumn-Maple-and-Oak deciduous-foliage fall-color and Yule-log fire emission. Sits at the bright-and-warm end of the grid, parallel to fiery and blazing in usage.

Pulmonaria
noun

The genus Pulmonarialungwort, the European shade-garden perennial whose flowers open pink and turn blue as they age (changing pH causes the anthocyanin shift). The color refers to a fresh P. saccharata flower in its blue post-pollination phase: a saturated, slightly cool deep blue with the satin finish of bell-shaped 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.

#55b9f9
Original
#9cb9fc
Protanopia
#85a9f8
Deuteranopia
#00c9cf
Tritanopia
#a8a8a8
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
2.17:1
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
9.69:1

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
##55B9F9
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.4377 0.7166 0.9543)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.131

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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