colors
Back to gallery

Ostentatious Virgo Kelly

#55ba3c
Notes

Ostentatious Virgo Kelly (#55BA3C) is a true green with an earthy character. It leans grounded and natural, the kind of color that plays well with wood, clay, linen, and warm neutrals. Its HSL profile (108°, 51%, 48%) 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 violet. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#55ba3c
RGB
rgb(85, 186, 60)
HSL
hsl(108, 51%, 48%)
HWB
hwb(108 24% 27%)
OKLCH
oklch(70.3% 0.188 140.0)
HSV
hsv(108, 68%, 73%)
LAB
lab(67.56% -52.60 52.87)
LCH
lch(67.56% 74.58 134.86)
CMYK
cmyk(54%, 0%, 68%, 27%)

Etymology

Ostentatious
adjective

Latin ostentātiōnis, display — adjectival suffix -ous, derived from ostendere (to show). As a color modifier, ostentatious implies a saturated-and-attention-demanding-and-elaborate quality, the bright color of Belle-Époque-and-Gilded-Age showy-luxury-display interior-decoration. Sits at the bright-and-flamboyant end of the grid, parallel to flamboyant and showy in usage.

Virgo
modifier

Latin virgo, virgin-or-maiden-of-the-zodiac. As a color modifier, virgo implies a maiden-and-earth-sign-and-Mercury-ruled-mutable-earth quality, the visual register of Hellenic-Virgo-and-Astraea-maiden hand-maiden-and-earth-sign-and-Mercury-ruled-mutable-earth Hellenic-Virgo-and-Astraea-maiden-and-Spica-grain virgo-and-maiden-and-earth-sign surfaces under Hellenic-Virgo-and-Astraea-maiden-and-Spica-grain late-summer-and-August-and-September mutable-earth-sign-light. Sits at the modifier-and-zodiac end of the grid, parallel to leo and libra in usage.

Kelly
noun

A bright yellow-green named for the Irish surname Kelly, common enough by the late nineteenth century to stand in for generic Irish in American slang. The color is the saturated, optically bright green of a Saint Patrick's Day parade: cleaner than shamrock, brighter than fern, with the pop-culture weight of a color used annually for green beer, green carnations, and the Chicago River.

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.

#55ba3c
Original
#bfaa2a
Protanopia
#b2a147
Deuteranopia
#4ab4a0
Tritanopia
#9b9b9b
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
2.48:1
The quick brown foxSample body text at normal size. The wcag minimum for body contrast is 4.5:1 (AA) or 7:1 (AAA).
AAAon Black
8.48:1

Related Colors

Canvas