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Sunlit Tourmaline

#55c16a
Notes

Sunlit Tourmaline (#55C16A) is a true green with a cool character. It leans cool, sitting on the blue, green, and violet side of the wheel. Quiet and dependable, a fit for product UI and data visualization. Its HSL profile (132°, 47%, 55%) 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 magenta. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#55c16a
RGB
rgb(85, 193, 106)
HSL
hsl(132, 47%, 55%)
HWB
hwb(132 33% 24%)
OKLCH
oklch(72.7% 0.159 147.8)
HSV
hsv(132, 56%, 76%)
LAB
lab(70.25% -49.65 34.59)
LCH
lch(70.25% 60.51 145.14)
CMYK
cmyk(56%, 0%, 45%, 24%)

Etymology

Sunlit
adjective

Old English sunne (sun) plus past-participle līehted. As a color modifier, sunlit implies a saturated-and-direct-sunlight-illuminated quality, the bright color of southern-Mediterranean and Greek-island afternoon-sun direct-illumination surface emission. Sits at the bright-and-warm end of the grid, parallel to radiant and brilliant in usage.

Tourmaline
noun

A boron silicate mineral that crystallizes in nearly every color depending on its trace elements — green tourmaline (verdelite) is the chromium and vanadium-bearing variety, mined principally in Brazil, Madagascar, and Maine. The color refers to a faceted green tourmaline: a saturated, slightly muted blue-green with the high refractive index of a quality cut gem. Cooler than emerald, warmer than aquamarine.

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.

#55c16a
Original
#c3b263
Protanopia
#b5a870
Deuteranopia
#3dbdac
Tritanopia
#a4a4a4
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
2.28:1
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
9.22:1

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