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Punchy Choy

#56a222
Notes

Punchy Choy (#56A222) 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 (96°, 65%, 38%) 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
#56a222
RGB
rgb(86, 162, 34)
HSL
hsl(96, 65%, 38%)
HWB
hwb(96 13% 36%)
OKLCH
oklch(63.9% 0.174 135.9)
P3
color(display-p3 0.4110 0.6282 0.2275)
HSV
hsv(96, 79%, 64%)
LAB
lab(59.83% -44.88 54.60)
LCH
lch(59.83% 70.68 129.42)
CMYK
cmyk(47%, 0%, 79%, 36%)

Etymology

Punchy
adjective

A modern adjectival form of punch, to strike sharply. Used as a color word since the early twentieth century for hues that read as highly contrasting and visually loud. Punchy red, punchy yellow: the implication is full saturation combined with optical impact. Sits across the bold and bright buckets, near vivid and striking.

Choy
noun

The Cantonese family of brassica greens — bok choy (white-stem), choy sum (flowering choy), gai lan (Chinese broccoli). Choy color refers to fresh bok choy leaves: a saturated, slightly cool yellow-green with the satin finish of fresh brassica. Cooler than spinach.

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.

#56a222
Original
#a89400
Protanopia
#9e8e30
Deuteranopia
#539c8a
Tritanopia
#898989
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
3.19:1
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
6.59:1

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
##56A222
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.4110 0.6282 0.2275)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.174

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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