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Workmanlike Isis Verdigris

#56b0a9
Notes

Workmanlike Isis Verdigris (#56B0A9) is a true cyan 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 (175°, 36%, 51%) 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 red. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#56b0a9
RGB
rgb(86, 176, 169)
HSL
hsl(175, 36%, 51%)
HWB
hwb(175 34% 31%)
OKLCH
oklch(70.0% 0.087 188.6)
P3
color(display-p3 0.4284 0.6820 0.6609)
HSV
hsv(175, 51%, 69%)
LAB
lab(66.44% -28.60 -4.67)
LCH
lch(66.44% 28.98 189.27)
CMYK
cmyk(51%, 0%, 4%, 31%)

Etymology

Workmanlike
adjective

Old English weorcmann, workman — adjectival suffix -like. As a color modifier, workmanlike implies a clear-and-skilled-and-honest quality where the hue carries the visual register of journeyman-craftsman careful-and-competent hand-built craft. Sits at the crisp-and-functional end of the grid, parallel to functional and practical in usage.

Isis
modifier

Egyptian Aset, throne-and-mother-goddess. As a color modifier, isis implies a winged-and-throne-and-mother-goddess quality, the visual register of Egyptian-Isis-and-Philae-temple hand-winged-and-throne-and-mother-goddess Egyptian-Isis-and-Philae-temple-and-Osirian-myth isis-and-winged-and-throne-and-mother-goddess surfaces under Egyptian-Isis-and-Philae-temple-and-Osirian-myth Nile-and-Philae-Aswan-temple winged-throne-light. Sits at the modifier-and-myth end of the grid, parallel to horus and thoth in usage.

Verdigris
noun

The basic copper carbonate that forms on weathered copper and bronze — the pigment scraped from oxidized metal and used in Renaissance painting before being supplanted by more stable greens. The color refers to a thick verdigris on aged copper roofing or the Statue of Liberty's surface: a soft, slightly muted blue-green with the powdery finish of mineral oxide. Cooler than patina, warmer than seafoam, with the archaeological weight of a mineral made by time.

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.

#56b0a9
Original
#a8a8a9
Protanopia
#999daa
Deuteranopia
#1db4ae
Tritanopia
#9c9c9c
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
2.57:1
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
8.18:1

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
##56B0A9
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.4284 0.6820 0.6609)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.087

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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