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Tidy Limpid

#56b2b5
Notes

Tidy Limpid (#56B2B5) 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 (182°, 39%, 52%) 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
#56b2b5
RGB
rgb(86, 178, 181)
HSL
hsl(182, 39%, 52%)
HWB
hwb(182 34% 29%)
OKLCH
oklch(70.9% 0.087 198.2)
P3
color(display-p3 0.4309 0.6897 0.7046)
HSV
hsv(182, 52%, 71%)
LAB
lab(67.39% -26.38 -9.90)
LCH
lch(67.39% 28.17 200.57)
CMYK
cmyk(52%, 2%, 0%, 29%)

Etymology

Tidy
adjective

Old English tidig, timely — drifted in modern English to mean neat, orderly. Used as a color modifier for hues that read as composed and unfussy. Tidy beige, tidy gray: moderate saturation combined with optical neatness. Sits at the crisp-bucket alongside plain and modest.

Limpid
noun

An adjectival noun meaning clear and untroubled — used for the soft pale-blue of perfectly transparent water. Limpid color refers to a limpid alpine lake at dawn before any wind: a soft, slightly cool pale blue with the optical clarity of unperturbed water.

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.

#56b2b5
Original
#a7abb5
Protanopia
#989fb6
Deuteranopia
#00b7b3
Tritanopia
#9f9f9f
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
2.49:1
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
8.43:1

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
##56B2B5
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.4309 0.6897 0.7046)
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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