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Sure Indigobird

#57b4e0
Notes

Sure Indigobird (#57B4E0) is a true cyan with a vibrant character. It holds its own as a focal accent, carrying visual weight without tipping into neon territory. Its HSL profile (199°, 69%, 61%) 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 orange. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#57b4e0
RGB
rgb(87, 180, 224)
HSL
hsl(199, 69%, 61%)
HWB
hwb(199 34% 12%)
OKLCH
oklch(73.1% 0.109 231.4)
P3
color(display-p3 0.4359 0.6975 0.8615)
HSV
hsv(199, 61%, 88%)
LAB
lab(69.50% -14.66 -30.35)
LCH
lch(69.50% 33.70 244.22)
CMYK
cmyk(61%, 20%, 0%, 12%)

Etymology

Sure
adjective

Old French seur, certain — used as a color modifier since the medieval period for hues that read as confident and stable. Sure red, sure blue: moderate saturation combined with optical commitment. Sits at the crisp-bucket center alongside steady and true.

Indigobird
noun

The genus Vidua — African parasitic finches whose males display saturated indigo-blue plumage in breeding season. The color refers to a male V. chalybeata (village indigobird) in breeding plumage: a saturated, slightly cool deep blue-violet with the iridescent satin finish of structural feather color.

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.

#57b4e0
Original
#9eb2e2
Protanopia
#8ba4df
Deuteranopia
#00c0c2
Tritanopia
#a3a3a3
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
2.33:1
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
9.01:1

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
##57B4E0
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.4359 0.6975 0.8615)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.109

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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