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Effective Spica Turquoise

#57dbcb
Notes

Effective Spica Turquoise (#57DBCB) is a true teal with a vibrant character. It holds its own as a focal accent, carrying visual weight without tipping into neon territory. Its HSL profile (173°, 65%, 60%) 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
#57dbcb
RGB
rgb(87, 219, 203)
HSL
hsl(173, 65%, 60%)
HWB
hwb(173 34% 14%)
OKLCH
oklch(81.5% 0.117 184.1)
P3
color(display-p3 0.4892 0.8478 0.7958)
HSV
hsv(173, 60%, 86%)
LAB
lab(80.18% -39.75 -2.91)
LCH
lch(80.18% 39.86 184.18)
CMYK
cmyk(60%, 0%, 7%, 14%)

Etymology

Effective
adjective

Latin effectīvus, productive — adjectival suffix -ive. As a color modifier, effective implies a clear-and-purpose-achieving quality where the hue carries the visual register of successful-task-completion design-element. Sits at the crisp-and-functional end of the grid, parallel to practical and useful in usage.

Spica
modifier

Latin spīca, ear-of-grain. As a color modifier, spica implies a Virgin-and-grain-ear-and-blue-white-star quality, the visual register of Virgo-constellation-and-spring-Spica hand-Virgin-and-grain-ear-and-blue-white-star Virgo-constellation-and-spring-and-Bortle-1-sky spica-and-Virgin-and-grain-ear-and-blue-white-star surfaces under Virgo-constellation-and-spring-and-Bortle-1-sky April-and-May-spring-southern-vista grain-bearing-stellar-light. Sits at the modifier-and-cosmic end of the grid, parallel to vega and altair in usage.

Turquoise
noun

The hydrated copper-aluminum phosphate mined in Persia and the American Southwest for thousands of years — the firuze of Iran, the chalchihuitl of Mesoamerica, the heart of Pueblo and Navajo silverwork. The color refers to a fine Sleeping Beauty turquoise from Arizona: a saturated, slightly green-shifted blue with the slight matrix of host-rock veining. Brighter than persian, lighter than cerulean.

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.

#57dbcb
Original
#d1cfca
Protanopia
#bdc1cd
Deuteranopia
#00dfd6
Tritanopia
#bebebe
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
1.69:1
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
12.40:1

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
##57DBCB
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.4892 0.8478 0.7958)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.117

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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