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Lucid Welkin

#59a8e1
Notes

Lucid Welkin (#59A8E1) is a true azure with a vibrant character. It holds its own as a focal accent, carrying visual weight without tipping into neon territory. Its HSL profile (205°, 69%, 62%) 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
#59a8e1
RGB
rgb(89, 168, 225)
HSL
hsl(205, 69%, 62%)
HWB
hwb(205 35% 12%)
OKLCH
oklch(70.5% 0.114 242.2)
P3
color(display-p3 0.4258 0.6514 0.8627)
HSV
hsv(205, 60%, 88%)
LAB
lab(66.18% -7.47 -36.04)
LCH
lch(66.18% 36.80 258.29)
CMYK
cmyk(60%, 25%, 0%, 12%)

Etymology

Lucid
adjective

Latin lūcidus, clear / bright — derived from lūx (light). As a color modifier, lucid implies a clear-and-readable quality where the hue is unambiguous and free of optical clutter. Sits at the crisp-and-clear end of the grid, parallel to pellucid and plain in usage.

Welkin
noun

The archaic English word for sky or cloud-vault — used in Old English religious literature, Shakespeare's Henry V ("the welkin's vicegerent and sole dominator"), and the Scottish ballad tradition. Welkin color refers to the sky in poetic register: a saturated, slightly cool deep blue with the optical brightness of clean atmosphere.

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.

#59a8e1
Original
#8fa8e4
Protanopia
#7c9be0
Deuteranopia
#00b6bc
Tritanopia
#9b9b9b
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
2.59:1
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
8.11:1

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
##59A8E1
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.4258 0.6514 0.8627)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.114

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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