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Mapped Surf

#59b7dc
Notes

Mapped Surf (#59B7DC) 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 (197°, 65%, 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
#59b7dc
RGB
rgb(89, 183, 220)
HSL
hsl(197, 65%, 61%)
HWB
hwb(197 35% 14%)
OKLCH
oklch(73.7% 0.103 226.6)
P3
color(display-p3 0.4445 0.7091 0.8476)
HSV
hsv(197, 60%, 86%)
LAB
lab(70.28% -17.10 -26.96)
LCH
lch(70.28% 31.92 237.62)
CMYK
cmyk(60%, 17%, 0%, 14%)

Etymology

Mapped
adjective

Latin mappa, cloth / napkin — past-participle of map. As a color modifier, mapped implies a clear-and-cartographic-and-surveyed quality, the crisp color of Ordnance-Survey-and-USGS scientific-and-cadastral cartographic-and-topographic mapping-and-projection. Sits at the crisp-and-mapped end of the grid, parallel to plotted and surveyed in usage.

Surf
noun

The white water produced where waves break — bubbles of compressed air carried in shallow water and dispersing as the wave reforms. The color refers to surf retreating across wet sand: a soft, very pale blue-green with the optical brightness of bubble dispersion. Lighter than seafoam, cooler than frost, with the kinetic weight of a color that's never still — every photograph of surf is already obsolete.

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.

#59b7dc
Original
#a3b4de
Protanopia
#91a6dc
Deuteranopia
#00c2c3
Tritanopia
#a6a6a6
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
2.27:1
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
9.23:1

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
##59B7DC
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.4445 0.7091 0.8476)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.103

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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