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Polished Nadir Verdigris

#59beb3
Notes

Polished Nadir Verdigris (#59BEB3) is a true teal 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 (173°, 44%, 55%) 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
#59beb3
RGB
rgb(89, 190, 179)
HSL
hsl(173, 44%, 55%)
HWB
hwb(173 35% 25%)
OKLCH
oklch(73.8% 0.096 185.8)
P3
color(display-p3 0.4536 0.7361 0.7010)
HSV
hsv(173, 53%, 75%)
LAB
lab(71.01% -32.11 -3.42)
LCH
lch(71.01% 32.29 186.08)
CMYK
cmyk(53%, 0%, 6%, 25%)

Etymology

Polished
adjective

Latin polīre, to polish — past-participle of polish. As a color modifier, polished implies a clear-and-smooth-and-glossy quality where the hue carries the visual register of buffed-and-burnished smooth-finish surface. Sits at the crisp-and-finished end of the grid, parallel to burnished and gleaming in usage.

Nadir
modifier

Arabic naẓīr, opposite-of-zenith. As a color modifier, nadir implies a downward-pointing-and-low-point quality, the visual register of celestial-sphere-and-downward-Nadir hand-downward-pointing-and-low-point celestial-sphere-and-downward-and-Nadir-pole nadir-and-downward-pointing-and-low-point surfaces under celestial-sphere-and-downward-and-Nadir-pole astronomical-and-celestial-mechanics downward-axis-light. Sits at the modifier-and-cosmic end of the grid, parallel to zenith and axis in usage.

Verdigris
noun

The basic copper carbonate that forms on weathered copper and bronze — the pigment scraped from oxidized metal and used in Renaissance painting before being supplanted by more stable greens. The color refers to a thick verdigris on aged copper roofing or the Statue of Liberty's surface: a soft, slightly muted blue-green with the powdery finish of mineral oxide. Cooler than patina, warmer than seafoam, with the archaeological weight of a mineral made by time.

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.

#59beb3
Original
#b5b5b3
Protanopia
#a5a9b4
Deuteranopia
#10c2ba
Tritanopia
#a8a8a8
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
2.22:1
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
9.44:1

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
##59BEB3
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.4536 0.7361 0.7010)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.096

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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