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Peaceful Crete

#59ecf8
Notes

Peaceful Crete (#59ECF8) is a true cyan 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 (185°, 92%, 66%) places it in the highly saturated band at a mid lightness. Best used in small doses, like logos, CTAs, focus rings, or highlight text, where its saturation becomes a feature rather than noise. 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
#59ecf8
RGB
rgb(89, 236, 248)
HSL
hsl(185, 92%, 66%)
HWB
hwb(185 35% 3%)
OKLCH
oklch(87.0% 0.124 202.8)
P3
color(display-p3 0.5180 0.9134 0.9626)
HSV
hsv(185, 64%, 97%)
LAB
lab(86.45% -35.15 -17.38)
LCH
lch(86.45% 39.21 206.31)
CMYK
cmyk(64%, 5%, 0%, 3%)

Etymology

Peaceful
adjective

Latin pāx, peace — adjectival suffix -ful. As a color modifier, peaceful implies a clear-and-restful-and-calm quality where the hue carries the visual register of Quaker-meeting-house still-and-meditative interior atmosphere. Sits at the crisp-and-calm end of the grid, parallel to serene and placid in usage.

Crete
noun

The largest Greek island — and the saturated deep blue of Cretan beach water at Elafonissi and Balos Lagoon. Crete color refers to the lagoon at Balos: a saturated, slightly cool deep blue-green with the optical clarity of warm Aegean water filtered through pink-coral sand.

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.

#59ecf8
Original
#dbe2f9
Protanopia
#c3d1f9
Deuteranopia
#00f5ef
Tritanopia
#cecece
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
1.42:1
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
14.78:1

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
##59ECF8
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.5180 0.9134 0.9626)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.124

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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