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Iridescent Aloe

#5aaa39
Notes

Iridescent Aloe (#5AAA39) is a true green with an earthy character. It leans grounded and natural, the kind of color that plays well with wood, clay, linen, and warm neutrals. Its HSL profile (102°, 50%, 45%) 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 violet. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#5aaa39
RGB
rgb(90, 170, 57)
HSL
hsl(102, 50%, 45%)
HWB
hwb(102 22% 33%)
OKLCH
oklch(66.3% 0.168 137.9)
HSV
hsv(102, 66%, 67%)
LAB
lab(62.69% -45.15 48.95)
LCH
lch(62.69% 66.59 132.69)
CMYK
cmyk(47%, 0%, 66%, 33%)

Etymology

Iridescent
adjective

Latin Īris, rainbow — adjectival suffix -escent, named for the Greek goddess of the rainbow. As a color modifier, iridescent implies a saturated-and-multi-spectrum-shifting quality, the bright color of peacock-feather-and-soap-bubble structurally-colored-and-thin-film optical-interference patterns. Sits at the bright-and-shifting end of the grid, parallel to prismatic and holographic in usage.

Aloe
noun

Aloe vera, the succulent whose translucent inner leaf gel has been used as a cosmetic and medicinal salve since classical antiquity. The color refers to a fresh aloe leaf in cross-section: a soft, slightly cool yellow-green with the satin finish of succulent leaf-tissue.

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

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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.

#5aaa39
Original
#af9c2a
Protanopia
#a59543
Deuteranopia
#55a493
Tritanopia
#919191
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
2.90:1
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
7.24:1

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