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Methodical Vala Turquoise

#5ab1b5
Notes

Methodical Vala Turquoise (#5AB1B5) 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 (183°, 38%, 53%) 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
#5ab1b5
RGB
rgb(90, 177, 181)
HSL
hsl(183, 38%, 53%)
HWB
hwb(183 35% 29%)
OKLCH
oklch(70.8% 0.084 199.4)
P3
color(display-p3 0.4394 0.6861 0.7044)
HSV
hsv(183, 50%, 71%)
LAB
lab(67.24% -25.02 -10.11)
LCH
lch(67.24% 26.98 202.01)
CMYK
cmyk(50%, 2%, 0%, 29%)

Etymology

Methodical
adjective

Greek méthodos, systematic-procedure — adjectival suffix -al. As a color modifier, methodical implies a clear-and-systematic-and-step-by-step quality where the hue carries the visual register of careful-procedure-followed design-element. Sits at the crisp-and-orderly end of the grid, parallel to orderly and organized in usage.

Vala
modifier

Old Norse völva, Norse-seeress-and-staff-bearer. As a color modifier, vala implies a Norse-seeress-and-staff-bearer-and-prophetess quality, the visual register of Norse-vala-seeress-and-staff hand-Norse-seeress-and-staff-bearer-and-prophetess Norse-vala-seeress-and-staff-and-Voluspa-Edda vala-and-Norse-seeress-and-staff-bearer surfaces under Norse-vala-seeress-and-staff-and-Voluspa-Edda Saga-Iceland-and-rune-stave seeress-prophecy-light. Sits at the modifier-and-myth end of the grid, parallel to norn and freya in usage.

Turquoise
noun

The hydrated copper-aluminum phosphate mined in Persia and the American Southwest for thousands of years — the firuze of Iran, the chalchihuitl of Mesoamerica, the heart of Pueblo and Navajo silverwork. The color refers to a fine Sleeping Beauty turquoise from Arizona: a saturated, slightly green-shifted blue with the slight matrix of host-rock veining. Brighter than persian, lighter than cerulean.

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.

#5ab1b5
Original
#a6aab5
Protanopia
#979fb6
Deuteranopia
#1db6b2
Tritanopia
#9f9f9f
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
2.50:1
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
8.39:1

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
##5AB1B5
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.4394 0.6861 0.7044)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.084

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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