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Pellucid Castor Verdigris

#5ac0bd
Notes

Pellucid Castor Verdigris (#5AC0BD) 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 (178°, 45%, 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
#5ac0bd
RGB
rgb(90, 192, 189)
HSL
hsl(178, 45%, 55%)
HWB
hwb(178 35% 25%)
OKLCH
oklch(74.7% 0.095 192.7)
P3
color(display-p3 0.4586 0.7439 0.7375)
HSV
hsv(178, 53%, 75%)
LAB
lab(71.92% -30.25 -7.54)
LCH
lch(71.92% 31.17 193.99)
CMYK
cmyk(53%, 0%, 2%, 25%)

Etymology

Pellucid
adjective

Latin pellūcidus, transparent — derived from per-lūcēre (to shine through). As a color modifier, pellucid implies a clear-and-translucent quality where the hue reads with optical clarity and minimal turbidity. Sits at the crisp-and-clear end of the grid, parallel to lucid and translucent in usage.

Castor
modifier

Greek Κάστωρ, Gemini-twin-and-horseman. As a color modifier, castor implies a Gemini-twin-and-mortal-brother quality, the visual register of Gemini-Castor-and-Pollux-twin hand-Gemini-twin-and-mortal-brother Gemini-Castor-and-Pollux-twin-and-Argonaut castor-and-Gemini-twin-and-mortal-brother surfaces under Gemini-Castor-and-Pollux-twin-and-Argonaut spring-Gemini-and-Bortle-1-sky stellar-twin-light. Sits at the modifier-and-cosmic end of the grid, parallel to pollux and spica 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.

#5ac0bd
Original
#b6b8bd
Protanopia
#a5abbe
Deuteranopia
#00c5bf
Tritanopia
#aaaaaa
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
2.16:1
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
9.71:1

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
##5AC0BD
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.4586 0.7439 0.7375)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.095

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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