colors
Back to gallery

Certain Watercress

#609809
Notes

Certain Watercress (#609809) is a deep lime with a jewel character. It carries the deep, saturated richness of a gemstone. Authoritative and slightly formal, it works well for type and heavy UI elements. Its HSL profile (83°, 89%, 32%) places it in the highly saturated band at a dark 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 indigo. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#609809
RGB
rgb(96, 152, 9)
HSL
hsl(83, 89%, 32%)
HWB
hwb(83 4% 40%)
OKLCH
oklch(61.7% 0.166 131.1)
P3
color(display-p3 0.4262 0.5904 0.1800)
HSV
hsv(83, 94%, 60%)
LAB
lab(57.04% -38.16 58.20)
LCH
lch(57.04% 69.60 123.25)
CMYK
cmyk(37%, 0%, 94%, 40%)

Etymology

Certain
adjective

Latin certus, fixed / sure — sharing root with English concern and certify. As a color modifier, certain implies a saturated-and-unambiguous quality where the hue declares its character without hesitation. Sits at the bold-and-confident end of the grid, parallel to assured and decisive in usage.

Watercress
noun

Nasturtium officinale, the European aquatic mustard-family green eaten in soups, salads, and sandwiches — particularly in the celebrated cresson de fontaine of French bouquet garni. Watercress color refers to fresh-picked watercress in cool stream water: a saturated, slightly cool deep yellow-green with the satin finish of aquatic-leaf surface. Cooler than arugula.

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.

#609809
Original
#9f8c00
Protanopia
#988720
Deuteranopia
#629181
Tritanopia
#828282
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).
AA Largeon White
3.50:1
The quick brown foxSample body text at normal size. The wcag minimum for body contrast is 4.5:1 (AA) or 7:1 (AAA).
AAon Black
5.99:1

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
##609809
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.4262 0.5904 0.1800)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.166

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.

Related Colors

Canvas