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Symmetrical Balm Teal

#60cae1
Notes

Symmetrical Balm Teal (#60CAE1) is a true cyan with a vibrant character. It holds its own as a focal accent, carrying visual weight without tipping into neon territory. Its HSL profile (191°, 68%, 63%) 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
#60cae1
RGB
rgb(96, 202, 225)
HSL
hsl(191, 68%, 63%)
HWB
hwb(191 38% 12%)
OKLCH
oklch(78.5% 0.102 214.0)
P3
color(display-p3 0.4857 0.7827 0.8705)
HSV
hsv(191, 57%, 88%)
LAB
lab(76.17% -24.05 -20.67)
LCH
lch(76.17% 31.71 220.67)
CMYK
cmyk(57%, 10%, 0%, 12%)

Etymology

Symmetrical
adjective

Greek symmetría, due-proportion — adjectival suffix -al, derived from sym-metron (with-measure). As a color modifier, symmetrical implies a clear-and-balanced-and-mirrored quality where the hue carries the visual register of bilateral-or-radial proportional symmetry. Sits at the crisp-and-balanced end of the grid, parallel to balanced and aligned in usage.

Balm
modifier

Latin balsamum, aromatic-resin-and-soothing-oil. As a color modifier, balm implies an aromatic-resin-and-soothing-oil-and-lemon-balm quality, the visual register of apothecary-balm-and-lemon-balm hand-aromatic-resin-and-soothing-oil-and-lemon-balm apothecary-balm-and-lemon-balm-and-Tudor-still-room balm-and-aromatic-resin-and-soothing-oil surfaces under apothecary-balm-and-lemon-balm-and-Tudor-still-room Tudor-still-room-and-monastic-physic-garden apothecary-and-still-room-light. Sits at the modifier-and-flavor end of the grid, parallel to bergamot and hyssop in usage.

Teal
noun

Anas crecca, the small dabbling duck whose male in breeding plumage sports a chestnut head crossed by a glossy green-blue stripe. The color refers to that stripe — the iridescent panel just behind the eye: a saturated, slightly muted blue-green with the optical depth of structural color rather than pigment. Cooler than cypress, warmer than cerulean, with the ornithological specificity of a color named for one feather of one bird.

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.

#60cae1
Original
#b9c4e2
Protanopia
#a6b6e1
Deuteranopia
#00d3d1
Tritanopia
#b5b5b5
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
1.90:1
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
11.03:1

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
##60CAE1
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.4857 0.7827 0.8705)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.102

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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