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Frank Loch

#6abbb5
Notes

Frank Loch (#6ABBB5) 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 (176°, 37%, 57%) 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
#6abbb5
RGB
rgb(106, 187, 181)
HSL
hsl(176, 37%, 57%)
HWB
hwb(176 42% 27%)
OKLCH
oklch(73.9% 0.080 189.4)
P3
color(display-p3 0.4921 0.7255 0.7078)
HSV
hsv(176, 43%, 73%)
LAB
lab(70.83% -26.24 -4.71)
LCH
lch(70.83% 26.66 190.18)
CMYK
cmyk(43%, 0%, 3%, 27%)

Etymology

Frank
adjective

From the Old French franc, free, sincere — used as a color modifier since the seventeenth century for hues that read as direct and unhedged. Frank red, frank brown: moderate-to-high saturation combined with optical directness. Sits at the crisp-bucket alongside direct and honest.

Loch
noun

The Scottish word for lake (from Gaelic loch) — particularly the saturated deep blue of Loch Ness, Loch Lomond, and the highland lochs of the western Highlands. Loch color refers to Loch Lomond at midday: a saturated, slightly cool deep blue with the optical depth of cold-water highland lake.

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.

#6abbb5
Original
#b3b3b5
Protanopia
#a5a9b6
Deuteranopia
#45bfb9
Tritanopia
#a9a9a9
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
2.24:1
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
9.39:1

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
##6ABBB5
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.4921 0.7255 0.7078)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.080

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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