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Even Surf

#70b4c5
Notes

Even Surf (#70B4C5) 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 (192°, 42%, 61%) 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
#70b4c5
RGB
rgb(112, 180, 197)
HSL
hsl(192, 42%, 61%)
HWB
hwb(192 44% 23%)
OKLCH
oklch(73.1% 0.073 215.4)
P3
color(display-p3 0.5003 0.6991 0.7637)
HSV
hsv(192, 43%, 77%)
LAB
lab(69.55% -17.06 -15.38)
LCH
lch(69.55% 22.97 222.02)
CMYK
cmyk(43%, 9%, 0%, 23%)

Etymology

Even
adjective

Old English efen, flat, equal — used as a color modifier since the medieval period for hues that read as uniformly distributed across a surface. Even gray, even tan: the implication is moderate saturation combined with optical uniformity. Sits at the crisp-bucket center alongside steady and balanced.

Surf
noun

The white water produced where waves break — bubbles of compressed air carried in shallow water and dispersing as the wave reforms. The color refers to surf retreating across wet sand: a soft, very pale blue-green with the optical brightness of bubble dispersion. Lighter than seafoam, cooler than frost, with the kinetic weight of a color that's never still — every photograph of surf is already obsolete.

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.

#70b4c5
Original
#a8b0c6
Protanopia
#9aa6c5
Deuteranopia
#4abbb9
Tritanopia
#a7a7a7
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
2.33:1
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
9.02:1

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
##70B4C5
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.5003 0.6991 0.7637)
Inside sRGBOKLCH chroma 0.073

This color sits well within the sRGB cube. P3 and sRGB share the gray axis and most desaturated tones, so a P3 display renders this identically to an sRGB display.

Related Colors

Canvas