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Balanced Caribbean

#72ab7e
Notes

Balanced Caribbean (#72AB7E) is a true green 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 (133°, 25%, 56%) places it in the muted 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 magenta. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#72ab7e
RGB
rgb(114, 171, 126)
HSL
hsl(133, 25%, 56%)
HWB
hwb(133 45% 33%)
OKLCH
oklch(68.9% 0.089 150.2)
HSV
hsv(133, 33%, 67%)
LAB
lab(65.13% -28.19 17.40)
LCH
lch(65.13% 33.13 148.32)
CMYK
cmyk(33%, 0%, 26%, 33%)

Etymology

Balanced
adjective

The past participle of balance, to weigh evenly. Used as a color modifier since the eighteenth century for hues that read as neither overcommitted nor restrained. Balanced sage, balanced taupe: moderate saturation combined with optical equilibrium. Sits at the crisp-bucket center alongside even.

Caribbean
noun

The Caribbean Sea — the tropical basin between the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic, ringed by Cuba, Hispaniola, the Lesser Antilles, and the Central American mainland. The color refers to mid-depth Caribbean water on a sunny day: a saturated, slightly muted blue-green with the optical complexity of pure water filtered through coral sand. Cooler than turquoise, warmer than azure, with the postcard weight of a sea named for its indigenous people.

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

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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.

#72ab7e
Original
#aca27b
Protanopia
#a39c80
Deuteranopia
#6aa99f
Tritanopia
#9c9c9c
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
2.68:1
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
7.84:1

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