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Serviceable Cascade

#75afc4
Notes

Serviceable Cascade (#75AFC4) 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 (196°, 40%, 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 orange. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#75afc4
RGB
rgb(117, 175, 196)
HSL
hsl(196, 40%, 61%)
HWB
hwb(196 46% 23%)
OKLCH
oklch(72.2% 0.067 222.7)
P3
color(display-p3 0.5089 0.6802 0.7590)
HSV
hsv(196, 40%, 77%)
LAB
lab(68.33% -13.41 -16.64)
LCH
lch(68.33% 21.37 231.13)
CMYK
cmyk(40%, 11%, 0%, 23%)

Etymology

Serviceable
adjective

Latin servītium, service — adjectival suffix -able. As a color modifier, serviceable implies a clear-and-fit-for-purpose-and-durable quality where the hue carries the visual register of long-lasting-and-functional everyday-use design. Sits at the crisp-and-functional end of the grid, parallel to practical and utilitarian in usage.

Cascade
noun

A waterfall of moderate size — particularly the Cascade Range of waterfalls along the Pacific Northwest's Columbia River Gorge. Cascade color refers to the white-and-blue of falling water at Multnomah Falls: a soft, slightly cool pale blue-white with the optical complexity of mist-and-water in motion.

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.

#75afc4
Original
#a3acc5
Protanopia
#97a3c4
Deuteranopia
#55b6b6
Tritanopia
#a4a4a4
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
2.42:1
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
8.69:1

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
##75AFC4
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.5089 0.6802 0.7590)
Inside sRGBOKLCH chroma 0.067

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