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Sure Cascade

#75bdd7
Notes

Sure Cascade (#75BDD7) 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°, 55%, 65%) 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
#75bdd7
RGB
rgb(117, 189, 215)
HSL
hsl(196, 55%, 65%)
HWB
hwb(196 46% 16%)
OKLCH
oklch(76.1% 0.081 223.1)
P3
color(display-p3 0.5237 0.7340 0.8315)
HSV
hsv(196, 46%, 84%)
LAB
lab(72.94% -15.70 -20.07)
LCH
lch(72.94% 25.48 231.95)
CMYK
cmyk(46%, 12%, 0%, 16%)

Etymology

Sure
adjective

Old French seur, certain — used as a color modifier since the medieval period for hues that read as confident and stable. Sure red, sure blue: moderate saturation combined with optical commitment. Sits at the crisp-bucket center alongside steady and true.

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.

#75bdd7
Original
#aeb9d8
Protanopia
#9faed7
Deuteranopia
#47c5c5
Tritanopia
#b0b0b0
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
2.10:1
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
10.02:1

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
##75BDD7
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.5237 0.7340 0.8315)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.081

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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Canvas