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Surveyed Cycladic

#78e3f4
Notes

Surveyed Cycladic (#78E3F4) is a soft 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 (188°, 85%, 71%) places it in the highly saturated band at a light lightness. Best used in small doses, like logos, CTAs, focus rings, or highlight text, where its saturation becomes a feature rather than noise. 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
#78e3f4
RGB
rgb(120, 227, 244)
HSL
hsl(188, 85%, 71%)
HWB
hwb(188 47% 4%)
OKLCH
oklch(85.8% 0.101 208.9)
HSV
hsv(188, 51%, 96%)
LAB
lab(84.72% -26.41 -17.78)
LCH
lch(84.72% 31.84 213.95)
CMYK
cmyk(51%, 7%, 0%, 4%)

Etymology

Surveyed
adjective

Old French surveer, to look upon — past-participle of survey. As a color modifier, surveyed implies a clear-and-measured-and-coordinated quality, the crisp color of Mason-Dixon-Line-and-Royal-Navy-Hydrographic scientific-and-cadastral land-and-sea surveying tradition. Sits at the crisp-and-mapped end of the grid, parallel to mapped and plotted in usage.

Cycladic
noun

Of the Cyclades, the Greek archipelago — and the saturated blue of Cycladic-island cupolas, painted blue-and-white church domes, and the deep Mediterranean water of Mykonos, Santorini, Naxos. Cycladic color refers to a Cycladic church dome against the sea: a saturated, slightly cool deep blue with the matte finish of limewash-and-cobalt paint.

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.

#78e3f4
Original
#d3dcf5
Protanopia
#bfcdf4
Deuteranopia
#21ebe8
Tritanopia
#cdcdcd
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
1.49:1
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
14.09:1

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