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Sure Paraiba

#7ad8e0
Notes

Sure Paraiba (#7AD8E0) 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 (185°, 62%, 68%) 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
#7ad8e0
RGB
rgb(122, 216, 224)
HSL
hsl(185, 62%, 68%)
HWB
hwb(185 48% 12%)
OKLCH
oklch(82.7% 0.090 202.7)
P3
color(display-p3 0.5676 0.8381 0.8713)
HSV
hsv(185, 46%, 88%)
LAB
lab(81.09% -25.82 -12.63)
LCH
lch(81.09% 28.74 206.06)
CMYK
cmyk(46%, 4%, 0%, 12%)

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.

Paraiba
noun

The intensely-blue copper-bearing variety of tourmaline — discovered in 1989 in the Brazilian state of Paraíba. Paraiba tourmaline is one of the most expensive gem materials by weight. The color refers to a faceted Paraiba tourmaline: a saturated, slightly cool electric blue-green with the gem's signature internal fire.

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.

#7ad8e0
Original
#cbd1e1
Protanopia
#bac4e1
Deuteranopia
#44deda
Tritanopia
#c5c5c5
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
1.65:1
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
12.73:1

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
##7AD8E0
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.5676 0.8381 0.8713)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.090

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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