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Inscribed Sirocco Turquoise

#85fdf9
Notes

Inscribed Sirocco Turquoise (#85FDF9) 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 (178°, 97%, 76%) 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
#85fdf9
RGB
rgb(133, 253, 249)
HSL
hsl(178, 97%, 76%)
HWB
hwb(178 52% 1%)
OKLCH
oklch(92.3% 0.109 192.6)
P3
color(display-p3 0.6400 0.9810 0.9721)
HSV
hsv(178, 47%, 99%)
LAB
lab(92.61% -34.76 -8.56)
LCH
lch(92.61% 35.79 193.83)
CMYK
cmyk(47%, 0%, 2%, 1%)

Etymology

Inscribed
adjective

Latin īnscrībere, to write upon — past-participle of inscribe. As a color modifier, inscribed implies a clear-and-text-or-pattern-cut quality, the crisp color of Roman-Imperial-period monumental-stone inscription-and-monumental-text incised-relief. Sits at the crisp-and-incised end of the grid, parallel to etched and engraved in usage.

Sirocco
modifier

Arabic sharq, eastern-or-Saharan-wind. As a color modifier, sirocco implies a hot-Saharan-and-Mediterranean-wind quality, the visual register of Saharan-and-Sicilian-and-Maltese-sirocco hand-hot-Saharan-and-Mediterranean-wind Saharan-and-Sicilian-and-Maltese-sirocco-and-North-African sirocco-and-hot-Saharan-and-Mediterranean-wind surfaces under Saharan-and-Sicilian-and-Maltese-sirocco-and-North-African Sahara-and-Sicily-and-Malta-and-Tunis hot-North-African-wind-light. Sits at the modifier-and-weather end of the grid, parallel to mistral and zephyr in usage.

Turquoise
noun

The hydrated copper-aluminum phosphate mined in Persia and the American Southwest for thousands of years — the firuze of Iran, the chalchihuitl of Mesoamerica, the heart of Pueblo and Navajo silverwork. The color refers to a fine Sleeping Beauty turquoise from Arizona: a saturated, slightly green-shifted blue with the slight matrix of host-rock veining. Brighter than persian, lighter than cerulean.

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.

#85fdf9
Original
#f1f3f9
Protanopia
#dce3fa
Deuteranopia
#3ffffb
Tritanopia
#e3e3e3
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
1.21:1
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
17.42:1

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
##85FDF9
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.6400 0.9810 0.9721)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.109

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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