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Dependable Wave Sky

#88c7ef
Notes

Dependable Wave Sky (#88C7EF) is a soft azure 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 (203°, 76%, 74%) 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 orange. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#88c7ef
RGB
rgb(136, 199, 239)
HSL
hsl(203, 76%, 74%)
HWB
hwb(203 53% 6%)
OKLCH
oklch(80.2% 0.086 237.2)
P3
color(display-p3 0.5873 0.7738 0.9219)
HSV
hsv(203, 43%, 94%)
LAB
lab(77.47% -9.88 -26.07)
LCH
lch(77.47% 27.88 249.25)
CMYK
cmyk(43%, 17%, 0%, 6%)

Etymology

Dependable
adjective

Latin dē-pendere, to hang from — adjectival suffix -able. As a color modifier, dependable implies a clear-and-trustworthy-and-consistent quality where the hue carries the visual register of consistently-performing-and-counted-on design-element. Sits at the crisp-and-honest end of the grid, parallel to reliable and trustworthy in usage.

Wave
modifier

Old English wagian, to move to and fro. As a color modifier, wave implies a periodic-and-rolling quality, the visual register of Pacific-and-Atlantic mid-ocean wind-driven rolling-swell-and-foam mid-distance horizon surfaces under open sky. Sits at the modifier-and-place end of the grid, parallel to surge and tide in usage.

Sky
noun

The blue of a clear sky at noon — produced by Rayleigh scattering, the preferential dispersion of shorter wavelengths through atmospheric molecules. Air itself is colorless; the color we see is sunlight scattered toward our eyes by every cubic kilometer above. The reference shade is mid-latitude noon under a high pressure system: a clean, slightly green-shifted blue with the luminous depth of light scattered across an entire hemisphere of air.

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.

#88c7ef
Original
#b5c6f1
Protanopia
#a7baee
Deuteranopia
#5ed1d4
Tritanopia
#bcbcbc
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
1.83:1
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
11.46:1

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
##88C7EF
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.5873 0.7738 0.9219)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.086

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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