colors
Back to gallery

Spectral Cōng

#8bb339
Notes

Spectral Cōng (#8BB339) is a true lime with an earthy character. It leans grounded and natural, the kind of color that plays well with wood, clay, linen, and warm neutrals. Its HSL profile (80°, 52%, 46%) 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 indigo. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#8bb339
RGB
rgb(139, 179, 57)
HSL
hsl(80, 52%, 46%)
HWB
hwb(80 22% 30%)
OKLCH
oklch(71.4% 0.155 125.8)
P3
color(display-p3 0.5770 0.6975 0.3021)
HSV
hsv(80, 68%, 70%)
LAB
lab(68.04% -31.51 55.39)
LCH
lch(68.04% 63.72 119.64)
CMYK
cmyk(22%, 0%, 68%, 30%)

Etymology

Spectral
adjective

Latin spectrum, appearance — adjectival suffix -al. As a color modifier, spectral implies a saturated-and-rainbow-decomposed-and-pure quality, the bright color of Newton-prism sunlight-decomposed seven-color spectrum band. Sits at the bright-and-pure end of the grid, parallel to prismatic and pure in usage.

Cōng
noun

The Chinese word for scallion — and the bright yellow-green of fresh-cut scallion stalks. Cōnglǜ refers to the saturated lime-green of Chinese cooking and traditional textile color. The color refers to a fresh-sliced scallion: a saturated, slightly yellow-shifted green with the satin finish of cut allium tissue.

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.

#8bb339
Original
#bca727
Protanopia
#b7a543
Deuteranopia
#91ab9a
Tritanopia
#a2a2a2
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
2.44:1
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
8.60:1

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
##8BB339
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.5770 0.6975 0.3021)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.155

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.

Related Colors

Canvas