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Unblemished Konjō

#8bb4d6
Notes

Unblemished Konjō (#8BB4D6) is a true 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 (207°, 48%, 69%) 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 orange. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#8bb4d6
RGB
rgb(139, 180, 214)
HSL
hsl(207, 48%, 69%)
HWB
hwb(207 55% 16%)
OKLCH
oklch(75.2% 0.066 243.8)
P3
color(display-p3 0.5779 0.7013 0.8265)
HSV
hsv(207, 35%, 84%)
LAB
lab(71.54% -5.48 -21.55)
LCH
lch(71.54% 22.23 255.74)
CMYK
cmyk(35%, 16%, 0%, 16%)

Etymology

Unblemished
adjective

Old French blesmir, to wound — negative-prefix un- plus past-participle of blemish. As a color modifier, unblemished implies a clear-and-flawless quality where the hue carries no defect or imperfection. Sits at the crisp-and-clean end of the grid, parallel to pristine and spotless in usage.

Konjō
noun

Japanese konjō (紺青) — deep blue-azure, the saturated deep navy used in Edo-period samurai inner robes and Buddhist mandala backgrounds. Distinct from konpeki by its slightly cooler shift toward navy. The color refers to a konjō-dyed silk: a saturated, slightly cool dark blue with the satin finish of multi-bath dyed silk.

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.

#8bb4d6
Original
#a6b4d8
Protanopia
#9cacd5
Deuteranopia
#72bcbf
Tritanopia
#aeaeae
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
2.19:1
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
9.60:1

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
##8BB4D6
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.5779 0.7013 0.8265)
Inside sRGBOKLCH chroma 0.066

This color sits well within the sRGB cube. P3 and sRGB share the gray axis and most desaturated tones, so a P3 display renders this identically to an sRGB display.

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