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Symmetrical Surf

#8dbbd3
Notes

Symmetrical Surf (#8DBBD3) 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 (201°, 44%, 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
#8dbbd3
RGB
rgb(141, 187, 211)
HSL
hsl(201, 44%, 69%)
HWB
hwb(201 55% 17%)
OKLCH
oklch(76.8% 0.060 231.2)
P3
color(display-p3 0.5903 0.7283 0.8173)
HSV
hsv(201, 33%, 83%)
LAB
lab(73.48% -9.43 -16.96)
LCH
lch(73.48% 19.40 240.93)
CMYK
cmyk(33%, 11%, 0%, 17%)

Etymology

Symmetrical
adjective

Greek symmetría, due-proportion — adjectival suffix -al, derived from sym-metron (with-measure). As a color modifier, symmetrical implies a clear-and-balanced-and-mirrored quality where the hue carries the visual register of bilateral-or-radial proportional symmetry. Sits at the crisp-and-balanced end of the grid, parallel to balanced and aligned in usage.

Surf
noun

The white water produced where waves break — bubbles of compressed air carried in shallow water and dispersing as the wave reforms. The color refers to surf retreating across wet sand: a soft, very pale blue-green with the optical brightness of bubble dispersion. Lighter than seafoam, cooler than frost, with the kinetic weight of a color that's never still — every photograph of surf is already obsolete.

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.

#8dbbd3
Original
#afb9d4
Protanopia
#a5b1d3
Deuteranopia
#76c2c3
Tritanopia
#b3b3b3
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
2.06:1
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
10.18:1

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
##8DBBD3
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.5903 0.7283 0.8173)
Inside sRGBOKLCH chroma 0.060

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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