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Utilitarian Avalon Lagoon

#91dbdc
Notes

Utilitarian Avalon Lagoon (#91DBDC) 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 (181°, 52%, 72%) places it in the balanced band at a light lightness. It works as a background wash, large-area fill, or soft illustration tone. Add a darker ink of the same hue when you need type over it. 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
#91dbdc
RGB
rgb(145, 219, 220)
HSL
hsl(181, 52%, 72%)
HWB
hwb(181 57% 14%)
OKLCH
oklch(84.3% 0.073 196.9)
P3
color(display-p3 0.6332 0.8512 0.8585)
HSV
hsv(181, 34%, 86%)
LAB
lab(82.83% -22.58 -7.79)
LCH
lch(82.83% 23.89 199.03)
CMYK
cmyk(34%, 0%, 0%, 14%)

Etymology

Utilitarian
adjective

Latin ūtilitās, usefulness — adjectival suffix -ian. As a color modifier, utilitarian implies a clear-and-purpose-fit-and-stripped-down quality, the crisp color of Shaker-and-Quaker anti-ornamental functional-and-no-frills craft tradition. Sits at the crisp-and-functional end of the grid, parallel to functional and workmanlike in usage.

Avalon
modifier

Old Welsh Afallon, island-of-apples-Arthurian-otherworld. As a color modifier, avalon implies an Arthurian-otherworld-and-island-of-apples quality, the visual register of Arthurian-Avalon-and-Glastonbury-Tor hand-Arthurian-otherworld-and-island-of-apples Arthurian-Avalon-and-Glastonbury-Tor-and-Morgan-le-Fay avalon-and-Arthurian-otherworld surfaces under Arthurian-Avalon-and-Glastonbury-Tor-and-Morgan-le-Fay Glastonbury-Tor-and-Somerset-Levels misty-otherworld-light. Sits at the modifier-and-myth end of the grid, parallel to eden and helen in usage.

Lagoon
noun

A shallow body of saltwater partially or fully enclosed by a barrier — coral atoll lagoons in the Pacific, Venice's Laguna Veneta, the Florida Keys' backcountry. The color refers to the average reflectance of a calm tropical lagoon at midday: a saturated, slightly muted blue-green with the optical clarity of shallow water over white sand. Brighter than reef, cooler than aquamarine, with the postcard weight of a Pacific atoll seen from above.

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.

#91dbdc
Original
#d2d4dc
Protanopia
#c4cadd
Deuteranopia
#74e0db
Tritanopia
#cbcbcb
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
1.57:1
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
13.37:1

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
##91DBDC
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.6332 0.8512 0.8585)
Inside sRGBOKLCH chroma 0.073

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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