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Plain Wintergreen

#99e8a9
Notes

Plain Wintergreen (#99E8A9) is a soft green 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 (132°, 63%, 75%) 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 magenta. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#99e8a9
RGB
rgb(153, 232, 169)
HSL
hsl(132, 63%, 75%)
HWB
hwb(132 60% 9%)
OKLCH
oklch(86.3% 0.117 149.8)
HSV
hsv(132, 34%, 91%)
LAB
lab(85.68% -36.94 23.16)
LCH
lch(85.68% 43.60 147.91)
CMYK
cmyk(34%, 0%, 27%, 9%)

Etymology

Plain
adjective

Latin planus, flat, level — used as a color modifier since the medieval period for hues that read as undecorated and direct. Plain white, plain blue: moderate saturation, no shift, no surface effect. Sits in the crisp-bucket center, with the implication of restraint rather than absence.

Wintergreen
noun

Gaultheria procumbens, the low-growing evergreen of North American forest floors whose leaves and red berries flavor candy and toothpaste with methyl salicylate. The color refers to fresh wintergreen leaves on the forest floor: a saturated, slightly muted green with the matte finish of small leathery foliage. Cooler than mint, warmer than spruce, with the cold-air association of a plant that stays green through snow.

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.

#99e8a9
Original
#e9dba5
Protanopia
#ddd3ad
Deuteranopia
#8de5d7
Tritanopia
#d3d3d3
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
1.45:1
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
14.47:1

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