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Tracer Hosta

#9cf99e
Notes

Tracer Hosta (#9CF99E) is a soft green with a pastel character. It reads calm and airy, with enough chroma to feel intentional rather than washed out. Its HSL profile (121°, 89%, 79%) places it in the highly saturated band at a light lightness. Best used in small doses, like logos, CTAs, focus rings, or highlight text, where its saturation becomes a feature rather than noise. For a confident two-color system, pair it with its complementary violet. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#9cf99e
RGB
rgb(156, 249, 158)
HSL
hsl(121, 89%, 79%)
HWB
hwb(121 61% 2%)
OKLCH
oklch(90.2% 0.151 144.7)
P3
color(display-p3 0.6955 0.9672 0.6543)
HSV
hsv(121, 37%, 98%)
LAB
lab(90.45% -45.36 35.20)
LCH
lch(90.45% 57.41 142.19)
CMYK
cmyk(37%, 0%, 37%, 2%)

Etymology

Tracer
adjective

Old French tracier, to trace — sharing root with English trace and track. As a color modifier, tracer implies a saturated-and-streak-of-light quality, the bright color of military-tracer-round and long-exposure-photography light-trail visual streak. Sits at the bright-and-active end of the grid, parallel to flashing and streaking in usage.

Hosta
noun

The genus Hosta — East Asian shade-tolerant perennials with broad green leaves, used as a foundation plant in temperate-shade gardens. Hosta color refers to a fresh H. plantaginea leaf: a saturated, slightly cool deep green with the satin finish of broad parallel-veined leaf.

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.

#9cf99e
Original
#fce998
Protanopia
#efe0a3
Deuteranopia
#91f4e2
Tritanopia
#dfdfdf
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
1.28:1
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
16.46:1

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
##9CF99E
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.6955 0.9672 0.6543)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.151

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.

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