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Sure Bluestem

#9eecbd
Notes

Sure Bluestem (#9EECBD) 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 (144°, 67%, 77%) 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
#9eecbd
RGB
rgb(158, 236, 189)
HSL
hsl(144, 67%, 77%)
HWB
hwb(144 62% 7%)
OKLCH
oklch(88.0% 0.101 157.1)
HSV
hsv(144, 33%, 93%)
LAB
lab(87.45% -33.65 15.30)
LCH
lch(87.45% 36.96 155.56)
CMYK
cmyk(33%, 0%, 20%, 7%)

Etymology

Sure
adjective

Old French seur, certain — used as a color modifier since the medieval period for hues that read as confident and stable. Sure red, sure blue: moderate saturation combined with optical commitment. Sits at the crisp-bucket center alongside steady and true.

Bluestem
noun

The genera Andropogon and Schizachyrium — North American native prairie grasses whose stems shift from green to blue-purple in autumn. The color refers to S. scoparium (little bluestem) in midsummer: a soft, slightly cool blue-green-gray with the matte finish of upright prairie grass.

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.

#9eecbd
Original
#ebe1ba
Protanopia
#ded8c0
Deuteranopia
#8febdf
Tritanopia
#d8d8d8
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
1.38:1
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
15.19:1

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