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Level Antarctic

#9fb2dd
Notes

Level Antarctic (#9FB2DD) is a soft 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 (222°, 48%, 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 amber. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#9fb2dd
RGB
rgb(159, 178, 221)
HSL
hsl(222, 48%, 75%)
HWB
hwb(222 62% 13%)
OKLCH
oklch(76.4% 0.065 266.2)
P3
color(display-p3 0.6376 0.6957 0.8524)
HSV
hsv(222, 28%, 87%)
LAB
lab(72.52% 3.09 -23.77)
LCH
lch(72.52% 23.97 277.42)
CMYK
cmyk(28%, 19%, 0%, 13%)

Etymology

Level
adjective

Latin libella, small-balance / level-tool — sharing root with libra (balance). As a color modifier, level implies a clear-and-horizontal-true quality where the hue carries the visual register of gravity-perpendicular-and-perfectly-horizontal surface. Sits at the crisp-and-balanced end of the grid, parallel to plumb and flat in usage.

Antarctic
noun

The continent at Earth's southern pole — and the saturated deep blue of Antarctic polynyas (open-water gaps in the sea ice) and the deep blue beneath fresh-calved icebergs. Antarctic refers to a polynya in the Ross Sea: a saturated, slightly cool deep blue with the optical depth of cold polar seawater.

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.

#9fb2dd
Original
#a4b5df
Protanopia
#9fafdc
Deuteranopia
#8ebac0
Tritanopia
#b1b1b1
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
2.12:1
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
9.89:1

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
##9FB2DD
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.6376 0.6957 0.8524)
Inside sRGBOKLCH chroma 0.065

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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