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Spotless Arctic

#9fe7f6
Notes

Spotless Arctic (#9FE7F6) is a soft cyan with a pastel character. It reads calm and airy, with enough chroma to feel intentional rather than washed out. Its HSL profile (190°, 83%, 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 red. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#9fe7f6
RGB
rgb(159, 231, 246)
HSL
hsl(190, 83%, 79%)
HWB
hwb(190 62% 4%)
OKLCH
oklch(88.6% 0.074 212.1)
HSV
hsv(190, 35%, 96%)
LAB
lab(87.57% -18.69 -14.39)
LCH
lch(87.57% 23.58 217.59)
CMYK
cmyk(35%, 6%, 0%, 4%)

Etymology

Spotless
adjective

Old English spott (spot) plus suffix -less. As a color modifier, spotless implies a clear-and-unmarked quality where the hue carries no contaminating speck or stain. Sits at the crisp-and-clean end of the grid, parallel to pristine and unblemished in usage.

Arctic
noun

Greek ἄρκτος (árktos, bear) — used in geography for the Arctic-Circle northernmost-temperate-zone, particularly the iconic pure-white Ursus maritimus (polar bear) and Vulpes lagopus (Arctic fox). Arctic color refers to an Ursus maritimus in mid-winter pelage on Svalbard pack-ice: a pure white with the matte finish of pure-white melanin-depleted bear-fur against pack-ice substrate.

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

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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.

#9fe7f6
Original
#dbe2f7
Protanopia
#ccd7f6
Deuteranopia
#7eeeeb
Tritanopia
#d9d9d9
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
15.24:1

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