colors
Back to gallery

Disciplined Bluestem

#a4e8c9
Notes

Disciplined Bluestem (#A4E8C9) is a soft teal with a pastel character. It reads calm and airy, with enough chroma to feel intentional rather than washed out. Its HSL profile (153°, 60%, 78%) 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
#a4e8c9
RGB
rgb(164, 232, 201)
HSL
hsl(153, 60%, 78%)
HWB
hwb(153 64% 9%)
OKLCH
oklch(87.7% 0.081 164.6)
P3
color(display-p3 0.7004 0.9026 0.7957)
HSV
hsv(153, 29%, 91%)
LAB
lab(86.91% -27.66 8.30)
LCH
lch(86.91% 28.88 163.29)
CMYK
cmyk(29%, 0%, 13%, 9%)

Etymology

Disciplined
adjective

Latin disciplīna, teaching / training — past-participle of discipline. As a color modifier, disciplined implies a clear-and-controlled-and-careful quality where the hue carries the visual register of careful-edited-and-restrained design-decision. Sits at the crisp-and-orderly end of the grid, parallel to methodical and orderly in usage.

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.

#a4e8c9
Original
#e5dfc7
Protanopia
#dad6cb
Deuteranopia
#95e8df
Tritanopia
#d7d7d7
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
1.40:1
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
14.96:1

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
##A4E8C9
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.7004 0.9026 0.7957)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.081

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.

Related Colors

Canvas