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Effective Prism Mint

#a4f5ac
Notes

Effective Prism Mint (#A4F5AC) 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 (126°, 80%, 80%) 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
#a4f5ac
RGB
rgb(164, 245, 172)
HSL
hsl(126, 80%, 80%)
HWB
hwb(126 64% 4%)
OKLCH
oklch(90.0% 0.127 146.8)
P3
color(display-p3 0.7135 0.9524 0.7001)
HSV
hsv(126, 33%, 96%)
LAB
lab(89.94% -38.96 27.53)
LCH
lch(89.94% 47.70 144.75)
CMYK
cmyk(33%, 0%, 30%, 4%)

Etymology

Effective
adjective

Latin effectīvus, productive — adjectival suffix -ive. As a color modifier, effective implies a clear-and-purpose-achieving quality where the hue carries the visual register of successful-task-completion design-element. Sits at the crisp-and-functional end of the grid, parallel to practical and useful in usage.

Prism
modifier

Greek πρῖσμα, something-sawn. As a color modifier, prism implies a Newtonian-rainbow-and-spectrum-splitting quality, the visual register of Newton-Optics-and-Cambridge-prism hand-Newtonian-rainbow-and-spectrum-splitting Newton-Optics-and-Cambridge-and-Trinity-College-prism prism-and-Newtonian-rainbow-and-spectrum-splitting surfaces under Newton-Optics-and-Cambridge-and-Trinity-College-prism 17th-century-natural-philosophy-and-rainbow-experiment spectrum-light. Sits at the modifier-and-cosmic end of the grid, parallel to corona and plasma in usage.

Mint
noun

The genus Mentha — peppermint, spearmint, apple mint, water mint — the cooling herb whose menthol gives it that quality at the molecular level. The color refers to fresh peppermint leaves before drying: a clean, slightly cool green with the matte finish of trichome-rich leaf surface. Lighter than basil, cooler than parsley, with the mojito-and-Pimm's association of a herb tied to summer drinks across two continents.

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.

#a4f5ac
Original
#f7e7a7
Protanopia
#ebdfb0
Deuteranopia
#9af1e2
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
1.29:1
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
16.24:1

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
##A4F5AC
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.7135 0.9524 0.7001)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.127

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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