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Inscribed Bow Mint

#a4f9b3
Notes

Inscribed Bow Mint (#A4F9B3) 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 (131°, 88%, 81%) 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 magenta. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#a4f9b3
RGB
rgb(164, 249, 179)
HSL
hsl(131, 88%, 81%)
HWB
hwb(131 64% 2%)
OKLCH
oklch(91.0% 0.126 149.0)
P3
color(display-p3 0.7176 0.9677 0.7256)
HSV
hsv(131, 34%, 98%)
LAB
lab(91.19% -39.58 25.67)
LCH
lch(91.19% 47.18 147.03)
CMYK
cmyk(34%, 0%, 28%, 2%)

Etymology

Inscribed
adjective

Latin īnscrībere, to write upon — past-participle of inscribe. As a color modifier, inscribed implies a clear-and-text-or-pattern-cut quality, the crisp color of Roman-Imperial-period monumental-stone inscription-and-monumental-text incised-relief. Sits at the crisp-and-incised end of the grid, parallel to etched and engraved in usage.

Bow
modifier

Old Norse bógr, bow / shoulder. As a color modifier, bow implies a ship's-front-prow quality, the visual register of Royal-Navy-and-merchant-marine-bow hand-built ship's-front-prow-and-figurehead bow-and-cutwater maritime-architecture surfaces under ship's-front-bow-and-prow maritime-headway light. Sits at the modifier-and-nautical end of the grid, parallel to prow and hull 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.

#a4f9b3
Original
#fbebaf
Protanopia
#ede2b7
Deuteranopia
#98f6e6
Tritanopia
#e2e2e2
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
1.25:1
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
16.78:1

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
##A4F9B3
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.7176 0.9677 0.7256)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.126

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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