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Even Bluestem

#a5ceb0
Notes

Even Bluestem (#A5CEB0) is a soft green 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 (136°, 29%, 73%) places it in the muted 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
#a5ceb0
RGB
rgb(165, 206, 176)
HSL
hsl(136, 29%, 73%)
HWB
hwb(136 65% 19%)
OKLCH
oklch(81.4% 0.060 153.2)
P3
color(display-p3 0.6793 0.8032 0.6989)
HSV
hsv(136, 20%, 81%)
LAB
lab(79.20% -19.43 10.52)
LCH
lch(79.20% 22.09 151.57)
CMYK
cmyk(20%, 0%, 15%, 19%)

Etymology

Even
adjective

Old English efen, flat, equal — used as a color modifier since the medieval period for hues that read as uniformly distributed across a surface. Even gray, even tan: the implication is moderate saturation combined with optical uniformity. Sits at the crisp-bucket center alongside steady and balanced.

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.

#a5ceb0
Original
#cec7ae
Protanopia
#c7c2b2
Deuteranopia
#9fcdc5
Tritanopia
#c3c3c3
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
1.74:1
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
12.06:1

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
##A5CEB0
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.6793 0.8032 0.6989)
Inside sRGBOKLCH chroma 0.060

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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