colors
Back to gallery

Gauzy Estuary

#a6c7ae
Notes

Gauzy Estuary (#A6C7AE) 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 (135°, 23%, 72%) 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
#a6c7ae
RGB
rgb(166, 199, 174)
HSL
hsl(135, 23%, 72%)
HWB
hwb(135 65% 22%)
OKLCH
oklch(79.8% 0.050 152.5)
P3
color(display-p3 0.6763 0.7765 0.6896)
HSV
hsv(135, 17%, 78%)
LAB
lab(77.29% -15.93 8.87)
LCH
lch(77.29% 18.23 150.89)
CMYK
cmyk(17%, 0%, 13%, 22%)

Etymology

Gauzy
adjective

An adjectival form of gauze, the open-weave fabric named for the Palestinian city of Gaza. Used as a color modifier since the eighteenth century for hues with the optical translucency of loose-weave fabric. Gauzy white, gauzy pink: very low saturation combined with optical openness. Sits at the pale-bucket alongside sheer and veiled.

Estuary
noun

The mixing zone where freshwater rivers meet saltwater seas — the Chesapeake, the Thames, the Hudson — environments of unique salinity and biodiversity. Estuary color refers to mid-depth estuary water at high tide: a soft, slightly cool deep blue-green with the optical complexity of brackish water.

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.

#a6c7ae
Original
#c7c1ad
Protanopia
#c1bdaf
Deuteranopia
#a2c6c0
Tritanopia
#bebebe
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
1.84:1
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
11.40:1

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
##A6C7AE
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.6763 0.7765 0.6896)
Inside sRGBOKLCH chroma 0.050

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.

Related Colors

Canvas