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Sterile Lovage Kingfisher

#aae2b6
Notes

Sterile Lovage Kingfisher (#AAE2B6) 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 (133°, 49%, 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
#aae2b6
RGB
rgb(170, 226, 182)
HSL
hsl(133, 49%, 78%)
HWB
hwb(133 67% 11%)
OKLCH
oklch(86.3% 0.084 150.9)
P3
color(display-p3 0.7123 0.8801 0.7273)
HSV
hsv(133, 25%, 89%)
LAB
lab(85.16% -26.52 15.81)
LCH
lch(85.16% 30.87 149.20)
CMYK
cmyk(25%, 0%, 19%, 11%)

Etymology

Sterile
adjective

Latin sterilis, barren / not-fertile — sharing root with Greek steiros (barren). As a color modifier, sterile implies a clear-and-medical-clean-and-stripped quality, the crisp color of operating-theater surgical-environment white-and-stainless-steel surfaces. Sits at the crisp-and-clean end of the grid, parallel to sanitary and hygienic in usage.

Lovage
modifier

Latin levisticum, medieval-physic-garden-herb. As a color modifier, lovage implies a medieval-physic-garden-and-celery-leaf quality, the visual register of medieval-physic-garden-and-Cluniac-lovage hand-medieval-physic-garden-and-celery-leaf medieval-physic-garden-and-Cluniac-lovage-and-Benedictine-Saint-Gall lovage-and-medieval-physic-garden-and-celery-leaf surfaces under medieval-physic-garden-and-Cluniac-lovage-and-Benedictine-Saint-Gall Cluny-and-Saint-Gall-physic-garden medieval-monastic-light. Sits at the modifier-and-flavor end of the grid, parallel to savory and catnip in usage.

Kingfisher
noun

The family Alcedinidae — particularly Alcedo atthis, the European common kingfisher whose iridescent turquoise-blue plumage gives the color its name. The color refers to a male European kingfisher's wing: a saturated, slightly cool deep blue-green with the iridescent satin finish of structurally colored feathers.

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.

#aae2b6
Original
#e3d9b4
Protanopia
#d9d2b8
Deuteranopia
#a2e0d6
Tritanopia
#d3d3d3
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
1.47:1
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
14.26:1

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
##AAE2B6
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.7123 0.8801 0.7273)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.084

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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