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Sanitary Gaul Mint

#aae8c4
Notes

Sanitary Gaul Mint (#AAE8C4) is a soft teal with a pastel character. It reads calm and airy, with enough chroma to feel intentional rather than washed out. Its HSL profile (145°, 57%, 79%) 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
#aae8c4
RGB
rgb(170, 232, 196)
HSL
hsl(145, 57%, 79%)
HWB
hwb(145 67% 9%)
OKLCH
oklch(87.9% 0.080 158.8)
P3
color(display-p3 0.7179 0.9031 0.7784)
HSV
hsv(145, 27%, 91%)
LAB
lab(87.12% -26.81 11.26)
LCH
lch(87.12% 29.08 157.22)
CMYK
cmyk(27%, 0%, 16%, 9%)

Etymology

Sanitary
adjective

Latin sānitās, health — adjectival suffix -ary. As a color modifier, sanitary implies a clear-and-clean-and-medical quality, the crisp color of Bauhaus-and-Modern clinical-and-hospital interior-architecture white-tile-and-stainless-steel surfaces. Sits at the crisp-and-clean end of the grid, parallel to hygienic and sterile in usage.

Gaul
modifier

Latin Gallia, Gaul. As a color modifier, gaul implies a pre-Roman-French-Celtic quality, the visual register of Gallia-Belgica-and-Gallia-Aquitania pre-Roman-period hand-carved bronze-and-iron Celtic-Gaulish chieftain-and-druid surfaces under pre-Roman Gallia-Aquitania-and-Gallia-Belgica Celtic-tribal forest light. Sits at the modifier-and-cultural end of the grid, parallel to celtic and roman 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.

#aae8c4
Original
#e7dfc2
Protanopia
#dcd7c6
Deuteranopia
#9ee7de
Tritanopia
#d8d8d8
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
1.40:1
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
15.05:1

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
##AAE8C4
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.7179 0.9031 0.7784)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.080

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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