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Inviting Thaw Mint

#aafbc5
Notes

Inviting Thaw Mint (#AAFBC5) 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 (140°, 91%, 83%) 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
#aafbc5
RGB
rgb(170, 251, 197)
HSL
hsl(140, 91%, 83%)
HWB
hwb(140 67% 2%)
OKLCH
oklch(92.2% 0.109 154.6)
P3
color(display-p3 0.7366 0.9759 0.7888)
HSV
hsv(140, 32%, 98%)
LAB
lab(92.38% -35.53 18.18)
LCH
lch(92.38% 39.91 152.91)
CMYK
cmyk(32%, 0%, 22%, 2%)

Etymology

Inviting
adjective

Latin invītāre, to invite — present-participle of invite. As a color modifier, inviting implies a clear-and-cordial-and-encouraging quality where the hue carries the visual register of warm-inviting-and-encouraging entrance-foyer color tone. Sits at the crisp-and-cheerful end of the grid, parallel to welcoming and hospitable in usage.

Thaw
modifier

Old English thawian, to-melt-or-soften. As a color modifier, thaw implies a spring-melt-and-softening-frost quality, the visual register of English-spring-and-Pennine-thaw hand-spring-melt-and-softening-frost English-spring-and-Pennine-thaw-and-Cumbria-Highland-thaw thaw-and-spring-melt-and-softening-frost surfaces under English-spring-and-Pennine-thaw-and-Cumbria-Highland-thaw Yorkshire-Dales-and-Lake-District-and-Cairngorm spring-melt-light. Sits at the modifier-and-weather end of the grid, parallel to slush and rain 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.

#aafbc5
Original
#fbefc2
Protanopia
#ede6c8
Deuteranopia
#9cf9ec
Tritanopia
#e6e6e6
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
1.21:1
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
17.31:1

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
##AAFBC5
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.7366 0.9759 0.7888)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.109

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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