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Useful Uranus Mint

#b3e9c3
Notes

Useful Uranus Mint (#B3E9C3) 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 (138°, 55%, 81%) 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
#b3e9c3
RGB
rgb(179, 233, 195)
HSL
hsl(138, 55%, 81%)
HWB
hwb(138 70% 9%)
OKLCH
oklch(88.7% 0.076 154.0)
P3
color(display-p3 0.7454 0.9077 0.7758)
HSV
hsv(138, 23%, 91%)
LAB
lab(87.87% -24.66 12.92)
LCH
lch(87.87% 27.84 152.34)
CMYK
cmyk(23%, 0%, 16%, 9%)

Etymology

Useful
adjective

Latin ūsus, use — adjectival suffix -ful. As a color modifier, useful implies a clear-and-purpose-serving quality where the hue carries the visual register of helpful-and-supporting design-element. Sits at the crisp-and-functional end of the grid, parallel to practical and serviceable in usage.

Uranus
modifier

Greek Οὐρανός, primeval-sky-god-and-seventh-planet. As a color modifier, uranus implies a primeval-sky-god-and-pale-cyan-seventh-planet quality, the visual register of Greek-Uranus-and-Herschel-discovery hand-primeval-sky-god-and-pale-cyan-seventh-planet Greek-Uranus-and-Herschel-discovery-and-tilted-axis uranus-and-primeval-sky-god surfaces under Greek-Uranus-and-Herschel-discovery-and-tilted-axis 1781-Slough-discovery-and-side-rolling-planet pale-cyan-planet-light. Sits at the modifier-and-zodiac end of the grid, parallel to neptune and saturn 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.

#b3e9c3
Original
#e9e0c1
Protanopia
#e0dac5
Deuteranopia
#abe8de
Tritanopia
#dbdbdb
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
1.37:1
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
15.36:1

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
##B3E9C3
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.7454 0.9077 0.7758)
Inside sRGBOKLCH chroma 0.076

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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