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Level Yosemite

#b5cdfe
Notes

Level Yosemite (#B5CDFE) is a soft azure with a pastel character. It reads calm and airy, with enough chroma to feel intentional rather than washed out. Its HSL profile (220°, 97%, 85%) 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 amber. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#b5cdfe
RGB
rgb(181, 205, 254)
HSL
hsl(220, 97%, 85%)
HWB
hwb(220 71% 0%)
OKLCH
oklch(84.7% 0.074 264.4)
P3
color(display-p3 0.7277 0.8010 0.9797)
HSV
hsv(220, 29%, 100%)
LAB
lab(82.18% 2.76 -26.64)
LCH
lch(82.18% 26.78 275.92)
CMYK
cmyk(29%, 19%, 0%, 0%)

Etymology

Level
adjective

Latin libella, small-balance / level-tool — sharing root with libra (balance). As a color modifier, level implies a clear-and-horizontal-true quality where the hue carries the visual register of gravity-perpendicular-and-perfectly-horizontal surface. Sits at the crisp-and-balanced end of the grid, parallel to plumb and flat in usage.

Yosemite
noun

The California national park in the Sierra Nevada — and the saturated deep blue of Half Dome's eastern shadow at sunset and the Yosemite Valley sky framed by El Capitan. Yosemite refers to the Yosemite Valley sky at sunset: a saturated, slightly cool deep blue with the optical depth of high-altitude desert sky.

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.

#b5cdfe
Original
#bdd0ff
Protanopia
#b6c9fd
Deuteranopia
#a1d7dd
Tritanopia
#cbcbcb
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
1.60:1
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
13.13:1

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
##B5CDFE
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.7277 0.8010 0.9797)
Inside sRGBOKLCH chroma 0.074

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