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Scattered Amazonite

#b9cfdd
Notes

Scattered Amazonite (#B9CFDD) 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 (203°, 35%, 80%) 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 orange. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#b9cfdd
RGB
rgb(185, 207, 221)
HSL
hsl(203, 35%, 80%)
HWB
hwb(203 73% 13%)
OKLCH
oklch(84.2% 0.031 235.7)
P3
color(display-p3 0.7418 0.8091 0.8607)
HSV
hsv(203, 16%, 87%)
LAB
lab(81.92% -4.50 -9.42)
LCH
lch(81.92% 10.44 244.44)
CMYK
cmyk(16%, 6%, 0%, 13%)

Etymology

Scattered
adjective

Old English scaterian, to scatter — past-participle of scatter. As a color modifier, scattered implies a pale-and-randomly-distributed-and-fragmented quality where the hue carries the visual register of random-and-irregular deposit-pattern decorative-and-irregular distribution. Sits at the pale-and-soft end of the grid, parallel to sprinkled and dappled in usage.

Amazonite
noun

A blue-green variety of microcline feldspar — colored by trace lead and water in its crystal structure. Mined since ancient times in the Russian Urals and now in Colorado, Madagascar, and Brazil. The color refers to a polished amazonite cabochon: a soft, slightly muted blue-green with the cloudy translucency of feldspar. Cooler than jade, warmer than cerulean, with the mineral-trade specificity of a stone named for the Amazon basin where it doesn't actually occur.

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.

#b9cfdd
Original
#c9cede
Protanopia
#c4cadd
Deuteranopia
#b0d3d3
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
1.61:1
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
13.03:1

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
##B9CFDD
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.7418 0.8091 0.8607)
Inside sRGBOKLCH chroma 0.031

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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