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Refreshing Microgreen

#b9e1af
Notes

Refreshing Microgreen (#B9E1AF) 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 (108°, 45%, 78%) 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 violet. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#b9e1af
RGB
rgb(185, 225, 175)
HSL
hsl(108, 45%, 78%)
HWB
hwb(108 69% 12%)
OKLCH
oklch(86.8% 0.080 139.4)
P3
color(display-p3 0.7565 0.8777 0.7036)
HSV
hsv(108, 22%, 88%)
LAB
lab(85.63% -22.26 20.26)
LCH
lch(85.63% 30.10 137.69)
CMYK
cmyk(18%, 0%, 22%, 12%)

Etymology

Refreshing
adjective

Old French refreschir, to make fresh again — present-participle of refresh. As a color modifier, refreshing implies a clear-and-cool-and-revitalizing quality, the crisp color of Cornish-coast and Hebridean-island fresh-sea-air-and-cool-water revitalization. Sits at the crisp-and-cool end of the grid, parallel to fresh and bracing in usage.

Microgreen
noun

The very young (7–14 days post-germination) edible seedlings of vegetables and herbs — popularized in fine-dining restaurants as bright color-and-texture garnish. The color refers to a tray of fresh basil microgreens: a saturated, slightly cool fresh yellow-green with the optical brightness of just-emerged cotyledons.

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.

#b9e1af
Original
#e4d8ac
Protanopia
#ded5b1
Deuteranopia
#b7ddd3
Tritanopia
#d5d5d5
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
1.45:1
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
14.45:1

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
##B9E1AF
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.7565 0.8777 0.7036)
Inside sRGBOKLCH chroma 0.080

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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