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Pleasant Seafoam

#b9f8c0
Notes

Pleasant Seafoam (#B9F8C0) 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 (127°, 82%, 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 violet. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#b9f8c0
RGB
rgb(185, 248, 192)
HSL
hsl(127, 82%, 85%)
HWB
hwb(127 73% 3%)
OKLCH
oklch(92.2% 0.099 147.6)
HSV
hsv(127, 25%, 97%)
LAB
lab(92.24% -30.42 20.66)
LCH
lch(92.24% 36.77 145.81)
CMYK
cmyk(25%, 0%, 23%, 3%)

Etymology

Pleasant
adjective

From the French plaisant, pleasing — used as a color modifier since the fifteenth century for hues that read as agreeable, the kind of color that wears well over a long viewing without becoming demanding or fatiguing. Pleasant green, pleasant rose: moderate saturation combined with optical comfort. Sits at the crisp-bucket alongside easy and calm.

Seafoam
noun

The pale, slightly translucent green-blue of foam on a breaking wave — light scattered through micron-scale air bubbles in salt water, with a touch of the sea's color showing through. Seafoam green refers specifically to that desaturated tint: a soft, very pale green-blue with the optical lightness of small bubbles in motion. Lighter than mint, cooler than celadon.

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

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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.

#b9f8c0
Original
#faedbd
Protanopia
#efe6c3
Deuteranopia
#b2f5e9
Tritanopia
#e7e7e7
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
1.22:1
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
17.25:1

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