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Level Lemongrass

#c9e4a6
Notes

Level Lemongrass (#C9E4A6) is a soft lime with a cool character. It leans cool, sitting on the blue, green, and violet side of the wheel. Quiet and dependable, a fit for product UI and data visualization. Its HSL profile (86°, 53%, 77%) 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 indigo. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#c9e4a6
RGB
rgb(201, 228, 166)
HSL
hsl(86, 53%, 77%)
HWB
hwb(86 65% 11%)
OKLCH
oklch(88.4% 0.087 127.2)
P3
color(display-p3 0.8084 0.8909 0.6751)
HSV
hsv(86, 27%, 89%)
LAB
lab(87.32% -19.51 27.40)
LCH
lch(87.32% 33.63 125.45)
CMYK
cmyk(12%, 0%, 27%, 11%)

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.

Lemongrass
noun

Cymbopogon citratus, the tropical grass whose lemon-scented stalks flavor Southeast Asian curries, Thai soups, and herbal teas. The color refers to a fresh-cut lemongrass stalk in cross-section: a saturated, slightly yellow yellow-green with the matte finish of fresh grass-family fiber.

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.

#c9e4a6
Original
#ebdca2
Protanopia
#e7daa9
Deuteranopia
#ccded4
Tritanopia
#dadada
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
1.39:1
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
15.13:1

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
##C9E4A6
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.8084 0.8909 0.6751)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.087

Moderately saturated colors gain a small bump in P3 — the difference is usually visible side-by-side on wide-gamut hardware but won't change the character of the color.

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