Serviceable Guacamole
Serviceable Guacamole (#CEF2AC) is a soft lime with a pastel character. It reads calm and airy, with enough chroma to feel intentional rather than washed out. Its HSL profile (91°, 73%, 81%) 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.
Etymology
Latin servītium, service — adjectival suffix -able. As a color modifier, serviceable implies a clear-and-fit-for-purpose-and-durable quality where the hue carries the visual register of long-lasting-and-functional everyday-use design. Sits at the crisp-and-functional end of the grid, parallel to practical and utilitarian in usage.
The Mexican avocado-based dip — fresh avocado mashed with lime, cilantro, salsa, and salt, traced to pre-Columbian Aztec cuisine via the Nahuatl āhuacamolli (avocado sauce). Guacamole color refers to fresh-mashed guacamole in a molcajete: a soft, slightly muted yellow-green with the matte finish of pureed avocado-and-lime. Drier than avocado.
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 exploreHarmonies
Accessibility
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.
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.