#279781

sRGB: 39 / 151 / 129

Distant whispers awaken with sunrise
Shimmering rivers unfold through ancient forests
Golden visions surrender to silence

#279781 belongs to the cyan family. Its hex code tells a screen to mix 39 red, 151 green and 129 blue on a scale of 0 to 255. On the HSL wheel, hue is a position around a circle: 168.2° lands in the cyan region. Its 58.9% saturation makes it partway between gray and the most vivid version of this hue at this lightness. HSL lightness is 37.3% on a scale from black (0%) to white (100%). Of black and white lettering, black has the clearer light-to-dark separation on this background (5.83:1), which helps the shapes of letters stand out.

Color conversions

sRGB (8-bit): 39, 151, 129
HSL: 168.21°, 58.95%, 37.25%
HSV / HSB: 168.21°, 74.17%, 59.22%
CMYK (approx.): 74.17%, 0.00%, 14.57%, 40.78%
CIE XYZ (D65, Y = 100 for white): 15.865, 24.148, 24.595
CIELAB (D65, 2° observer): 56.236, -36.064, 2.751
WCAG relative luminance: 0.24150
24-bit decimal: 2594689

CMYK uses a profile-free approximation. Printed output depends on the press, ink and paper. Lab uses a D65 white point.

Text contrast

Contrast tells you how clearly lettering separates from #279781 in light and dark. The ratio compares relative luminance, a measure of light weighted for human vision. Identical colors give 1:1 and black against white gives 21:1. A ratio of 2.99:1 falls just below the 3:1 AA minimum for large text. Body text needs at least 4.5:1 because its finer strokes are harder to distinguish.

Black text: 5.83:1

Normal text: AA
Large text: AAA

White text: 3.60:1

Normal text: Fail
Large text: AA

AA and AAA are WCAG accessibility levels. AAA sets a higher bar: 7:1 for normal text and 4.5:1 for large text. Large text begins at 18 pt regular or 14 pt bold. Ratings use the unrounded ratio.

Reference: WCAG text contrast guidance

Palettes & scales

Harmonies rotate the hue. Scales mix the starting color with white, black or middle gray in 20% steps in encoded sRGB.

Complementary

#97273D sits half a turn (180°) from #279781 on the HSL wheel. Keeping saturation and lightness steady while crossing to the opposite hue gives you a contrasting accent. Check text contrast separately before using the pair for lettering.

#279781 #97273D

Analogous

#279749 and #277597 sit 30° to either side of #279781. The three hues are neighbors on the wheel, so you can change the color of a border or highlight while keeping it close to the original.

#279749 #279781 #277597

Triadic

#279781, #812797 and #978127 are spaced 120° apart, forming a triangle on the wheel. Try one for the main color and the other two for accents.

#279781 #812797 #978127

Split complementary

Start at #279781 and look across the wheel. #972775 and #974927 sit 30° to either side of its exact opposite, giving you two different accent choices.

#279781 #972775 #974927

Square

Starting with #279781, each quarter turn (90°) takes you to the next hue: #492797, #97273D, then #759727. Across the square, #279781 pairs with #97273D, and #492797 with #759727.

#279781 #492797 #97273D #759727

Tetradic

#279781 and #97273D are opposites, as are #273D97 and #978127. Together they form a rectangle on the wheel, with alternating gaps of 60° and 120°.

#279781 #273D97 #97273D #978127

Tints

Mixing #279781 with white in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #52AC9A, keeps 80% of the original. By #D4EAE6, the mixture is 80% white.

#279781 #52AC9A #7DC1B3 #A9D5CD #D4EAE6 #FFFFFF

Shades

Mixing #279781 with black in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #1F7967, keeps 80% of the original. By #081E1A, the mixture is 80% black.

#279781 #1F7967 #175B4D #103C34 #081E1A #000000

Tones

Mixing #279781 with middle gray in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #399281, keeps 80% of the original. By #6E8580, the mixture is 80% middle gray.

#279781 #399281 #4B8E81 #5C8980 #6E8580 #808080

Copy color codes

Hex, RGB and HSL are three ways to write this screen color. Paste any of them into a CSS color property.

Hex

#279781

RGB

rgb(39 151 129)

HSL

hsl(168.214 58.947% 37.255%)

CSS example

.color-sample {
  background-color: #279781;
  color: #000000;
}

Channel breakdown

RGB

#279781 uses 39 red, 151 green and 129 blue. Each bar shows how much of that channel’s 0–255 range the screen uses.

Red 15.3%

Green 59.2%

Blue 50.6%

CMYK

A simple CMYK estimate for #279781 is 74.2% cyan, 0.0% magenta, 14.6% yellow and 40.8% black. These are ink amounts; a printer profile is needed to predict the result on paper.

Cyan 74.2%

Magenta 0.0%

Yellow 14.6%

Black 40.8%

Nearby colors

The nearest shorthand match is #229988. Its matching digit pairs let you write it as #298 in CSS. For a modern design, keep #279781 when you want an exact match. Use its web-safe neighbor, #339999, when matching a legacy palette of 216 colors.

Nearest shorthand: #229988 Nearest web-safe: #339999

Gradient to complement

#279781 #3A8476 #4C726A #5F5F5F #724C54 #843A48 #97273D

Color vision previews

Compare how #279781 appears in each simulation. When two chart lines or status indicators become hard to tell apart, a label, shape or line pattern gives readers another way to distinguish them. Individual perception varies.

Protanopia

A red–green color vision deficiency. Without a distinct response from long-wavelength cones, some reds and greens can look alike, and reds can appear darker.

#918D80

Deuteranopia

A red–green color vision deficiency. Without a distinct response from medium-wavelength cones, some greens can be difficult to distinguish from reds or browns.

#828283

Tritanopia

A blue–yellow color vision deficiency. Without a distinct response from short-wavelength cones, blue can resemble green, and yellow can resemble pink.

#009990

Protanomaly (50%)

An altered long-wavelength cone response can make reds appear dimmer and harder to distinguish from greens. This swatch shows the model’s halfway setting.

#789081

Deuteranomaly (50%)

An altered medium-wavelength cone response can reduce the visible difference between reds and greens. This swatch shows the model’s halfway setting.

#718A82

Tritanomaly (50%)

An altered short-wavelength cone response can make blue harder to distinguish from green. This swatch shows the model’s halfway setting.

#269687

Grayscale (luminance)

This design check removes hue and preserves relative luminance so you can compare light and dark areas.

#878787

Partial grayscale (50% blend)

This design check mixes the original color halfway toward its grayscale equivalent in linear light. Use it to see how a design holds up as color fades.

#658F84

Reference: National Eye Institute: Types of Color Vision Deficiency

Technical reference

CAM16 and CIECAM02 below assume D65 white, an average surround, background Y of 20 against white at 100, and adapting luminance of 4.07 cd/m².

Linear sRGB

These channels scale with emitted light. Use them for lighting calculations and physically meaningful blends.

R 0.02029 G 0.30947 B 0.21953

Display P3

P3 displays can reproduce a wider range of reds and greens. These coordinates reproduce this same sRGB swatch on a color-managed P3 display.

R 0.29673 G 0.58372 B 0.50918

Linear Display P3

These P3 channels are proportional to light, before display encoding.

R 0.07163 G 0.29987 B 0.22263

CIE xyY

The x and y coordinates locate chromaticity on a diagram. Y gives relative luminance on a scale where white is 100.

x 0.246 y 0.374 Y 24.148

CMY

Ideal cyan, magenta and yellow are the complements of the encoded red, green and blue channels.

C % 84.706 M % 40.784 Y % 49.412

Binary RGB

Each eight-bit group represents one channel. Together they store the 24-bit hex color.

00100111 10010111 10000001