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Emerald Shadow Clear
Color detail

Emerald Shadow Clear

Green · Hue 120
Hex
#216E21
RGB
rgb(33, 110, 33)
HSL
hsl(120, 54%, 28%)
CMYK
cmyk(70%, 0%, 70%, 57%)
Metrics
S 54% · L 28%
Contrast (WCAG)
on white
6.3:1AA
on black
3.3:1AA Large
Save to journalSign in to saveStart palette from thisRecent trail

About this color

Emerald Shadow Clear (#216E21) belongs to the green family — hue 120°, 54% saturation, 28% lightness. Copy the hex, RGB, or HSL value above, or paste the CSS custom property below into your stylesheet to reference this color directly.

CSS
:root {
  --colorarchive-emerald-shadow-clear: #216E21;
  --colorarchive-emerald-shadow-clear-hsl: hsl(120, 54%, 28%);
  --colorarchive-emerald-shadow-clear-rgb: rgb(33, 110, 33);
}

AI Color Names

Let AI suggest alternative poetic names for this color in English and Chinese.

Design Context

PrestigiousTimelessAuthoritative
Common in

Banking · Law Firms · Luxury Real Estate

Pairs well with

Gold, ivory, or warm white for classic elegance

Design tip

Excellent for dark mode themes and premium interfaces. Deep green with gold accents creates an instantly luxurious feel.

Cultural context ▶

Deep greens like forest and hunter green evoke tradition, wealth, and the British countryside. Common in Ivy League branding.

Color Origins

Green family

The color of growth, currency, and the longest-running brands.

Heritage

Verdigris (copper acetate) gave medieval manuscripts their greens; it was unstable, eating through parchment over centuries. Terre verte (green earth) was used for under-painting flesh in the Italian tradition. Scheele's green and Paris green, both 19th-century arsenic compounds, killed an unknown number of wallpaper-makers and Victorian children before viridian and phthalo greens replaced them. Modern green pigments are remarkably stable; the iconic Brunswick green that became British Racing Green dates to the same chemistry.

Across cultures

Green is the dominant color of Islam — the Prophet's banner, the flags of many Muslim-majority nations, the domes of mosques. In Ireland green is national identity, partly through the shamrock and partly through the political binary with orange. In Japan, green and blue (ao/midori) were a single concept until recently; traffic 'green lights' there are still a deeper teal-ish shade. Across many cultures green simultaneously means growth, fertility, envy, and the supernatural.

In the wild

Starbucks' green has barely changed since 1971. John Deere has used essentially the same green since 1837 — the longest continuous brand color in commerce. The U.S. dollar is green because of the chemistry of camphor and copper sulfate, not branding. Whatsapp, Spotify, and Heineken all anchor on green; each chose it for a different reason (community, sound, Dutch heritage). Hospital scrubs were originally white but switched to green/teal because surgeons were getting after-image fatigue.

How it reads

Green is the hue the eye is most efficient at parsing — half of all our cone cells are tuned near 555nm. That makes green the easiest color to look at for long periods, which is why it dominates productivity software, 'go' indicators, and reading-friendly UI. At low saturation it reads as natural, calm, premium (sage, olive). At high saturation it reads as urgent or playful (Mountain Dew, Slack notifications). It carries one of the strongest semantic loads in product design: 'success', 'go', 'natural', 'safe'.

This particular tone

A deep, weighted version of the hue — formal, considered, and pairs especially well with off-white and warm metallic accents.

Lightness band: At this depth the hue starts behaving like a neutral — it can substitute for black in many contexts while still carrying a faint chromatic temperature. It pairs especially well with off-whites and warm metallics.

Saturation band: The clear, mid-saturation register is the most common identity sweet spot — saturated enough to register as a 'real' color, restrained enough not to fight typography or photography placed over it.

Brands using a similar color

Within the public brand-guidelines reference catalog, these are the closest matches to #216E21.

  • Starbucksprimary
    Starbucks Green · #006241
    →
  • Airbnbneutral
    Hof Gray · #484848
    →
  • GitHubaccent
    Success Green · #2DA44E
    →

Cultures using a similar color

From the cultural-palette catalog, these regions feature a color close to #216E21.

  • BrazilAmazon Green
    #1B6D3F · Tropical rainforest canopy
    →
  • Greece (Aegean)Cypress Green
    #3E6B47 · Cupressus sempervirens
    →
  • IndiaIndia Green
    #138808 · Indian flag — Ashoka green
    →

Tonal strip

All lightness levels at this hue and saturation. Click any to navigate.

Palette moves

Instead of stopping at one swatch, use nearby, opposite, and tonal neighbors to branch into a broader palette.

Lighter companion
Emerald Dusk Clear
#288628 · hsl(120, 54%, 34%)
Darker companion
Emerald Nocturne Clear
#174F17 · hsl(120, 54%, 20%)
Complementary counterpoint
Fuchsia Shadow Clear
#6E216E · hsl(300, 54%, 28%)
Analogous lead
Celadon Shadow Clear
#216E41 · hsl(145, 54%, 28%)
Analogous echo
Moss Shadow Clear
#3B6E21 · hsl(100, 54%, 28%)
Triadic +120°
Iris Shadow Clear
#21216E · hsl(240, 54%, 28%)
Triadic +240°
Crimson Shadow Clear
#6E2121 · hsl(0, 54%, 28%)
Split-comp +150°
Plum Shadow Clear
#47216E · hsl(270, 54%, 28%)
Split-comp +210°
Blush Shadow Clear
#6E2147 · hsl(330, 54%, 28%)
Export preview
Base: Emerald Shadow Clear #216E21
Lighter companion: Emerald Dusk Clear #288628
Darker companion: Emerald Nocturne Clear #174F17
Complementary counterpoint: Fuchsia Shadow Clear #6E216E
Analogous lead: Celadon Shadow Clear #216E41
Analogous echo: Moss Shadow Clear #3B6E21
Triadic +120°: Iris Shadow Clear #21216E
Triadic +240°: Crimson Shadow Clear #6E2121
Split-comp +150°: Plum Shadow Clear #47216E
Split-comp +210°: Blush Shadow Clear #6E2147

Compare

See how Emerald Shadow Clear compares side by side with related colors.

vsEmerald Dusk ClearvsEmerald Nocturne ClearvsFuchsia Shadow ClearvsCeladon Shadow ClearvsMoss Shadow ClearvsIris Shadow Clear

Nearest neighbors

The closest archive matches by hue, saturation, and lightness.

Search by hex
Nearby match
Emerald Dusk Clear
#288628 · hsl(120, 54%, 34%)
Nearby match
Clover Shadow Clear
#276E21 · hsl(115, 54%, 28%)
Nearby match
Emerald Nocturne Clear
#174F17 · hsl(120, 54%, 20%)
Nearby match
Emerald Shadow Soft
#2F602F · hsl(120, 34%, 28%)
Nearby match
Emerald Shadow Vivid
#137C13 · hsl(120, 74%, 28%)
Nearby match
Clover Dusk Clear
#308628 · hsl(115, 54%, 34%)

Accessible pairings

Archive colors that meet WCAG contrast standards when paired with this color. Use as text-on-background or background-on-text.

Contrast checker
AA6:1
Fuchsia Veil Faint
#FAF9FA
AA6:1
Fuchsia Veil Muted
#FBF9FB
AA6:1
Fuchsia Veil Dust
#FBF9FB
AA6:1
Fuchsia Veil Soft
#FCF8FC
AA6:1
Fuchsia Veil Clear
#FDF7FD
AA6:1
Fuchsia Veil Vivid
#FEF6FE

Color Vision Simulation

How this color appears with different color vision deficiencies.

Full simulator
Deuteranopia
#4A4444
Protanopia
#4E4F3F
Tritanopia
#294E51
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Moss Ink Faint#232720 · hsl(100, 10%, 14%)Moss Nocturne Faint#31382E · hsl(100, 10%, 20%)Moss Shadow Faint#454F40 · hsl(100, 10%, 28%)Moss Dusk Faint#545F4E · hsl(100, 10%, 34%)Moss Velvet Faint#687660 · hsl(100, 10%, 42%)Moss Core Faint#76876E · hsl(100, 10%, 48%)Moss Radiant Faint#86957E · hsl(100, 10%, 54%)Moss Tone Faint#96A38F · hsl(100, 10%, 60%)
Appears in collections
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