Tints & Shades
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Scale from white (50) through Patina (500) to black (900), interpolated in Lab color space.
Color Values
- HEX
- #4D9B72
- RGB
- rgb(77, 155, 114)
- HSL
- hsl(148, 34%, 45%)
- OKLCH
- oklch(0.628 0.1 159)
- CMYK
- cmyk(50%, 0%, 26%, 39%)
--color-patinabg-[#4D9B72]Accessibility
Score: 39/100On White (#FFF)
3.36:1
On Black (#000)
6.25:1
On Light Gray (#F5F5F5)
3.08:1
Best text color on this background:
Design Applications
background-color: #4D9B72
color: #4D9B72
bg-[#4D9B72] text-[#000000]
border-left: 4px solid #4D9B72
Color Harmonies
Complementary
Persian Pink
#F77FBE
Split-Complementary
Similar Colors
Color Meaning & Psychology
Teal occupies the sophisticated intersection of blue's trust and green's vitality. It feels calming yet distinctive — neither the corporate ubiquity of navy nor the aggressive freshness of lime green. Teal is associated with healing, emotional balance, and clarity of thought. It gained significant cultural cachet in the 2010s as a design-forward alternative to standard blues in healthcare and technology branding. Deeper teals feel luxurious and authoritative; lighter teals feel fresh and energetic. Teal is one of the few colors that reads well in both light and dark themes. Its primary challenge is legibility — teal text on white often fails WCAG AA without careful shade selection. At medium lightness, it is the most versatile tone of this hue family — readable as text on light backgrounds, yet vibrant enough as a visual accent.
Industry Usage
Common contexts and industries where Patina is applied in professional design.
- Healthcare technology and health apps
- Mental health and wellness platforms
- Fintech brands seeking blue-alternative trust
- Premium interior design and home accessories
- Environmental and ocean-focused organizations
- Contemporary hotel and hospitality brands
- Corporate communications departments
- Spa and beauty wellness destinations
Accessibility Considerations
Normal Text
Fails AA
4.5:1 minimum required
Large Text
Passes AA Large
3:1 minimum required
UI Components
Meets 1.4.11
3:1 for non-text UI
Patina is a light color. Use black (#000000) text on top of it for maximum readability (6.25:1). Avoid white text on this background.
CSS & Code Examples
Background
background-color: #4D9B72;Text
color: #4D9B72;Border
border: 2px solid #4D9B72;Box Shadow
box-shadow: 0 4px 20px #4D9B7240;Gradient
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #4D9B72, #7dcca1);Tailwind-style
--color-patina: #4D9B72;Tailwind CSS Utilities
Use arbitrary value syntax in Tailwind CSS to apply Patina without a custom config.
Background
bg-[#4D9B72]Text
text-[#4D9B72]Border
border-[#4D9B72]Ring
ring-[#4D9B72]Fill
fill-[#4D9B72]From (gradient)
from-[#4D9B72]Via (gradient)
via-[#4D9B72]To (gradient)
to-[#4D9B72]Design Tokens
Ready-to-use Patina design token in CSS custom properties, SCSS, Tailwind v3/v4, and JSON formats.
CSS Custom Properties
:root {
--color-patina: #4D9B72;
--color-patina-rgb: 77, 155, 114;
--color-patina-hsl: 148, 34%, 45%;
}SCSS Variables
$color-patina: #4D9B72; $color-patina-rgb: 77, 155, 114; $color-patina-hsl: 148, 34%, 45%;
Tailwind v3 Config
// tailwind.config.js
module.exports = {
theme: {
extend: {
colors: {
'patina': '#4D9B72',
},
},
},
};Tailwind v4 (@theme)
/* tailwind.css */
@theme {
--color-patina: #4D9B72;
}JSON Design Token (W3C format)
{
"patina": {
"value": "#4D9B72",
"type": "color",
"description": "Patina — #4D9B72"
}
}More teal colors
View all →What Does Patina Mean? Color Psychology & Cultural Symbolism
The psychology of teal tones draws from multiple sources simultaneously—the blue sky's expansiveness, the sea's depth, the clarity of clean water. Patina at #4D9B72 synthesizes these inputs into clarity: a quality that feels simultaneously grounded and forward-looking.
- Across color psychology research, teal consistently tests high for "innovation" associations, making Patina a reliable vehicle for clarity in cross-demographic audiences.
- Brand designers draw on teal-family tones to project modern sophistication and trustworthiness—values that Patina communicates in a medium key.
- At 34% saturation, Patina reads as subdued—neither overwhelming nor passive, landing in the clarity, innovation, balance, and modern sophistication zone with measured confidence.
- Patina's medium lightness (45%) shifts its psychological register: a balanced mid-tone that embodies clarity, innovation, balance, and modern sophistication at its most direct.
Patina will feel fresh for a long time because it's built on permanent values—clarity, balance, and intelligence—not trend.
How to Use Patina in Design: Applications, Pairings & Best Practices
Design systems built around Patina tend to feel contemporary, clean, and purposeful. It pairs naturally with white, dark charcoal, and almost any warm neutral, making it an extremely designer-friendly color to build a palette around.
- Avoid: traditional, conservative institutions that need to signal historical trust (navy serves better), children's products where warmer colors perform better, and food branding.
- Color harmonies: Patina's complementary color creates a high-energy split ideal for promotional design; its analogous palette (±30° hue) builds cohesive, monochromatic sophistication.
- Proportional use: Patina's subdued quality means it scales well across proportions—from full-bleed backgrounds to single-pixel borders—making it an unusually versatile palette component.
- Patina creates strong legibility with black text overlays (6.3:1 contrast ratio), making it a reliable background or surface color in design systems
- Typography: Patina as text requires a dark background; its 45% lightness means it provides 3.4:1 contrast on white, not meeting WCAG AA.
Patina will feel fresh for a long time because it's built on permanent values—clarity, balance, and intelligence—not trend.
Patina Accessibility: WCAG Contrast Ratios, Color Blindness & Inclusive Design
Patina (#4D9B72) reaches 6.25:1 contrast with black text—meeting WCAG 2.1 AA minimum of 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text. It clears standard production accessibility requirements. Relative luminance: 26.2%.
- As text on white (#FFFFFF): 3.36:1 — AA (large text only)
- As text on black (#000000): 6.25:1 — AA ✓
- Best text color on Patina background: Black (#000000) at 6.25:1
- WCAG 2.1 luminance: 26.2% — mid-range luminance—it sits in the transition zone where both dark and light text approaches require testing against the 4.5:1 WCAG threshold
- Patina qualifies for normal body text and all larger sizes (AA).
- Color blindness consideration: tritanopia (blue-yellow color blindness, ~0.003% of population) may affect how this color reads. While rare, for maximum accessibility supplement color signals with text or icon indicators in critical states.
Patina's WCAG profile makes it a compliant choice for most text applications.
Patina in Industry: Branding, Design & Market Applications
Across industry research, teal-family tones consistently outperform competitors in categories built on clarity, innovation, balance, and modern sophistication. Patina is a medium expression of this advantage—best positioned in Healthcare Technology and adjacent markets.
- Healthcare Technology: Teal has become the signature color of healthcare technology for a specific reason: it bridges clinical trust (blue's domain) with vitality and growth (green's domain), communicating that a product is both reliable and innovative. (examples: Notion, Slack, Salesforce) Particularly effective for telemedicine, health tracking apps, and digital wellness platforms that need clinical credibility without institutional coldness.
- SaaS & B2B Software: The modern SaaS industry has adopted teal as an alternative to blue that signals both professionalism and innovation. It works especially well for productivity tools, data platforms, and workflow software where clarity and intelligence are the core brand values. Teal differentiates from the blue-dominated enterprise market while maintaining the trust signals B2B buyers require.
- Financial Technology: Fintech brands use teal to signal that they're reimagining financial services—keeping the trustworthiness of traditional blue but adding a freshness that traditional banks lack. The color says "we take your money seriously and we're different from old banking." (examples: Apple, Microsoft, Salesforce) Works best paired with clean white and dark charcoal for maximum fintech modernity.
- Brand positioning: Patina is best suited for brands projecting modern sophistication, trustworthiness, balance. Categories outside this positioning—traditional—tend to see weaker results.
- Adjacent applications: Beyond primary industries, Patina works effectively in professional services branding, wellness apps, financial dashboards—contexts where innovation serves a secondary but reinforcing role.
Patina earns its strongest ROI in industries where trust and recognition compound over time: Healthcare Technology, SaaS & B2B Software, Financial Technology. Use it to build the kind of brand recognition that decades reinforce.
Accessibility & Design Guides
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is the hex code for Patina? ▾
- The hex code for Patina is #4D9B72. Its RGB values are rgb(77, 155, 114) and its HSL values are hsl(148, 34%, 45%).
- What does Patina mean in design? ▾
- Teal occupies the sophisticated intersection of blue's trust and green's vitality. It feels calming yet distinctive — neither the corporate ubiquity of navy nor the aggressive freshness of lime green. Teal is associated with healing, emotional balance, and clarity of thought. It gained significant cultural cachet in the 2010s as a design-forward alternative to standard blues in healthcare and technology branding. Deeper teals feel luxurious and authoritative; lighter teals feel fresh and energetic. Teal is one of the few colors that reads well in both light and dark themes. Its primary challenge is legibility — teal text on white often fails WCAG AA without careful shade selection. At medium lightness, it is the most versatile tone of this hue family — readable as text on light backgrounds, yet vibrant enough as a visual accent.
- Is Patina WCAG accessible? ▾
- Patina (#4D9B72) passes WCAG AA-large on white with a 3.36:1 contrast ratio. Its overall accessibility score is 39/100.
- What colors go well with Patina? ▾
- Patina pairs well with its complementary color Persian Pink (#F77FBE). Analogous colors like Green and Smoke also work harmoniously. Check the Color Harmonies section above for the full palette.
- What is Patina used for? ▾
- Patina is commonly used for: Healthcare technology and health apps; Mental health and wellness platforms; Fintech brands seeking blue-alternative trust; Premium interior design and home accessories; Environmental and ocean-focused organizations.
- What are the CSS and Tailwind values for Patina? ▾
- In CSS, use `color: #4D9B72` or `background-color: #4D9B72`. The CSS custom property is `--color-patina: #4D9B72`. In Tailwind CSS, use the arbitrary value class `bg-[#4D9B72]` for backgrounds or `text-[#4D9B72]` for text.