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Amethyst Ink Soft
Color detail

Amethyst Ink Soft

Blue · Hue 245
Metrics
S 34% · L 14%
Contrast (WCAG)
on white17.3:1AAon black1.2:1Fail
Save to journalSign in to saveStart palette from thisRecent trail

About this color

Amethyst Ink Soft (#1A1830) belongs to the blue family — hue 245°, 34% saturation, 14% 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-amethyst-ink-soft: #1A1830;
  --colorarchive-amethyst-ink-soft-hsl: hsl(245, 34%, 14%);
  --colorarchive-amethyst-ink-soft-rgb: rgb(26, 24, 48);
}

AI Color Names

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

Design Context

AuthoritativeIntellectualLuxurious
Common in

Defense · Aviation · Higher Education

Pairs well with

Gold for prestige, white for sharp readability, electric blue for energy

Design tip

Perfect for dark mode backgrounds and headers. Navy is softer than black and adds character. Pair with bright accents for contrast.

Cultural context ▶

Navy and midnight blue symbolize authority, intelligence, and tradition. The color of uniforms, institutions, and power.

Color Origins

Blue family

The most-loved color on the planet, and the most overused.

Heritage

Blue is one of the hardest colors for nature to make with pigment — and, historically, one of the most expensive to paint with. Ultramarine, ground from lapis lazuli mined in Afghanistan, could cost as much as gold in Renaissance Europe; Vermeer used it lavishly. Egyptian blue (the first synthetic pigment, ~3000 BCE) was lost for centuries and rediscovered in the 19th. Prussian blue (1704) quickly gave painters a cheap alternative to ultramarine; Yves Klein's IKB (1960) re-aristocratized blue.

Across cultures

In ancient Egypt blue was the color of the Nile and the heavens — sacred, protective. In China blue-and-white porcelain (qinghua) defined export ceramics for centuries. In Mediterranean traditions blue wards off the evil eye. In America, IBM's blue logo helped earn it the nickname 'Big Blue'; in Japan, indigo (ai) is the centuries-old workwear dye that became the ground tone of an entire textile tradition. Across the world blue is consistently rated the most-liked color — in one ten-country survey it led every other color by 8 to 18 points.

In the wild

Mark Zuckerberg has said Facebook is blue because he is red-green colorblind. Levi's blue is the natural color of indigo on cotton. Twitter Blue (#1DA1F2) defined social-media blue for years before the 2023 rebrand to X scrapped it. The blue checkmark, the blue link, the blue 'send' button — blue has become the default color of digital trust, to the point of being a UX cliché.

How it reads

Blue tends to recede — the eye focuses blue light slightly in front of the retina, which can make blue elements feel deep or distant. It reads as trustworthy, calm, corporate, and (at the cool end) cold. Light blues read airy and clinical; mid blues are the default for tech and finance; deep blues read as luxurious or naval. The omnipresence of blue in software is real: most enterprise UIs reach for it because it offends the fewest stakeholders, which is also the reason it can feel like the absence of a real choice.

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 a 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 #1A1830.

  • Linearneutral
    Linear Gray 1 · #1C1D24
    →
  • Webflowneutral
    Charcoal · #1D1F26
    →
  • Didi 滴滴neutral
    Didi Navy · #0E1733
    →

Cultures using a similar color

From the cultural-palette catalog, these regions feature a color close to #1A1830.

  • IcelandBasalt Black
    #1A1B1F · Reynisfjara basalt columns
    →
  • China (Traditional)Ink Wash Black (墨)
    #1C1C1C · Pine-soot ink stick (mò)
    →
  • JapanSumi Black (墨)
    #1A1A1A · Pine-soot stick ink
    →

Color guides

Go deeper on using blue and color in design.

HistoryIndigo: The Color That Built Trade Routes and Made Blue CheapBrand & MarketingTechnology Brand Color Design: Trust, Intelligence, and the Blue ProblemColor PsychologyColor and E-Commerce Conversion: Evidence-Based Design Decisions

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
Amethyst Nocturne Soft
#252244 · hsl(245, 34%, 20%)
Complementary counterpoint
Citrine Ink Soft
#303018 · hsl(60, 34%, 14%)
Analogous lead
Plum Ink Soft
#241830 · hsl(270, 34%, 14%)
Analogous echo
Cobalt Ink Soft
#182030 · hsl(220, 34%, 14%)
Triadic +120°
Scarlet Ink Soft
#301A18 · hsl(5, 34%, 14%)
Triadic +240°
Emerald Ink Soft
#183018 · hsl(120, 34%, 14%)
Split-comp +150°
Coral Ink Soft
#302418 · hsl(30, 34%, 14%)
Split-comp +210°
Lime Ink Soft
#243018 · hsl(90, 34%, 14%)
Export preview
Base: Amethyst Ink Soft #1A1830
Lighter companion: Amethyst Nocturne Soft #252244
Complementary counterpoint: Citrine Ink Soft #303018
Analogous lead: Plum Ink Soft #241830
Analogous echo: Cobalt Ink Soft #182030
Triadic +120°: Scarlet Ink Soft #301A18
Triadic +240°: Emerald Ink Soft #183018
Split-comp +150°: Coral Ink Soft #302418
Split-comp +210°: Lime Ink Soft #243018

Compare

See how Amethyst Ink Soft compares side by side with related colors.

vsAmethyst Nocturne SoftvsCitrine Ink SoftvsPlum Ink SoftvsCobalt Ink SoftvsScarlet Ink SoftvsEmerald Ink Soft

Nearest neighbors

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

Search by hex
Nearby match
Amethyst Ink Dust
#1C1A2D · hsl(245, 26%, 14%)
Nearby match
Amethyst Nocturne Soft
#252244 · hsl(245, 34%, 20%)
Nearby match
Iris Ink Soft
#181830 · hsl(240, 34%, 14%)
Nearby match
Violet Ink Soft
#1C1830 · hsl(250, 34%, 14%)
Nearby match
Amethyst Ink Muted
#1E1D2A · hsl(245, 18%, 14%)
Nearby match
Amethyst Nocturne Dust
#282640 · hsl(245, 26%, 20%)

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
AAA16.5:1
Citrine Veil Faint
#FAFAF9
AAA16.7:1
Citrine Veil Muted
#FBFBF9
AAA16.7:1
Citrine Veil Dust
#FBFBF9
AAA16.8:1
Citrine Veil Soft
#FCFCF8
AAA16.9:1
Citrine Veil Clear
#FDFDF7
AAA17:1
Citrine Veil Vivid
#FEFEF6

Color Vision Simulation

How this color appears with different color vision deficiencies.

Full simulator
Deuteranopia
#19192A
Protanopia
#19192B
Tritanopia
#1A2727
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Saturation ladder

Same hue and lightness, from gray to pure

Search
Amethyst Ink Faint#212027 · hsl(245, 10%, 14%)Amethyst Ink Muted#1E1D2A · hsl(245, 18%, 14%)Amethyst Ink Dust#1C1A2D · hsl(245, 26%, 14%)Amethyst Ink Soft#1A1830 · hsl(245, 34%, 14%)Amethyst Ink Clear#141037 · hsl(245, 54%, 14%)Amethyst Ink Vivid#0E093E · hsl(245, 74%, 14%)Amethyst Ink Bright#0B0642 · hsl(245, 84%, 14%)Amethyst Ink Pure#080345 · hsl(245, 92%, 14%)
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