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Cerulean Core Faint
Color detail

Cerulean Core Faint

Blue · Hue 190
Metrics
S 10% · L 48%
Contrast (WCAG)
on white4:1AA Largeon black5.3:1AA
Save to journalSign in to saveStart palette from thisRecent trail

About this color

Cerulean Core Faint (#6E8387) belongs to the blue family — hue 190°, 10% saturation, 48% 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-cerulean-core-faint: #6E8387;
  --colorarchive-cerulean-core-faint-hsl: hsl(190, 10%, 48%);
  --colorarchive-cerulean-core-faint-rgb: rgb(110, 131, 135);
}

AI Color Names

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

Design Context

ProfessionalReliableFocused
Common in

Banking · Insurance · Enterprise Software

Pairs well with

White for clean authority, light orange for warm contrast, dark navy for depth

Design tip

The backbone of business interfaces. Use for primary actions and navigation. Blue links are the web's universal convention.

Cultural context ▶

Blue is the world's most popular color. It represents trust, competence, and stability across virtually all cultures.

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 grounded mid-tone — sober, considered, well-suited to body text accents, editorial layouts, or any context where restraint reads as quality.

Lightness band: At mid-lightness the hue carries its full character. This is the band where many identity colors live: bright enough to be distinctive at small sizes, deep enough to sit cleanly on a white canvas.

Saturation band: The low saturation pulls this color toward earthen, vintage, or editorial palettes. It reads as confident and grown-up rather than playful, and it tolerates being used in large blocks without becoming visually noisy.

Brands using a similar color

Within the public brand-guidelines reference catalog, these are the closest matches to #6E8387.

  • Notionneutral
    Notion Gray · #787774
    →
  • Microsoftneutral
    Slate Gray · #737373
    →
  • Anthropicaccent
    Anthropic Green · #788C5D
    →

Cultures using a similar color

From the cultural-palette catalog, these regions feature a color close to #6E8387.

  • France (Paris)Seine Steel
    #7E8A93 · River reflectivity in winter
    →
  • England (London)Plane Tree Green
    #5C7A5A · Platanus × hispanica, London street tree
    →
  • VietnamRice Paddy Green
    #5F8D4E · Mekong Delta
    →

Color guides

Go deeper on using blue and color in design.

Brand & MarketingTechnology Brand Color Design: Trust, Intelligence, and the Blue ProblemColor PsychologyBlue Color Psychology in Branding: Why Every Bank and Tech Giant Chooses BlueColor PsychologyColor Psychology in Marketing: How Color Drives Emotion, Trust, and Purchase 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
Cerulean Radiant Faint
#7E9295 · hsl(190, 10%, 54%)
Darker companion
Cerulean Velvet Faint
#607276 · hsl(190, 10%, 42%)
Complementary counterpoint
Ruby Core Faint
#87726E · hsl(10, 10%, 48%)
Analogous lead
Sapphire Core Faint
#6E7A87 · hsl(210, 10%, 48%)
Analogous echo
Lagoon Core Faint
#6E8783 · hsl(170, 10%, 48%)
Triadic +120°
Peony Core Faint
#876E83 · hsl(310, 10%, 48%)
Triadic +240°
Honey Core Faint
#83876E · hsl(70, 10%, 48%)
Split-comp +150°
Garnet Core Faint
#876E76 · hsl(340, 10%, 48%)
Split-comp +210°
Apricot Core Faint
#877E6E · hsl(40, 10%, 48%)
Export preview
Base: Cerulean Core Faint #6E8387
Lighter companion: Cerulean Radiant Faint #7E9295
Darker companion: Cerulean Velvet Faint #607276
Complementary counterpoint: Ruby Core Faint #87726E
Analogous lead: Sapphire Core Faint #6E7A87
Analogous echo: Lagoon Core Faint #6E8783
Triadic +120°: Peony Core Faint #876E83
Triadic +240°: Honey Core Faint #83876E
Split-comp +150°: Garnet Core Faint #876E76
Split-comp +210°: Apricot Core Faint #877E6E

Compare

See how Cerulean Core Faint compares side by side with related colors.

vsCerulean Radiant FaintvsCerulean Velvet FaintvsRuby Core FaintvsSapphire Core FaintvsLagoon Core FaintvsPeony Core Faint

Nearest neighbors

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

Search by hex
Nearby match
Cerulean Core Muted
#648990 · hsl(190, 18%, 48%)
Nearby match
Cerulean Velvet Faint
#607276 · hsl(190, 10%, 42%)
Nearby match
Cerulean Radiant Faint
#7E9295 · hsl(190, 10%, 54%)
Nearby match
Cerulean Core Dust
#5B909A · hsl(190, 26%, 48%)
Nearby match
Cerulean Velvet Muted
#58787E · hsl(190, 18%, 42%)
Nearby match
Cerulean Radiant Muted
#75989F · hsl(190, 18%, 54%)

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
AA4.5:1
Plum Ink Bright
#240642
AA4.5:1
Plum Ink Pure
#240345
AA4.5:1
Orchid Ink Clear
#1D1037
AA4.6:1
Orchid Ink Vivid
#1B093E
AA4.6:1
Orchid Ink Bright
#1A0642
AA4.6:1
Orchid Ink Pure
#190345

Color Vision Simulation

How this color appears with different color vision deficiencies.

Full simulator
Deuteranopia
#767586
Protanopia
#787886
Tritanopia
#6F8585
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Saturation ladder

Same hue and lightness, from gray to pure

Search
Cerulean Core Faint#6E8387 · hsl(190, 10%, 48%)Cerulean Core Muted#648990 · hsl(190, 18%, 48%)Cerulean Core Dust#5B909A · hsl(190, 26%, 48%)Cerulean Core Soft#5196A4 · hsl(190, 34%, 48%)Cerulean Core Clear#38A6BC · hsl(190, 54%, 48%)Cerulean Core Vivid#20B7D5 · hsl(190, 74%, 48%)Cerulean Core Bright#14BFE1 · hsl(190, 84%, 48%)Cerulean Core Pure#0AC5EB · hsl(190, 92%, 48%)
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