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Cerulean Core Soft
Color detail

Cerulean Core Soft

Blue · Hue 190
Metrics
S 34% · L 48%
Contrast (WCAG)
on white3.4:1AA Largeon black6.2:1AA
Save to journalSign in to saveStart palette from thisRecent trail

About this color

Cerulean Core Soft (#5196A4) belongs to the blue family — hue 190°, 34% 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-soft: #5196A4;
  --colorarchive-cerulean-core-soft-hsl: hsl(190, 34%, 48%);
  --colorarchive-cerulean-core-soft-rgb: rgb(81, 150, 164);
}

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 confident mid-tone — this is the workhorse register of the hue, and the band where many brand colors live.

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 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 #5196A4.

  • Anthropicaccent
    Anthropic Blue · #6A9BCC
    →
  • Googleprimary
    Google Blue · #4285F4
    →
  • PlayStationaccent
    Triangle Green · #1FAA8C
    →

Cultures using a similar color

From the cultural-palette catalog, these regions feature a color close to #5196A4.

  • China (Traditional)Jade Green (碧玉)
    #5F9EA0 · Hetian and Burmese jadeite
    →
  • Turkey (Istanbul)Bosphorus Turquoise
    #4DA8AC · Marmara strait water
    →
  • VietnamJade River
    #3F8B7E · Halong Bay limestone water
    →

Color guides

Go deeper on using blue and color in design.

Color PsychologyBlue Color Psychology in Branding: Why Every Bank and Tech Giant Chooses BlueHistoryIndigo: The Color That Built Trade Routes and Made Blue CheapUI DesignGradients in UI Design: Functional vs Decorative and How to Use Both

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 Soft
#62A4B2 · hsl(190, 34%, 54%)
Darker companion
Cerulean Velvet Soft
#478390 · hsl(190, 34%, 42%)
Complementary counterpoint
Ruby Core Soft
#A45F51 · hsl(10, 34%, 48%)
Analogous lead
Sapphire Core Soft
#517AA4 · hsl(210, 34%, 48%)
Analogous echo
Lagoon Core Soft
#51A496 · hsl(170, 34%, 48%)
Triadic +120°
Peony Core Soft
#A45196 · hsl(310, 34%, 48%)
Triadic +240°
Honey Core Soft
#96A451 · hsl(70, 34%, 48%)
Split-comp +150°
Garnet Core Soft
#A4516D · hsl(340, 34%, 48%)
Split-comp +210°
Apricot Core Soft
#A48851 · hsl(40, 34%, 48%)
Export preview
Base: Cerulean Core Soft #5196A4
Lighter companion: Cerulean Radiant Soft #62A4B2
Darker companion: Cerulean Velvet Soft #478390
Complementary counterpoint: Ruby Core Soft #A45F51
Analogous lead: Sapphire Core Soft #517AA4
Analogous echo: Lagoon Core Soft #51A496
Triadic +120°: Peony Core Soft #A45196
Triadic +240°: Honey Core Soft #96A451
Split-comp +150°: Garnet Core Soft #A4516D
Split-comp +210°: Apricot Core Soft #A48851

Compare

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

vsCerulean Radiant SoftvsCerulean Velvet SoftvsRuby Core SoftvsSapphire Core SoftvsLagoon Core SoftvsPeony Core Soft

Nearest neighbors

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

Search by hex
Nearby match
Cerulean Core Dust
#5B909A · hsl(190, 26%, 48%)
Nearby match
Cerulean Velvet Soft
#478390 · hsl(190, 34%, 42%)
Nearby match
Cerulean Radiant Soft
#62A4B2 · hsl(190, 34%, 54%)
Nearby match
Cerulean Core Muted
#648990 · hsl(190, 18%, 48%)
Nearby match
Cerulean Velvet Dust
#4F7E87 · hsl(190, 26%, 42%)
Nearby match
Cerulean Radiant Dust
#6B9EA8 · hsl(190, 26%, 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
AA4.7:1
Ruby Ink Faint
#272120
AA4.8:1
Ruby Ink Muted
#2A1F1D
AA4.8:1
Ruby Ink Dust
#2D1E1A
AA4.8:1
Ruby Ink Soft
#301C18
AA4.8:1
Ruby Ink Clear
#371710
AA4.8:1
Ruby Ink Vivid
#3E1209

Color Vision Simulation

How this color appears with different color vision deficiencies.

Full simulator
Deuteranopia
#716CA0
Protanopia
#7576A1
Tritanopia
#569E9E
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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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