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Cerulean Ink Soft
Color detail

Cerulean Ink Soft

Blue · Hue 190
Metrics
S 34% · L 14%
Contrast (WCAG)
on white14.6:1AAon black1.4:1Fail
Save to journalSign in to saveStart palette from thisRecent trail

About this color

Cerulean Ink Soft (#182C30) belongs to the blue family — hue 190°, 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-cerulean-ink-soft: #182C30;
  --colorarchive-cerulean-ink-soft-hsl: hsl(190, 34%, 14%);
  --colorarchive-cerulean-ink-soft-rgb: rgb(24, 44, 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 #182C30.

  • Supabaseneutral
    Surface · #2A2A2A
    →
  • Meituan 美团neutral
    Slate Black · #222222
    →
  • Stripeneutral
    Slate Navy · #0A2540
    →

Cultures using a similar color

From the cultural-palette catalog, these regions feature a color close to #182C30.

  • Korea (Obangsaek)Obangsaek Black (흑 / heuk)
    #1F1F1F · North — water element, ink and lacquer
    →
  • AustraliaSouthern Sky Navy
    #0C1E3F · Outback night sky
    →
  • China (Traditional)Ink Wash Black (墨)
    #1C1C1C · Pine-soot ink stick (mò)
    →

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 ProblemBrand & MarketingPackaging Color Strategy: How Shelf Impact Works and How to Engineer It

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 Nocturne Soft
#223F44 · hsl(190, 34%, 20%)
Complementary counterpoint
Ruby Ink Soft
#301C18 · hsl(10, 34%, 14%)
Analogous lead
Sapphire Ink Soft
#182430 · hsl(210, 34%, 14%)
Analogous echo
Lagoon Ink Soft
#18302C · hsl(170, 34%, 14%)
Triadic +120°
Peony Ink Soft
#30182C · hsl(310, 34%, 14%)
Triadic +240°
Honey Ink Soft
#2C3018 · hsl(70, 34%, 14%)
Split-comp +150°
Garnet Ink Soft
#301820 · hsl(340, 34%, 14%)
Split-comp +210°
Apricot Ink Soft
#302818 · hsl(40, 34%, 14%)
Export preview
Base: Cerulean Ink Soft #182C30
Lighter companion: Cerulean Nocturne Soft #223F44
Complementary counterpoint: Ruby Ink Soft #301C18
Analogous lead: Sapphire Ink Soft #182430
Analogous echo: Lagoon Ink Soft #18302C
Triadic +120°: Peony Ink Soft #30182C
Triadic +240°: Honey Ink Soft #2C3018
Split-comp +150°: Garnet Ink Soft #301820
Split-comp +210°: Apricot Ink Soft #302818

Compare

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

vsCerulean Nocturne SoftvsRuby Ink SoftvsSapphire Ink SoftvsLagoon Ink SoftvsPeony Ink SoftvsHoney Ink Soft

Nearest neighbors

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

Search by hex
Nearby match
Cerulean Ink Dust
#1A2A2D · hsl(190, 26%, 14%)
Nearby match
Cerulean Nocturne Soft
#223F44 · hsl(190, 34%, 20%)
Nearby match
Cerulean Ink Muted
#1D282A · hsl(190, 18%, 14%)
Nearby match
Cerulean Nocturne Dust
#263C40 · hsl(190, 26%, 20%)
Nearby match
Cerulean Ink Clear
#103137 · hsl(190, 54%, 14%)
Nearby match
Cerulean Shadow Soft
#2F5860 · hsl(190, 34%, 28%)

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
AAA13.9:1
Ruby Veil Faint
#FAFAF9
AAA13.9:1
Ruby Veil Muted
#FBF9F9
AAA13.9:1
Ruby Veil Dust
#FBF9F9
AAA13.9:1
Ruby Veil Soft
#FCF9F8
AAA13.8:1
Ruby Veil Clear
#FDF8F7
AAA13.8:1
Ruby Veil Vivid
#FEF7F6

Color Vision Simulation

How this color appears with different color vision deficiencies.

Full simulator
Deuteranopia
#211F2F
Protanopia
#22222F
Tritanopia
#192E2E
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Saturation ladder

Same hue and lightness, from gray to pure

Search
Cerulean Ink Faint#202627 · hsl(190, 10%, 14%)Cerulean Ink Muted#1D282A · hsl(190, 18%, 14%)Cerulean Ink Dust#1A2A2D · hsl(190, 26%, 14%)Cerulean Ink Soft#182C30 · hsl(190, 34%, 14%)Cerulean Ink Clear#103137 · hsl(190, 54%, 14%)Cerulean Ink Vivid#09353E · hsl(190, 74%, 14%)Cerulean Ink Bright#063842 · hsl(190, 84%, 14%)Cerulean Ink Pure#033A45 · hsl(190, 92%, 14%)
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