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Cerulean Silk Clear
Color detail

Cerulean Silk Clear

Blue · Hue 190
Metrics
S 54% · L 68%
Contrast (WCAG)
on white1.8:1Failon black11.5:1AA
Save to journalSign in to saveStart palette from thisRecent trail

About this color

Cerulean Silk Clear (#81CBD9) belongs to the blue family — hue 190°, 54% saturation, 68% 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-silk-clear: #81CBD9;
  --colorarchive-cerulean-silk-clear-hsl: hsl(190, 54%, 68%);
  --colorarchive-cerulean-silk-clear-rgb: rgb(129, 203, 217);
}

AI Color Names

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

Design Context

SereneTrustworthyClean
Common in

Social Media · Cloud Storage · Baby Products

Pairs well with

Light gray for tech minimalism, peach for friendly warmth

Design tip

The default choice for tech and social platforms for good reason. Light blue backgrounds reduce anxiety and increase trust.

Cultural context ▶

Light blue represents peace, sky, and openness. It's the most universally liked color, making it safe for global brands.

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 #81CBD9.

  • Anthropicneutral
    Mid Gray · #B0AEA5
    →
  • Slackaccent
    Slack Blue · #36C5F0
    →
  • Supabaseprimary
    Supabase Green · #3ECF8E
    →

Cultures using a similar color

From the cultural-palette catalog, these regions feature a color close to #81CBD9.

  • IcelandGlacial Cyan
    #75BBC1 · Vatnajökull ice cave light
    →
  • ScandinaviaIittala Blue
    #A6CEDB · Aalto vase glassware (1936-)
    →
  • MoroccoChefchaouen Blue
    #7BAFD4 · Painted medina walls (Rif mountains)
    →

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 & MarketingMinimalist Color Palette: How to Do More With Less

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 Bloom Clear
#A1D8E3 · hsl(190, 54%, 76%)
Darker companion
Cerulean Tone Clear
#62BED0 · hsl(190, 54%, 60%)
Complementary counterpoint
Ruby Silk Clear
#D99081 · hsl(10, 54%, 68%)
Analogous lead
Sapphire Silk Clear
#81ADD9 · hsl(210, 54%, 68%)
Analogous echo
Lagoon Silk Clear
#81D9CB · hsl(170, 54%, 68%)
Triadic +120°
Peony Silk Clear
#D981CB · hsl(310, 54%, 68%)
Triadic +240°
Honey Silk Clear
#CBD981 · hsl(70, 54%, 68%)
Split-comp +150°
Garnet Silk Clear
#D9819F · hsl(340, 54%, 68%)
Split-comp +210°
Apricot Silk Clear
#D9BC81 · hsl(40, 54%, 68%)
Export preview
Base: Cerulean Silk Clear #81CBD9
Lighter companion: Cerulean Bloom Clear #A1D8E3
Darker companion: Cerulean Tone Clear #62BED0
Complementary counterpoint: Ruby Silk Clear #D99081
Analogous lead: Sapphire Silk Clear #81ADD9
Analogous echo: Lagoon Silk Clear #81D9CB
Triadic +120°: Peony Silk Clear #D981CB
Triadic +240°: Honey Silk Clear #CBD981
Split-comp +150°: Garnet Silk Clear #D9819F
Split-comp +210°: Apricot Silk Clear #D9BC81

Compare

See how Cerulean Silk Clear compares side by side with related colors.

vsCerulean Bloom ClearvsCerulean Tone ClearvsRuby Silk ClearvsSapphire Silk ClearvsLagoon Silk ClearvsPeony Silk Clear

Nearest neighbors

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

Search by hex
Nearby match
Cerulean Tone Clear
#62BED0 · hsl(190, 54%, 60%)
Nearby match
Cerulean Bloom Clear
#A1D8E3 · hsl(190, 54%, 76%)
Nearby match
Cerulean Silk Soft
#92C0C9 · hsl(190, 34%, 68%)
Nearby match
Cerulean Silk Vivid
#71D6EA · hsl(190, 74%, 68%)
Nearby match
Cerulean Radiant Clear
#4AB4C9 · hsl(190, 54%, 54%)
Nearby match
Aqua Silk Clear
#81D9D9 · hsl(180, 54%, 68%)

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
AAA7:1
Ruby Nocturne Faint
#38302E
AAA7.2:1
Ruby Nocturne Muted
#3C2D2A
AAA7.3:1
Ruby Nocturne Dust
#402A26
AAA7.4:1
Ruby Nocturne Soft
#442722
AAA7.3:1
Ruby Nocturne Clear
#4F2117
AAA7.3:1
Ruby Nocturne Vivid
#591A0D

Color Vision Simulation

How this color appears with different color vision deficiencies.

Full simulator
Deuteranopia
#A29CD5
Protanopia
#A6A7D6
Tritanopia
#86D3D3
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Saturation ladder

Same hue and lightness, from gray to pure

Search
Cerulean Silk Faint#A5B3B6 · hsl(190, 10%, 68%)Cerulean Silk Muted#9FB7BC · hsl(190, 18%, 68%)Cerulean Silk Dust#98BCC3 · hsl(190, 26%, 68%)Cerulean Silk Soft#92C0C9 · hsl(190, 34%, 68%)Cerulean Silk Clear#81CBD9 · hsl(190, 54%, 68%)Cerulean Silk Vivid#71D6EA · hsl(190, 74%, 68%)Cerulean Silk Bright#69DBF2 · hsl(190, 84%, 68%)Cerulean Silk Pure#62DFF8 · hsl(190, 92%, 68%)
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Appears in collections
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