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Cerulean Silk Muted
Color detail

Cerulean Silk Muted

Blue · Hue 190
Metrics
S 18% · L 68%
Contrast (WCAG)
on white2.1:1Failon black10:1AA
Save to journalSign in to saveStart palette from thisRecent trail

About this color

Cerulean Silk Muted (#9FB7BC) belongs to the blue family — hue 190°, 18% 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-muted: #9FB7BC;
  --colorarchive-cerulean-silk-muted-hsl: hsl(190, 18%, 68%);
  --colorarchive-cerulean-silk-muted-rgb: rgb(159, 183, 188);
}

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 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 #9FB7BC.

  • Anthropicneutral
    Mid Gray · #B0AEA5
    →
  • Redditsecondary
    Periwinkle · #7193FF
    →
  • Starbucksneutral
    Warm Neutral · #D4E9E2
    →

Cultures using a similar color

From the cultural-palette catalog, these regions feature a color close to #9FB7BC.

  • ScandinaviaAsh Grey
    #A8AAA5 · Birch and ash bark
    →
  • China (Traditional)Celadon (青瓷)
    #9CB48F · Song Dynasty Longquan kilns
    →
  • Greece (Aegean)Olive Silver
    #9CA38F · Olea europaea leaf undersides
    →

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 ProblemDesign SystemsDesign Token Architecture for Color: Building Scalable, Maintainable Systems

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 Muted
#B7C9CD · hsl(190, 18%, 76%)
Darker companion
Cerulean Tone Muted
#87A5AB · hsl(190, 18%, 60%)
Complementary counterpoint
Ruby Silk Muted
#BCA49F · hsl(10, 18%, 68%)
Analogous lead
Sapphire Silk Muted
#9FADBC · hsl(210, 18%, 68%)
Analogous echo
Lagoon Silk Muted
#9FBCB7 · hsl(170, 18%, 68%)
Triadic +120°
Peony Silk Muted
#BC9FB7 · hsl(310, 18%, 68%)
Triadic +240°
Honey Silk Muted
#B7BC9F · hsl(70, 18%, 68%)
Split-comp +150°
Garnet Silk Muted
#BC9FA9 · hsl(340, 18%, 68%)
Split-comp +210°
Apricot Silk Muted
#BCB29F · hsl(40, 18%, 68%)
Export preview
Base: Cerulean Silk Muted #9FB7BC
Lighter companion: Cerulean Bloom Muted #B7C9CD
Darker companion: Cerulean Tone Muted #87A5AB
Complementary counterpoint: Ruby Silk Muted #BCA49F
Analogous lead: Sapphire Silk Muted #9FADBC
Analogous echo: Lagoon Silk Muted #9FBCB7
Triadic +120°: Peony Silk Muted #BC9FB7
Triadic +240°: Honey Silk Muted #B7BC9F
Split-comp +150°: Garnet Silk Muted #BC9FA9
Split-comp +210°: Apricot Silk Muted #BCB29F

Compare

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

vsCerulean Bloom MutedvsCerulean Tone MutedvsRuby Silk MutedvsSapphire Silk MutedvsLagoon Silk MutedvsPeony Silk Muted

Nearest neighbors

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

Search by hex
Nearby match
Cerulean Silk Faint
#A5B3B6 · hsl(190, 10%, 68%)
Nearby match
Cerulean Silk Dust
#98BCC3 · hsl(190, 26%, 68%)
Nearby match
Cerulean Tone Muted
#87A5AB · hsl(190, 18%, 60%)
Nearby match
Cerulean Bloom Muted
#B7C9CD · hsl(190, 18%, 76%)
Nearby match
Cerulean Silk Soft
#92C0C9 · hsl(190, 34%, 68%)
Nearby match
Cerulean Tone Faint
#8FA0A3 · hsl(190, 10%, 60%)

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
AAA7.5:1
Ruby Ink Faint
#272120
AAA7.6:1
Ruby Ink Muted
#2A1F1D
AAA7.6:1
Ruby Ink Dust
#2D1E1A
AAA7.6:1
Ruby Ink Soft
#301C18
AAA7.7:1
Ruby Ink Clear
#371710
AAA7.7:1
Ruby Ink Vivid
#3E1209

Color Vision Simulation

How this color appears with different color vision deficiencies.

Full simulator
Deuteranopia
#A9A7BB
Protanopia
#AAAABB
Tritanopia
#A0BABA
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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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