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Cerulean Tone Pure
Color detail

Cerulean Tone Pure

Blue · Hue 190
Metrics
S 92% · L 60%
Contrast (WCAG)
on white1.7:1Failon black12.4:1AA
Save to journalSign in to saveStart palette from thisRecent trail

About this color

Cerulean Tone Pure (#3BD8F7) belongs to the blue family — hue 190°, 92% saturation, 60% 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-tone-pure: #3BD8F7;
  --colorarchive-cerulean-tone-pure-hsl: hsl(190, 92%, 60%);
  --colorarchive-cerulean-tone-pure-rgb: rgb(59, 216, 247);
}

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 vivid mid-tone — distinctive enough to anchor an identity, saturated enough to demand a quiet supporting palette.

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: At this saturation the color is doing work. It reads as a brand statement, a sport accessory, or a UI signal. It should be used in small, deliberate doses against quieter neighbors; large fields at this saturation will exhaust the eye.

Brands using a similar color

Within the public brand-guidelines reference catalog, these are the closest matches to #3BD8F7.

  • Slackaccent
    Slack Blue · #36C5F0
    →
  • TikTokaccent
    TikTok Cyan · #25F4EE
    →
  • Douyin 抖音accent
    Cyan · #25F4EE
    →

Cultures using a similar color

From the cultural-palette catalog, these regions feature a color close to #3BD8F7.

  • AustraliaReef Turquoise
    #3FBFB9 · Whitsunday lagoons
    →
  • IcelandGlacial Cyan
    #75BBC1 · Vatnajökull ice cave light
    →
  • Turkey (Istanbul)Bosphorus Turquoise
    #4DA8AC · Marmara strait water
    →

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 SystemsHow to Build a Color Token System: The Complete Designer's Guide

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 Silk Pure
#62DFF8 · hsl(190, 92%, 68%)
Darker companion
Cerulean Radiant Pure
#1ED2F6 · hsl(190, 92%, 54%)
Complementary counterpoint
Ruby Tone Pure
#F75A3B · hsl(10, 92%, 60%)
Analogous lead
Sapphire Tone Pure
#3B99F7 · hsl(210, 92%, 60%)
Analogous echo
Lagoon Tone Pure
#3BF7D8 · hsl(170, 92%, 60%)
Triadic +120°
Peony Tone Pure
#F73BD8 · hsl(310, 92%, 60%)
Triadic +240°
Honey Tone Pure
#D8F73B · hsl(70, 92%, 60%)
Split-comp +150°
Garnet Tone Pure
#F73B7A · hsl(340, 92%, 60%)
Split-comp +210°
Apricot Tone Pure
#F7B83B · hsl(40, 92%, 60%)
Export preview
Base: Cerulean Tone Pure #3BD8F7
Lighter companion: Cerulean Silk Pure #62DFF8
Darker companion: Cerulean Radiant Pure #1ED2F6
Complementary counterpoint: Ruby Tone Pure #F75A3B
Analogous lead: Sapphire Tone Pure #3B99F7
Analogous echo: Lagoon Tone Pure #3BF7D8
Triadic +120°: Peony Tone Pure #F73BD8
Triadic +240°: Honey Tone Pure #D8F73B
Split-comp +150°: Garnet Tone Pure #F73B7A
Split-comp +210°: Apricot Tone Pure #F7B83B

Compare

See how Cerulean Tone Pure compares side by side with related colors.

vsCerulean Silk PurevsCerulean Radiant PurevsRuby Tone PurevsSapphire Tone PurevsLagoon Tone PurevsPeony Tone Pure

Nearest neighbors

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

Search by hex
Nearby match
Cerulean Tone Bright
#43D2EF · hsl(190, 84%, 60%)
Nearby match
Cerulean Radiant Pure
#1ED2F6 · hsl(190, 92%, 54%)
Nearby match
Cerulean Silk Pure
#62DFF8 · hsl(190, 92%, 68%)
Nearby match
Cerulean Radiant Bright
#27CBEC · hsl(190, 84%, 54%)
Nearby match
Cerulean Tone Vivid
#4ECBE4 · hsl(190, 74%, 60%)
Nearby match
Cerulean Core Pure
#0AC5EB · hsl(190, 92%, 48%)

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
AAA7.6:1
Ruby Nocturne Faint
#38302E
AAA7.7:1
Ruby Nocturne Muted
#3C2D2A
AAA7.8:1
Ruby Nocturne Dust
#402A26
AAA7.9:1
Ruby Nocturne Soft
#442722
AAA7.9:1
Ruby Nocturne Clear
#4F2117
AAA7.8:1
Ruby Nocturne Vivid
#591A0D

Color Vision Simulation

How this color appears with different color vision deficiencies.

Full simulator
Deuteranopia
#9186EE
Protanopia
#9A9BF0
Tritanopia
#4EEAE9
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Saturation ladder

Same hue and lightness, from gray to pure

Search
Cerulean Tone Faint#8FA0A3 · hsl(190, 10%, 60%)Cerulean Tone Muted#87A5AB · hsl(190, 18%, 60%)Cerulean Tone Dust#7EABB4 · hsl(190, 26%, 60%)Cerulean Tone Soft#76B0BC · hsl(190, 34%, 60%)Cerulean Tone Clear#62BED0 · hsl(190, 54%, 60%)Cerulean Tone Vivid#4ECBE4 · hsl(190, 74%, 60%)Cerulean Tone Bright#43D2EF · hsl(190, 84%, 60%)Cerulean Tone Pure#3BD8F7 · hsl(190, 92%, 60%)
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