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Cobalt Dusk Clear
Color detail

Cobalt Dusk Clear

Blue · Hue 220
Metrics
S 54% · L 34%
Contrast (WCAG)
on white9:1AAon black2.3:1Fail
Save to journalSign in to saveStart palette from thisRecent trail

About this color

Cobalt Dusk Clear (#284786) belongs to the blue family — hue 220°, 54% saturation, 34% 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-cobalt-dusk-clear: #284786;
  --colorarchive-cobalt-dusk-clear-hsl: hsl(220, 54%, 34%);
  --colorarchive-cobalt-dusk-clear-rgb: rgb(40, 71, 134);
}

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 #284786.

  • PlayStationprimary
    PlayStation Blue · #003791
    →
  • Airbnbneutral
    Hof Gray · #484848
    →
  • Patagoniaprimary
    Patagonia Sky Blue · #0061AC
    →

Cultures using a similar color

From the cultural-palette catalog, these regions feature a color close to #284786.

  • EgyptLapis Lazuli
    #1F4287 · Lapis lazuli from Badakhshan (Afghanistan), jewelry and inlay
    →
  • China (Traditional)Indigo Blue (青)
    #1A4378 · Persicaria tinctoria — Han textile dye
    →
  • England (London)Underground Blue
    #1C3F95 · Editorial blue, not TfL's value (TfL Corporate Blue / Piccadilly line: PMS 072, R0 G25 B168)
    →

Color guides

Go deeper on using blue and color in design.

Brand & MarketingTechnology Brand Color Design: Trust, Intelligence, and the Blue ProblemColor PsychologyBlue Color Psychology in Branding: Why Every Bank and Tech Giant Chooses BlueAccessibilityColor in Wayfinding: How to Design Color-Coded Navigation 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
Cobalt Velvet Clear
#3158A5 · hsl(220, 54%, 42%)
Darker companion
Cobalt Shadow Clear
#213B6E · hsl(220, 54%, 28%)
Complementary counterpoint
Apricot Dusk Clear
#866628 · hsl(40, 54%, 34%)
Analogous lead
Amethyst Dusk Clear
#302886 · hsl(245, 54%, 34%)
Analogous echo
Azure Dusk Clear
#286686 · hsl(200, 54%, 34%)
Triadic +120°
Garnet Dusk Clear
#862847 · hsl(340, 54%, 34%)
Triadic +240°
Moss Dusk Clear
#478628 · hsl(100, 54%, 34%)
Split-comp +150°
Ruby Dusk Clear
#863728 · hsl(10, 54%, 34%)
Split-comp +210°
Honey Dusk Clear
#768628 · hsl(70, 54%, 34%)
Export preview
Base: Cobalt Dusk Clear #284786
Lighter companion: Cobalt Velvet Clear #3158A5
Darker companion: Cobalt Shadow Clear #213B6E
Complementary counterpoint: Apricot Dusk Clear #866628
Analogous lead: Amethyst Dusk Clear #302886
Analogous echo: Azure Dusk Clear #286686
Triadic +120°: Garnet Dusk Clear #862847
Triadic +240°: Moss Dusk Clear #478628
Split-comp +150°: Ruby Dusk Clear #863728
Split-comp +210°: Honey Dusk Clear #768628

Compare

See how Cobalt Dusk Clear compares side by side with related colors.

vsCobalt Velvet ClearvsCobalt Shadow ClearvsApricot Dusk ClearvsAmethyst Dusk ClearvsAzure Dusk ClearvsGarnet Dusk Clear

Nearest neighbors

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

Search by hex
Nearby match
Cobalt Shadow Clear
#213B6E · hsl(220, 54%, 28%)
Nearby match
Cobalt Velvet Clear
#3158A5 · hsl(220, 54%, 42%)
Nearby match
Cobalt Dusk Soft
#394D74 · hsl(220, 34%, 34%)
Nearby match
Cobalt Dusk Vivid
#174197 · hsl(220, 74%, 34%)
Nearby match
Cobalt Nocturne Clear
#172A4F · hsl(220, 54%, 20%)
Nearby match
Cobalt Core Clear
#3864BC · hsl(220, 54%, 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
AAA8.6:1
Apricot Veil Faint
#FAFAF9
AAA8.6:1
Apricot Veil Muted
#FBFAF9
AAA8.6:1
Apricot Veil Dust
#FBFAF9
AAA8.6:1
Apricot Veil Soft
#FCFAF8
AAA8.7:1
Apricot Veil Clear
#FDFBF7
AAA8.7:1
Apricot Veil Vivid
#FEFBF6

Color Vision Simulation

How this color appears with different color vision deficiencies.

Full simulator
Deuteranopia
#363477
Protanopia
#38387A
Tritanopia
#2A706E
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Saturation ladder

Same hue and lightness, from gray to pure

Search
Cobalt Dusk Faint#4E545F · hsl(220, 10%, 34%)Cobalt Dusk Muted#475166 · hsl(220, 18%, 34%)Cobalt Dusk Dust#404F6D · hsl(220, 26%, 34%)Cobalt Dusk Soft#394D74 · hsl(220, 34%, 34%)Cobalt Dusk Clear#284786 · hsl(220, 54%, 34%)Cobalt Dusk Vivid#174197 · hsl(220, 74%, 34%)Cobalt Dusk Bright#0E3EA0 · hsl(220, 84%, 34%)Cobalt Dusk Pure#073CA6 · hsl(220, 92%, 34%)
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Appears in collections
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