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Cobalt Mist Clear
Color detail

Cobalt Mist Clear

Blue · Hue 220
Metrics
S 54% · L 90%
Contrast (WCAG)
on white1.3:1Failon black16:1AA
Save to journalSign in to saveStart palette from thisRecent trail

About this color

Cobalt Mist Clear (#D8E1F3) belongs to the blue family — hue 220°, 54% saturation, 90% 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-mist-clear: #D8E1F3;
  --colorarchive-cobalt-mist-clear-hsl: hsl(220, 54%, 90%);
  --colorarchive-cobalt-mist-clear-rgb: rgb(216, 225, 243);
}

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 bright, airy reading of the hue — clean and approachable, the kind of color that holds up well in product photography and on light backgrounds.

Lightness band: At this lightness the hue almost recedes into the surface around it — useful for backgrounds, hover states, and any surface where the color should suggest a mood without competing with content.

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 #D8E1F3.

  • Starbucksneutral
    Warm Neutral · #D4E9E2
    →
  • Anthropicneutral
    Light Gray · #E8E6DC
    →
  • Aesopneutral
    Cream Paper · #EFE4D2
    →

Cultures using a similar color

From the cultural-palette catalog, these regions feature a color close to #D8E1F3.

  • IcelandLopapeysa Cream
    #E8DFCC · Undyed Icelandic sheep wool
    →
  • France (Paris)Lutetian Limestone
    #E5DDC8 · Paris facade stone (Haussmannian-era buildings)
    →
  • Turkey (Istanbul)Marble White
    #F0EBE0 · Marmara marble, used since Roman era
    →

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 ProblemColor TheoryEarthy Color Palettes: Building with Natural Tones

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 Whisper Clear
#E7EDF8 · hsl(220, 54%, 94%)
Darker companion
Cobalt Pearl Clear
#C0CFEC · hsl(220, 54%, 84%)
Complementary counterpoint
Apricot Mist Clear
#F3EAD8 · hsl(40, 54%, 90%)
Analogous lead
Amethyst Mist Clear
#DAD8F3 · hsl(245, 54%, 90%)
Analogous echo
Azure Mist Clear
#D8EAF3 · hsl(200, 54%, 90%)
Triadic +120°
Garnet Mist Clear
#F3D8E1 · hsl(340, 54%, 90%)
Triadic +240°
Moss Mist Clear
#E1F3D8 · hsl(100, 54%, 90%)
Split-comp +150°
Ruby Mist Clear
#F3DCD8 · hsl(10, 54%, 90%)
Split-comp +210°
Honey Mist Clear
#EFF3D8 · hsl(70, 54%, 90%)
Export preview
Base: Cobalt Mist Clear #D8E1F3
Lighter companion: Cobalt Whisper Clear #E7EDF8
Darker companion: Cobalt Pearl Clear #C0CFEC
Complementary counterpoint: Apricot Mist Clear #F3EAD8
Analogous lead: Amethyst Mist Clear #DAD8F3
Analogous echo: Azure Mist Clear #D8EAF3
Triadic +120°: Garnet Mist Clear #F3D8E1
Triadic +240°: Moss Mist Clear #E1F3D8
Split-comp +150°: Ruby Mist Clear #F3DCD8
Split-comp +210°: Honey Mist Clear #EFF3D8

Compare

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

vsCobalt Whisper ClearvsCobalt Pearl ClearvsApricot Mist ClearvsAmethyst Mist ClearvsAzure Mist ClearvsGarnet Mist Clear

Nearest neighbors

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

Search by hex
Nearby match
Cobalt Whisper Clear
#E7EDF8 · hsl(220, 54%, 94%)
Nearby match
Cobalt Pearl Clear
#C0CFEC · hsl(220, 54%, 84%)
Nearby match
Cobalt Veil Clear
#F7F9FD · hsl(220, 54%, 98%)
Nearby match
Cobalt Mist Soft
#DDE3EE · hsl(220, 34%, 90%)
Nearby match
Cobalt Mist Vivid
#D3DFF8 · hsl(220, 74%, 90%)
Nearby match
Cobalt Bloom Clear
#A1B7E3 · hsl(220, 54%, 76%)

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
AAA9.3:1
Apricot Nocturne Faint
#38352E
AAA9.1:1
Apricot Nocturne Muted
#3C362A
AAA8.9:1
Apricot Nocturne Dust
#403726
AAA8.6:1
Apricot Nocturne Soft
#443922
AAA8:1
Apricot Nocturne Clear
#4F3C17
AAA7.4:1
Apricot Nocturne Vivid
#59400D

Color Vision Simulation

How this color appears with different color vision deficiencies.

Full simulator
Deuteranopia
#DBDBEE
Protanopia
#DCDCEF
Tritanopia
#D8EBEB
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Saturation ladder

Same hue and lightness, from gray to pure

Search
Cobalt Mist Faint#E3E5E8 · hsl(220, 10%, 90%)Cobalt Mist Muted#E1E4EA · hsl(220, 18%, 90%)Cobalt Mist Dust#DFE3EC · hsl(220, 26%, 90%)Cobalt Mist Soft#DDE3EE · hsl(220, 34%, 90%)Cobalt Mist Clear#D8E1F3 · hsl(220, 54%, 90%)Cobalt Mist Vivid#D3DFF8 · hsl(220, 74%, 90%)Cobalt Mist Bright#D0DEFB · hsl(220, 84%, 90%)Cobalt Mist Pure#CEDEFD · hsl(220, 92%, 90%)
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