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Cobalt Nocturne Clear
Color detail

Cobalt Nocturne Clear

Blue · Hue 220
Metrics
S 54% · L 20%
Contrast (WCAG)
on white14.2:1AAon black1.5:1Fail
Save to journalSign in to saveStart palette from thisRecent trail

About this color

Cobalt Nocturne Clear (#172A4F) belongs to the blue family — hue 220°, 54% saturation, 20% 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-nocturne-clear: #172A4F;
  --colorarchive-cobalt-nocturne-clear-hsl: hsl(220, 54%, 20%);
  --colorarchive-cobalt-nocturne-clear-rgb: rgb(23, 42, 79);
}

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 #172A4F.

  • Stripeneutral
    Slate Navy · #0A2540
    →
  • Patagonianeutral
    Forest Black · #0F1F2E
    →
  • Supabaseneutral
    Surface · #2A2A2A
    →

Cultures using a similar color

From the cultural-palette catalog, these regions feature a color close to #172A4F.

  • England (London)Royal Navy
    #0A2351 · Royal Navy uniform
    →
  • AustraliaSouthern Sky Navy
    #0C1E3F · Outback night sky
    →
  • JapanIndigo (ai-iro 藍色)
    #22366E · Persicaria tinctoria fermentation dye
    →

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 BlueColor TheoryColor Approaches for Digital Illustration: From Flat Design to Complex Palettes

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 Shadow Clear
#213B6E · hsl(220, 54%, 28%)
Darker companion
Cobalt Ink Clear
#101D37 · hsl(220, 54%, 14%)
Complementary counterpoint
Apricot Nocturne Clear
#4F3C17 · hsl(40, 54%, 20%)
Analogous lead
Amethyst Nocturne Clear
#1C174F · hsl(245, 54%, 20%)
Analogous echo
Azure Nocturne Clear
#173C4F · hsl(200, 54%, 20%)
Triadic +120°
Garnet Nocturne Clear
#4F172A · hsl(340, 54%, 20%)
Triadic +240°
Moss Nocturne Clear
#2A4F17 · hsl(100, 54%, 20%)
Split-comp +150°
Ruby Nocturne Clear
#4F2117 · hsl(10, 54%, 20%)
Split-comp +210°
Honey Nocturne Clear
#454F17 · hsl(70, 54%, 20%)
Export preview
Base: Cobalt Nocturne Clear #172A4F
Lighter companion: Cobalt Shadow Clear #213B6E
Darker companion: Cobalt Ink Clear #101D37
Complementary counterpoint: Apricot Nocturne Clear #4F3C17
Analogous lead: Amethyst Nocturne Clear #1C174F
Analogous echo: Azure Nocturne Clear #173C4F
Triadic +120°: Garnet Nocturne Clear #4F172A
Triadic +240°: Moss Nocturne Clear #2A4F17
Split-comp +150°: Ruby Nocturne Clear #4F2117
Split-comp +210°: Honey Nocturne Clear #454F17

Compare

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

vsCobalt Shadow ClearvsCobalt Ink ClearvsApricot Nocturne ClearvsAmethyst Nocturne ClearvsAzure Nocturne ClearvsGarnet Nocturne Clear

Nearest neighbors

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

Search by hex
Nearby match
Cobalt Ink Clear
#101D37 · hsl(220, 54%, 14%)
Nearby match
Cobalt Shadow Clear
#213B6E · hsl(220, 54%, 28%)
Nearby match
Cobalt Nocturne Soft
#222D44 · hsl(220, 34%, 20%)
Nearby match
Cobalt Nocturne Vivid
#0D2659 · hsl(220, 74%, 20%)
Nearby match
Cobalt Dusk Clear
#284786 · hsl(220, 54%, 34%)
Nearby match
Sapphire Nocturne Clear
#17334F · hsl(210, 54%, 20%)

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
AAA13.6:1
Apricot Veil Faint
#FAFAF9
AAA13.6:1
Apricot Veil Muted
#FBFAF9
AAA13.6:1
Apricot Veil Dust
#FBFAF9
AAA13.6:1
Apricot Veil Soft
#FCFAF8
AAA13.7:1
Apricot Veil Clear
#FDFBF7
AAA13.7:1
Apricot Veil Vivid
#FEFBF6

Color Vision Simulation

How this color appears with different color vision deficiencies.

Full simulator
Deuteranopia
#1F1E46
Protanopia
#212148
Tritanopia
#184240
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Saturation ladder

Same hue and lightness, from gray to pure

Search
Cobalt Nocturne Faint#2E3138 · hsl(220, 10%, 20%)Cobalt Nocturne Muted#2A303C · hsl(220, 18%, 20%)Cobalt Nocturne Dust#262F40 · hsl(220, 26%, 20%)Cobalt Nocturne Soft#222D44 · hsl(220, 34%, 20%)Cobalt Nocturne Clear#172A4F · hsl(220, 54%, 20%)Cobalt Nocturne Vivid#0D2659 · hsl(220, 74%, 20%)Cobalt Nocturne Bright#08255E · hsl(220, 84%, 20%)Cobalt Nocturne Pure#042362 · hsl(220, 92%, 20%)
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