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Cobalt Silk Muted
Color detail

Cobalt Silk Muted

Blue · Hue 220
Metrics
S 18% · L 68%
Contrast (WCAG)
on white2.4:1Failon black8.9:1AA
Save to journalSign in to saveStart palette from thisRecent trail

About this color

Cobalt Silk Muted (#9FA9BC) belongs to the blue family — hue 220°, 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-cobalt-silk-muted: #9FA9BC;
  --colorarchive-cobalt-silk-muted-hsl: hsl(220, 18%, 68%);
  --colorarchive-cobalt-silk-muted-rgb: rgb(159, 169, 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 #9FA9BC.

  • Anthropicneutral
    Mid Gray · #B0AEA5
    →
  • Redditsecondary
    Periwinkle · #7193FF
    →
  • Notionneutral
    Notion Gray · #787774
    →

Cultures using a similar color

From the cultural-palette catalog, these regions feature a color close to #9FA9BC.

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

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 BlueDesign SystemsDesign Token Color Naming: A System That Scales

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 Bloom Muted
#B7BECD · hsl(220, 18%, 76%)
Darker companion
Cobalt Tone Muted
#8793AB · hsl(220, 18%, 60%)
Complementary counterpoint
Apricot Silk Muted
#BCB29F · hsl(40, 18%, 68%)
Analogous lead
Amethyst Silk Muted
#A19FBC · hsl(245, 18%, 68%)
Analogous echo
Azure Silk Muted
#9FB2BC · hsl(200, 18%, 68%)
Triadic +120°
Garnet Silk Muted
#BC9FA9 · hsl(340, 18%, 68%)
Triadic +240°
Moss Silk Muted
#A9BC9F · hsl(100, 18%, 68%)
Split-comp +150°
Ruby Silk Muted
#BCA49F · hsl(10, 18%, 68%)
Split-comp +210°
Honey Silk Muted
#B7BC9F · hsl(70, 18%, 68%)
Export preview
Base: Cobalt Silk Muted #9FA9BC
Lighter companion: Cobalt Bloom Muted #B7BECD
Darker companion: Cobalt Tone Muted #8793AB
Complementary counterpoint: Apricot Silk Muted #BCB29F
Analogous lead: Amethyst Silk Muted #A19FBC
Analogous echo: Azure Silk Muted #9FB2BC
Triadic +120°: Garnet Silk Muted #BC9FA9
Triadic +240°: Moss Silk Muted #A9BC9F
Split-comp +150°: Ruby Silk Muted #BCA49F
Split-comp +210°: Honey Silk Muted #B7BC9F

Compare

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

vsCobalt Bloom MutedvsCobalt Tone MutedvsApricot Silk MutedvsAmethyst Silk MutedvsAzure Silk MutedvsGarnet Silk Muted

Nearest neighbors

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

Search by hex
Nearby match
Cobalt Silk Faint
#A5ABB6 · hsl(220, 10%, 68%)
Nearby match
Cobalt Silk Dust
#98A6C3 · hsl(220, 26%, 68%)
Nearby match
Cobalt Tone Muted
#8793AB · hsl(220, 18%, 60%)
Nearby match
Cobalt Bloom Muted
#B7BECD · hsl(220, 18%, 76%)
Nearby match
Cobalt Silk Soft
#92A4C9 · hsl(220, 34%, 68%)
Nearby match
Cobalt Tone Faint
#8F96A3 · hsl(220, 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
AAA7:1
Scarlet Ink Clear
#371410
AAA7:1
Scarlet Ink Vivid
#3E0E09
AAA7:1
Crimson Ink Dust
#2D1A1A
AAA7:1
Crimson Ink Soft
#301818
AAA7.1:1
Crimson Ink Clear
#371010
AAA7.1:1
Crimson Ink Vivid
#3E0909

Color Vision Simulation

How this color appears with different color vision deficiencies.

Full simulator
Deuteranopia
#A3A2B7
Protanopia
#A3A4B8
Tritanopia
#A0B4B3
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Saturation ladder

Same hue and lightness, from gray to pure

Search
Cobalt Silk Faint#A5ABB6 · hsl(220, 10%, 68%)Cobalt Silk Muted#9FA9BC · hsl(220, 18%, 68%)Cobalt Silk Dust#98A6C3 · hsl(220, 26%, 68%)Cobalt Silk Soft#92A4C9 · hsl(220, 34%, 68%)Cobalt Silk Clear#819FD9 · hsl(220, 54%, 68%)Cobalt Silk Vivid#7199EA · hsl(220, 74%, 68%)Cobalt Silk Bright#6997F2 · hsl(220, 84%, 68%)Cobalt Silk Pure#6294F8 · hsl(220, 92%, 68%)
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