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Cobalt Tone Muted
Color detail

Cobalt Tone Muted

Blue · Hue 220
Metrics
S 18% · L 60%
Contrast (WCAG)
on white3.1:1AA Largeon black6.8:1AA
Save to journalSign in to saveStart palette from thisRecent trail

About this color

Cobalt Tone Muted (#8793AB) belongs to the blue family — hue 220°, 18% 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-cobalt-tone-muted: #8793AB;
  --colorarchive-cobalt-tone-muted-hsl: hsl(220, 18%, 60%);
  --colorarchive-cobalt-tone-muted-rgb: rgb(135, 147, 171);
}

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 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 #8793AB.

  • Anthropicaccent
    Anthropic Blue · #6A9BCC
    →
  • Notionneutral
    Notion Gray · #787774
    →
  • Redditsecondary
    Periwinkle · #7193FF
    →

Cultures using a similar color

From the cultural-palette catalog, these regions feature a color close to #8793AB.

  • France (Paris)Seine Steel
    #7E8A93 · River reflectivity in winter
    →
  • AustraliaEucalyptus Blue-Green
    #7EA08C · Eucalyptus regnans / globulus foliage
    →
  • Korea (Obangsaek)Celadon-Goryeo Green
    #7CA38E · Goryeo Dynasty ceramics, 12th-13th c.
    →

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 BlueUI DesignGradients in UI Design: Functional vs Decorative and How to Use Both

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 Silk Muted
#9FA9BC · hsl(220, 18%, 68%)
Darker companion
Cobalt Radiant Muted
#75839F · hsl(220, 18%, 54%)
Complementary counterpoint
Apricot Tone Muted
#AB9F87 · hsl(40, 18%, 60%)
Analogous lead
Amethyst Tone Muted
#8A87AB · hsl(245, 18%, 60%)
Analogous echo
Azure Tone Muted
#879FAB · hsl(200, 18%, 60%)
Triadic +120°
Garnet Tone Muted
#AB8793 · hsl(340, 18%, 60%)
Triadic +240°
Moss Tone Muted
#93AB87 · hsl(100, 18%, 60%)
Split-comp +150°
Ruby Tone Muted
#AB8D87 · hsl(10, 18%, 60%)
Split-comp +210°
Honey Tone Muted
#A5AB87 · hsl(70, 18%, 60%)
Export preview
Base: Cobalt Tone Muted #8793AB
Lighter companion: Cobalt Silk Muted #9FA9BC
Darker companion: Cobalt Radiant Muted #75839F
Complementary counterpoint: Apricot Tone Muted #AB9F87
Analogous lead: Amethyst Tone Muted #8A87AB
Analogous echo: Azure Tone Muted #879FAB
Triadic +120°: Garnet Tone Muted #AB8793
Triadic +240°: Moss Tone Muted #93AB87
Split-comp +150°: Ruby Tone Muted #AB8D87
Split-comp +210°: Honey Tone Muted #A5AB87

Compare

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

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

Nearest neighbors

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

Search by hex
Nearby match
Cobalt Tone Faint
#8F96A3 · hsl(220, 10%, 60%)
Nearby match
Cobalt Tone Dust
#7E90B4 · hsl(220, 26%, 60%)
Nearby match
Cobalt Radiant Muted
#75839F · hsl(220, 18%, 54%)
Nearby match
Cobalt Silk Muted
#9FA9BC · hsl(220, 18%, 68%)
Nearby match
Cobalt Tone Soft
#768DBC · hsl(220, 34%, 60%)
Nearby match
Cobalt Radiant Faint
#7E8695 · hsl(220, 10%, 54%)

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
AA5:1
Apricot Ink Faint
#272520
AA4.9:1
Apricot Ink Muted
#2A261D
AA4.8:1
Apricot Ink Dust
#2D271A
AA4.7:1
Apricot Ink Soft
#302818
AA4.5:1
Apricot Ink Clear
#372A10
AA5:1
Taupe Gray Ink
#252422

Color Vision Simulation

How this color appears with different color vision deficiencies.

Full simulator
Deuteranopia
#8C8BA4
Protanopia
#8C8CA6
Tritanopia
#88A1A0
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Saturation ladder

Same hue and lightness, from gray to pure

Search
Cobalt Tone Faint#8F96A3 · hsl(220, 10%, 60%)Cobalt Tone Muted#8793AB · hsl(220, 18%, 60%)Cobalt Tone Dust#7E90B4 · hsl(220, 26%, 60%)Cobalt Tone Soft#768DBC · hsl(220, 34%, 60%)Cobalt Tone Clear#6287D0 · hsl(220, 54%, 60%)Cobalt Tone Vivid#4E80E4 · hsl(220, 74%, 60%)Cobalt Tone Bright#437CEF · hsl(220, 84%, 60%)Cobalt Tone Pure#3B7AF7 · hsl(220, 92%, 60%)
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