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Indigo Bloom Soft
Color detail

Indigo Bloom Soft

Blue · Hue 230
Metrics
S 34% · L 76%
Contrast (WCAG)
on white2:1Failon black10.3:1AA
Save to journalSign in to saveStart palette from thisRecent trail

About this color

Indigo Bloom Soft (#ADB4D7) belongs to the blue family — hue 230°, 34% saturation, 76% 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-indigo-bloom-soft: #ADB4D7;
  --colorarchive-indigo-bloom-soft-hsl: hsl(230, 34%, 76%);
  --colorarchive-indigo-bloom-soft-rgb: rgb(173, 180, 215);
}

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 #ADB4D7.

  • Anthropicneutral
    Mid Gray · #B0AEA5
    →
  • Redditsecondary
    Periwinkle · #7193FF
    →
  • Starbucksneutral
    Warm Neutral · #D4E9E2
    →

Cultures using a similar color

From the cultural-palette catalog, these regions feature a color close to #ADB4D7.

  • ScandinaviaAsh Grey
    #A8AAA5 · Birch and ash bark
    →
  • China (Traditional)Celadon (青瓷)
    #9CB48F · Song Dynasty Longquan kilns
    →
  • MoroccoChefchaouen Blue
    #7BAFD4 · Painted medina walls (Rif mountains)
    →

Color guides

Go deeper on using blue and color in design.

Color PsychologyBlue Color Psychology in Branding: Why Every Bank and Tech Giant Chooses BlueHistoryIndigo: The Color That Built Trade Routes and Made Blue CheapColor PsychologyColor Psychology in Marketing: How Color Drives Emotion, Trust, and Purchase Decisions

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
Indigo Pearl Soft
#C8CDE4 · hsl(230, 34%, 84%)
Darker companion
Indigo Silk Soft
#929BC9 · hsl(230, 34%, 68%)
Complementary counterpoint
Amber Bloom Soft
#D7D0AD · hsl(50, 34%, 76%)
Analogous lead
Violet Bloom Soft
#B4ADD7 · hsl(250, 34%, 76%)
Analogous echo
Steel Bloom Soft
#ADC5D7 · hsl(205, 34%, 76%)
Triadic +120°
Merlot Bloom Soft
#D7ADB4 · hsl(350, 34%, 76%)
Triadic +240°
Leaf Bloom Soft
#B4D7AD · hsl(110, 34%, 76%)
Split-comp +150°
Ember Bloom Soft
#D7BBAD · hsl(20, 34%, 76%)
Split-comp +210°
Olive Bloom Soft
#C9D7AD · hsl(80, 34%, 76%)
Export preview
Base: Indigo Bloom Soft #ADB4D7
Lighter companion: Indigo Pearl Soft #C8CDE4
Darker companion: Indigo Silk Soft #929BC9
Complementary counterpoint: Amber Bloom Soft #D7D0AD
Analogous lead: Violet Bloom Soft #B4ADD7
Analogous echo: Steel Bloom Soft #ADC5D7
Triadic +120°: Merlot Bloom Soft #D7ADB4
Triadic +240°: Leaf Bloom Soft #B4D7AD
Split-comp +150°: Ember Bloom Soft #D7BBAD
Split-comp +210°: Olive Bloom Soft #C9D7AD

Compare

See how Indigo Bloom Soft compares side by side with related colors.

vsIndigo Pearl SoftvsIndigo Silk SoftvsAmber Bloom SoftvsViolet Bloom SoftvsSteel Bloom SoftvsMerlot Bloom Soft

Nearest neighbors

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

Search by hex
Nearby match
Indigo Bloom Dust
#B2B7D2 · hsl(230, 26%, 76%)
Nearby match
Indigo Silk Soft
#929BC9 · hsl(230, 34%, 68%)
Nearby match
Indigo Pearl Soft
#C8CDE4 · hsl(230, 34%, 84%)
Nearby match
Indigo Bloom Muted
#B7BACD · hsl(230, 18%, 76%)
Nearby match
Indigo Bloom Clear
#A1ACE3 · hsl(230, 54%, 76%)
Nearby match
Indigo Silk Dust
#989FC3 · hsl(230, 26%, 68%)

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
AAA7.4:1
Amber Ink Faint
#272620
AAA7.2:1
Amber Ink Muted
#2A281D
AAA7.1:1
Amber Ink Dust
#2D2A1A
AAA7.5:1
Saffron Ink Faint
#272520
AAA7.3:1
Saffron Ink Muted
#2A271D
AAA7.2:1
Saffron Ink Dust
#2D281A

Color Vision Simulation

How this color appears with different color vision deficiencies.

Full simulator
Deuteranopia
#B0AFCD
Protanopia
#B0B0CF
Tritanopia
#ADC9C7
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Saturation ladder

Same hue and lightness, from gray to pure

Search
Indigo Bloom Faint#BCBEC8 · hsl(230, 10%, 76%)Indigo Bloom Muted#B7BACD · hsl(230, 18%, 76%)Indigo Bloom Dust#B2B7D2 · hsl(230, 26%, 76%)Indigo Bloom Soft#ADB4D7 · hsl(230, 34%, 76%)Indigo Bloom Clear#A1ACE3 · hsl(230, 54%, 76%)Indigo Bloom Vivid#95A4EF · hsl(230, 74%, 76%)Indigo Bloom Bright#8EA0F5 · hsl(230, 84%, 76%)Indigo Bloom Pure#899CFA · hsl(230, 92%, 76%)
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