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Indigo Nocturne Clear
Color detail

Indigo Nocturne Clear

Blue · Hue 230
Metrics
S 54% · L 20%
Contrast (WCAG)
on white15.4:1AAon black1.4:1Fail
Save to journalSign in to saveStart palette from thisRecent trail

About this color

Indigo Nocturne Clear (#17214F) belongs to the blue family — hue 230°, 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-indigo-nocturne-clear: #17214F;
  --colorarchive-indigo-nocturne-clear-hsl: hsl(230, 54%, 20%);
  --colorarchive-indigo-nocturne-clear-rgb: rgb(23, 33, 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 #17214F.

  • Stripeneutral
    Slate Navy · #0A2540
    →
  • Patagonianeutral
    Forest Black · #0F1F2E
    →
  • Didi 滴滴neutral
    Didi Navy · #0E1733
    →

Cultures using a similar color

From the cultural-palette catalog, these regions feature a color close to #17214F.

  • England (London)Royal Navy
    #0A2351 · Royal Navy uniform
    →
  • AustraliaSouthern Sky Navy
    #0C1E3F · Outback night sky
    →
  • Korea (Obangsaek)Obangsaek Black (흑 / heuk)
    #1F1F1F · North — water element, ink and lacquer
    →

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 TheoryHow to Name Colors in Design Systems: Poetic, Semantic, and Token Names

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 Shadow Clear
#212E6E · hsl(230, 54%, 28%)
Darker companion
Indigo Ink Clear
#101737 · hsl(230, 54%, 14%)
Complementary counterpoint
Amber Nocturne Clear
#4F4517 · hsl(50, 54%, 20%)
Analogous lead
Violet Nocturne Clear
#21174F · hsl(250, 54%, 20%)
Analogous echo
Steel Nocturne Clear
#17384F · hsl(205, 54%, 20%)
Triadic +120°
Merlot Nocturne Clear
#4F1721 · hsl(350, 54%, 20%)
Triadic +240°
Leaf Nocturne Clear
#214F17 · hsl(110, 54%, 20%)
Split-comp +150°
Ember Nocturne Clear
#4F2A17 · hsl(20, 54%, 20%)
Split-comp +210°
Olive Nocturne Clear
#3C4F17 · hsl(80, 54%, 20%)
Export preview
Base: Indigo Nocturne Clear #17214F
Lighter companion: Indigo Shadow Clear #212E6E
Darker companion: Indigo Ink Clear #101737
Complementary counterpoint: Amber Nocturne Clear #4F4517
Analogous lead: Violet Nocturne Clear #21174F
Analogous echo: Steel Nocturne Clear #17384F
Triadic +120°: Merlot Nocturne Clear #4F1721
Triadic +240°: Leaf Nocturne Clear #214F17
Split-comp +150°: Ember Nocturne Clear #4F2A17
Split-comp +210°: Olive Nocturne Clear #3C4F17

Compare

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

vsIndigo Shadow ClearvsIndigo Ink ClearvsAmber Nocturne ClearvsViolet Nocturne ClearvsSteel Nocturne ClearvsMerlot Nocturne Clear

Nearest neighbors

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

Search by hex
Nearby match
Indigo Ink Clear
#101737 · hsl(230, 54%, 14%)
Nearby match
Indigo Shadow Clear
#212E6E · hsl(230, 54%, 28%)
Nearby match
Indigo Nocturne Soft
#222744 · hsl(230, 34%, 20%)
Nearby match
Indigo Nocturne Vivid
#0D1A59 · hsl(230, 74%, 20%)
Nearby match
Indigo Dusk Clear
#283786 · hsl(230, 54%, 34%)
Nearby match
Cobalt Nocturne Clear
#172A4F · hsl(220, 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
AAA14.7:1
Amber Veil Faint
#FAFAF9
AAA14.8:1
Amber Veil Muted
#FBFBF9
AAA14.8:1
Amber Veil Dust
#FBFBF9
AAA14.8:1
Amber Veil Soft
#FCFBF8
AAA15:1
Amber Veil Clear
#FDFCF7
AAA15:1
Amber Veil Vivid
#FEFCF6

Color Vision Simulation

How this color appears with different color vision deficiencies.

Full simulator
Deuteranopia
#1B1A45
Protanopia
#1C1C47
Tritanopia
#18403E
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Saturation ladder

Same hue and lightness, from gray to pure

Search
Indigo Nocturne Faint#2E3038 · hsl(230, 10%, 20%)Indigo Nocturne Muted#2A2D3C · hsl(230, 18%, 20%)Indigo Nocturne Dust#262A40 · hsl(230, 26%, 20%)Indigo Nocturne Soft#222744 · hsl(230, 34%, 20%)Indigo Nocturne Clear#17214F · hsl(230, 54%, 20%)Indigo Nocturne Vivid#0D1A59 · hsl(230, 74%, 20%)Indigo Nocturne Bright#08165E · hsl(230, 84%, 20%)Indigo Nocturne Pure#041462 · hsl(230, 92%, 20%)
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