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Indigo Shadow Clear
Color detail

Indigo Shadow Clear

Blue · Hue 230
Metrics
S 54% · L 28%
Contrast (WCAG)
on white12.5:1AAon black1.7:1Fail
Save to journalSign in to saveStart palette from thisRecent trail

About this color

Indigo Shadow Clear (#212E6E) belongs to the blue family — hue 230°, 54% saturation, 28% 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-shadow-clear: #212E6E;
  --colorarchive-indigo-shadow-clear-hsl: hsl(230, 54%, 28%);
  --colorarchive-indigo-shadow-clear-rgb: rgb(33, 46, 110);
}

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 #212E6E.

  • Stripeneutral
    Slate Navy · #0A2540
    →
  • Xiaohongshu 小红书neutral
    Slate Text · #333333
    →
  • JD.com 京东neutral
    Slate · #333333
    →

Cultures using a similar color

From the cultural-palette catalog, these regions feature a color close to #212E6E.

  • JapanIndigo (ai-iro 藍色)
    #22366E · Persicaria tinctoria fermentation dye
    →
  • China (Traditional)Indigo Blue (青)
    #1A4378 · Persicaria tinctoria — Han textile dye
    →
  • EgyptLapis Lazuli
    #1F4287 · Lapis lazuli from Badakhshan (Afghanistan), jewelry and inlay
    →

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 TheoryDark Color Palette Guide: Building Low-Luminance Palettes That Work

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 Dusk Clear
#283786 · hsl(230, 54%, 34%)
Darker companion
Indigo Nocturne Clear
#17214F · hsl(230, 54%, 20%)
Complementary counterpoint
Amber Shadow Clear
#6E6121 · hsl(50, 54%, 28%)
Analogous lead
Violet Shadow Clear
#2E216E · hsl(250, 54%, 28%)
Analogous echo
Steel Shadow Clear
#214E6E · hsl(205, 54%, 28%)
Triadic +120°
Merlot Shadow Clear
#6E212E · hsl(350, 54%, 28%)
Triadic +240°
Leaf Shadow Clear
#2E6E21 · hsl(110, 54%, 28%)
Split-comp +150°
Ember Shadow Clear
#6E3B21 · hsl(20, 54%, 28%)
Split-comp +210°
Olive Shadow Clear
#546E21 · hsl(80, 54%, 28%)
Export preview
Base: Indigo Shadow Clear #212E6E
Lighter companion: Indigo Dusk Clear #283786
Darker companion: Indigo Nocturne Clear #17214F
Complementary counterpoint: Amber Shadow Clear #6E6121
Analogous lead: Violet Shadow Clear #2E216E
Analogous echo: Steel Shadow Clear #214E6E
Triadic +120°: Merlot Shadow Clear #6E212E
Triadic +240°: Leaf Shadow Clear #2E6E21
Split-comp +150°: Ember Shadow Clear #6E3B21
Split-comp +210°: Olive Shadow Clear #546E21

Compare

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

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

Nearest neighbors

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

Search by hex
Nearby match
Indigo Dusk Clear
#283786 · hsl(230, 54%, 34%)
Nearby match
Indigo Nocturne Clear
#17214F · hsl(230, 54%, 20%)
Nearby match
Indigo Shadow Soft
#2F3760 · hsl(230, 34%, 28%)
Nearby match
Indigo Shadow Vivid
#13247C · hsl(230, 74%, 28%)
Nearby match
Indigo Ink Clear
#101737 · hsl(230, 54%, 14%)
Nearby match
Indigo Velvet Clear
#3145A5 · hsl(230, 54%, 42%)

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
AAA12:1
Amber Veil Faint
#FAFAF9
AAA12.1:1
Amber Veil Muted
#FBFBF9
AAA12.1:1
Amber Veil Dust
#FBFBF9
AAA12.1:1
Amber Veil Soft
#FCFBF8
AAA12.2:1
Amber Veil Clear
#FDFCF7
AAA12.2:1
Amber Veil Vivid
#FEFCF6

Color Vision Simulation

How this color appears with different color vision deficiencies.

Full simulator
Deuteranopia
#262560
Protanopia
#272763
Tritanopia
#225957
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Saturation ladder

Same hue and lightness, from gray to pure

Search
Indigo Shadow Faint#40434F · hsl(230, 10%, 28%)Indigo Shadow Muted#3B3F54 · hsl(230, 18%, 28%)Indigo Shadow Dust#353B5A · hsl(230, 26%, 28%)Indigo Shadow Soft#2F3760 · hsl(230, 34%, 28%)Indigo Shadow Clear#212E6E · hsl(230, 54%, 28%)Indigo Shadow Vivid#13247C · hsl(230, 74%, 28%)Indigo Shadow Bright#0B1F83 · hsl(230, 84%, 28%)Indigo Shadow Pure#061C89 · hsl(230, 92%, 28%)
More from Blue →
Appears in collections
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