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Indigo Velvet Clear
Color detail

Indigo Velvet Clear

Blue · Hue 230
Metrics
S 54% · L 42%
Contrast (WCAG)
on white8.3:1AAon black2.5:1Fail
Save to journalSign in to saveStart palette from thisRecent trail

About this color

Indigo Velvet Clear (#3145A5) belongs to the blue family — hue 230°, 54% saturation, 42% 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-velvet-clear: #3145A5;
  --colorarchive-indigo-velvet-clear-hsl: hsl(230, 54%, 42%);
  --colorarchive-indigo-velvet-clear-rgb: rgb(49, 69, 165);
}

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 confident mid-tone — this is the workhorse register of the hue, and the band where many brand colors live.

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 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 #3145A5.

  • Instagramprimary
    Sunset Indigo · #515BD4
    →
  • PlayStationprimary
    PlayStation Blue · #003791
    →
  • Webflowprimary
    Webflow Blue · #4353FF
    →

Cultures using a similar color

From the cultural-palette catalog, these regions feature a color close to #3145A5.

  • England (London)Underground Blue
    #1C3F95 · Editorial blue, not TfL's value (TfL Corporate Blue / Piccadilly line: PMS 072, R0 G25 B168)
    →
  • MexicoTalavera Blue
    #2A52BE · Talavera Poblana tin-glazed pottery
    →
  • EgyptLapis Lazuli
    #1F4287 · Lapis lazuli from Badakhshan (Afghanistan), jewelry and inlay
    →

Color guides

Go deeper on using blue and color in design.

HistoryIndigo: The Color That Built Trade Routes and Made Blue CheapBrand & MarketingTechnology Brand Color Design: Trust, Intelligence, and the Blue ProblemBrand & MarketingRetro Color Palette: Warm, Worn, and Deliberately Off

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 Core Clear
#384EBC · hsl(230, 54%, 48%)
Darker companion
Indigo Dusk Clear
#283786 · hsl(230, 54%, 34%)
Complementary counterpoint
Amber Velvet Clear
#A59231 · hsl(50, 54%, 42%)
Analogous lead
Violet Velvet Clear
#4531A5 · hsl(250, 54%, 42%)
Analogous echo
Steel Velvet Clear
#3175A5 · hsl(205, 54%, 42%)
Triadic +120°
Merlot Velvet Clear
#A53145 · hsl(350, 54%, 42%)
Triadic +240°
Leaf Velvet Clear
#45A531 · hsl(110, 54%, 42%)
Split-comp +150°
Ember Velvet Clear
#A55831 · hsl(20, 54%, 42%)
Split-comp +210°
Olive Velvet Clear
#7EA531 · hsl(80, 54%, 42%)
Export preview
Base: Indigo Velvet Clear #3145A5
Lighter companion: Indigo Core Clear #384EBC
Darker companion: Indigo Dusk Clear #283786
Complementary counterpoint: Amber Velvet Clear #A59231
Analogous lead: Violet Velvet Clear #4531A5
Analogous echo: Steel Velvet Clear #3175A5
Triadic +120°: Merlot Velvet Clear #A53145
Triadic +240°: Leaf Velvet Clear #45A531
Split-comp +150°: Ember Velvet Clear #A55831
Split-comp +210°: Olive Velvet Clear #7EA531

Compare

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

vsIndigo Core ClearvsIndigo Dusk ClearvsAmber Velvet ClearvsViolet Velvet ClearvsSteel Velvet ClearvsMerlot Velvet Clear

Nearest neighbors

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

Search by hex
Nearby match
Indigo Core Clear
#384EBC · hsl(230, 54%, 48%)
Nearby match
Indigo Dusk Clear
#283786 · hsl(230, 54%, 34%)
Nearby match
Indigo Radiant Clear
#4A5FC9 · hsl(230, 54%, 54%)
Nearby match
Indigo Velvet Soft
#475390 · hsl(230, 34%, 42%)
Nearby match
Indigo Velvet Vivid
#1C36BA · hsl(230, 74%, 42%)
Nearby match
Indigo Shadow Clear
#212E6E · hsl(230, 54%, 28%)

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
AAA8:1
Amber Veil Faint
#FAFAF9
AAA8:1
Amber Veil Muted
#FBFBF9
AAA8:1
Amber Veil Dust
#FBFBF9
AAA8:1
Amber Veil Soft
#FCFBF8
AAA8.1:1
Amber Veil Clear
#FDFCF7
AAA8.1:1
Amber Veil Vivid
#FEFCF6

Color Vision Simulation

How this color appears with different color vision deficiencies.

Full simulator
Deuteranopia
#393891
Protanopia
#3B3B95
Tritanopia
#328683
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Saturation ladder

Same hue and lightness, from gray to pure

Search
Indigo Velvet Faint#606476 · hsl(230, 10%, 42%)Indigo Velvet Muted#585E7E · hsl(230, 18%, 42%)Indigo Velvet Dust#4F5987 · hsl(230, 26%, 42%)Indigo Velvet Soft#475390 · hsl(230, 34%, 42%)Indigo Velvet Clear#3145A5 · hsl(230, 54%, 42%)Indigo Velvet Vivid#1C36BA · hsl(230, 74%, 42%)Indigo Velvet Bright#112FC5 · hsl(230, 84%, 42%)Indigo Velvet Pure#0929CE · hsl(230, 92%, 42%)
More from Blue →
Appears in collections
Forest at Dusk