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Iris Core Soft
Color detail

Iris Core Soft

Blue · Hue 240
Metrics
S 34% · L 48%
Contrast (WCAG)
on white6.9:1AAon black3.1:1AA Large
Save to journalSign in to saveStart palette from thisRecent trail

About this color

Iris Core Soft (#5151A4) belongs to the blue family — hue 240°, 34% saturation, 48% 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-iris-core-soft: #5151A4;
  --colorarchive-iris-core-soft-hsl: hsl(240, 34%, 48%);
  --colorarchive-iris-core-soft-rgb: rgb(81, 81, 164);
}

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 #5151A4.

  • Instagramprimary
    Sunset Indigo · #515BD4
    →
  • Linearprimary
    Linear Indigo · #5E6AD2
    →
  • Discordprimary
    Blurple · #5865F2
    →

Cultures using a similar color

From the cultural-palette catalog, these regions feature a color close to #5151A4.

  • MoroccoMajorelle Blue
    #6050DC · Jacques Majorelle's Marrakech garden, 1937
    →
  • MexicoTalavera Blue
    #2A52BE · Talavera Poblana tin-glazed pottery
    →
  • IrelandAtlantic Slate
    #5A6770 · Cliff face + winter sea
    →

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 & MarketingColor in Packaging Design: What Works and Why

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
Iris Radiant Soft
#6262B2 · hsl(240, 34%, 54%)
Darker companion
Iris Velvet Soft
#474790 · hsl(240, 34%, 42%)
Complementary counterpoint
Citrine Core Soft
#A4A451 · hsl(60, 34%, 48%)
Analogous lead
Orchid Core Soft
#6D51A4 · hsl(260, 34%, 48%)
Analogous echo
Cobalt Core Soft
#516DA4 · hsl(220, 34%, 48%)
Triadic +120°
Crimson Core Soft
#A45151 · hsl(0, 34%, 48%)
Triadic +240°
Emerald Core Soft
#51A451 · hsl(120, 34%, 48%)
Split-comp +150°
Coral Core Soft
#A47A51 · hsl(30, 34%, 48%)
Split-comp +210°
Lime Core Soft
#7AA451 · hsl(90, 34%, 48%)
Export preview
Base: Iris Core Soft #5151A4
Lighter companion: Iris Radiant Soft #6262B2
Darker companion: Iris Velvet Soft #474790
Complementary counterpoint: Citrine Core Soft #A4A451
Analogous lead: Orchid Core Soft #6D51A4
Analogous echo: Cobalt Core Soft #516DA4
Triadic +120°: Crimson Core Soft #A45151
Triadic +240°: Emerald Core Soft #51A451
Split-comp +150°: Coral Core Soft #A47A51
Split-comp +210°: Lime Core Soft #7AA451

Compare

See how Iris Core Soft compares side by side with related colors.

vsIris Radiant SoftvsIris Velvet SoftvsCitrine Core SoftvsOrchid Core SoftvsCobalt Core SoftvsCrimson Core Soft

Nearest neighbors

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

Search by hex
Nearby match
Iris Core Dust
#5B5B9A · hsl(240, 26%, 48%)
Nearby match
Iris Velvet Soft
#474790 · hsl(240, 34%, 42%)
Nearby match
Iris Radiant Soft
#6262B2 · hsl(240, 34%, 54%)
Nearby match
Amethyst Core Soft
#5851A4 · hsl(245, 34%, 48%)
Nearby match
Iris Core Muted
#646490 · hsl(240, 18%, 48%)
Nearby match
Iris Velvet Dust
#4F4F87 · hsl(240, 26%, 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
AA6.6:1
Citrine Veil Faint
#FAFAF9
AA6.6:1
Citrine Veil Muted
#FBFBF9
AA6.6:1
Citrine Veil Dust
#FBFBF9
AA6.7:1
Citrine Veil Soft
#FCFCF8
AA6.7:1
Citrine Veil Clear
#FDFDF7
AA6.8:1
Citrine Veil Vivid
#FEFEF6

Color Vision Simulation

How this color appears with different color vision deficiencies.

Full simulator
Deuteranopia
#515191
Protanopia
#515195
Tritanopia
#518885
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Saturation ladder

Same hue and lightness, from gray to pure

Search
Iris Core Faint#6E6E87 · hsl(240, 10%, 48%)Iris Core Muted#646490 · hsl(240, 18%, 48%)Iris Core Dust#5B5B9A · hsl(240, 26%, 48%)Iris Core Soft#5151A4 · hsl(240, 34%, 48%)Iris Core Clear#3838BC · hsl(240, 54%, 48%)Iris Core Vivid#2020D5 · hsl(240, 74%, 48%)Iris Core Bright#1414E1 · hsl(240, 84%, 48%)Iris Core Pure#0A0AEB · hsl(240, 92%, 48%)
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