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Iris Nocturne Soft
Color detail

Iris Nocturne Soft

Blue · Hue 240
Metrics
S 34% · L 20%
Contrast (WCAG)
on white15.2:1AAon black1.4:1Fail
Save to journalSign in to saveStart palette from thisRecent trail

About this color

Iris Nocturne Soft (#222244) belongs to the blue family — hue 240°, 34% 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-iris-nocturne-soft: #222244;
  --colorarchive-iris-nocturne-soft-hsl: hsl(240, 34%, 20%);
  --colorarchive-iris-nocturne-soft-rgb: rgb(34, 34, 68);
}

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 #222244.

  • Webflowneutral
    Charcoal · #1D1F26
    →
  • Meituan 美团neutral
    Slate Black · #222222
    →
  • Supabaseneutral
    Surface · #2A2A2A
    →

Cultures using a similar color

From the cultural-palette catalog, these regions feature a color close to #222244.

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

Color guides

Go deeper on using blue and color in design.

Brand & MarketingTechnology Brand Color Design: Trust, Intelligence, and the Blue ProblemColor PsychologyBlue Color Psychology in Branding: Why Every Bank and Tech Giant Chooses BlueColor SystemsColor Accessibility in 2025: WCAG 2.1, APCA, and the Dual-Standard Audit

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 Shadow Soft
#2F2F60 · hsl(240, 34%, 28%)
Darker companion
Iris Ink Soft
#181830 · hsl(240, 34%, 14%)
Complementary counterpoint
Citrine Nocturne Soft
#444422 · hsl(60, 34%, 20%)
Analogous lead
Orchid Nocturne Soft
#2D2244 · hsl(260, 34%, 20%)
Analogous echo
Cobalt Nocturne Soft
#222D44 · hsl(220, 34%, 20%)
Triadic +120°
Crimson Nocturne Soft
#442222 · hsl(0, 34%, 20%)
Triadic +240°
Emerald Nocturne Soft
#224422 · hsl(120, 34%, 20%)
Split-comp +150°
Coral Nocturne Soft
#443322 · hsl(30, 34%, 20%)
Split-comp +210°
Lime Nocturne Soft
#334422 · hsl(90, 34%, 20%)
Export preview
Base: Iris Nocturne Soft #222244
Lighter companion: Iris Shadow Soft #2F2F60
Darker companion: Iris Ink Soft #181830
Complementary counterpoint: Citrine Nocturne Soft #444422
Analogous lead: Orchid Nocturne Soft #2D2244
Analogous echo: Cobalt Nocturne Soft #222D44
Triadic +120°: Crimson Nocturne Soft #442222
Triadic +240°: Emerald Nocturne Soft #224422
Split-comp +150°: Coral Nocturne Soft #443322
Split-comp +210°: Lime Nocturne Soft #334422

Compare

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

vsIris Shadow SoftvsIris Ink SoftvsCitrine Nocturne SoftvsOrchid Nocturne SoftvsCobalt Nocturne SoftvsCrimson Nocturne Soft

Nearest neighbors

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

Search by hex
Nearby match
Iris Nocturne Dust
#262640 · hsl(240, 26%, 20%)
Nearby match
Iris Ink Soft
#181830 · hsl(240, 34%, 14%)
Nearby match
Amethyst Nocturne Soft
#252244 · hsl(245, 34%, 20%)
Nearby match
Iris Shadow Soft
#2F2F60 · hsl(240, 34%, 28%)
Nearby match
Iris Nocturne Muted
#2A2A3C · hsl(240, 18%, 20%)
Nearby match
Iris Ink Dust
#1A1A2D · hsl(240, 26%, 14%)

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
AAA14.6:1
Citrine Veil Faint
#FAFAF9
AAA14.7:1
Citrine Veil Muted
#FBFBF9
AAA14.7:1
Citrine Veil Dust
#FBFBF9
AAA14.8:1
Citrine Veil Soft
#FCFCF8
AAA14.9:1
Citrine Veil Clear
#FDFDF7
AAA15:1
Citrine Veil Vivid
#FEFEF6

Color Vision Simulation

How this color appears with different color vision deficiencies.

Full simulator
Deuteranopia
#22223C
Protanopia
#22223E
Tritanopia
#223837
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Saturation ladder

Same hue and lightness, from gray to pure

Search
Iris Nocturne Faint#2E2E38 · hsl(240, 10%, 20%)Iris Nocturne Muted#2A2A3C · hsl(240, 18%, 20%)Iris Nocturne Dust#262640 · hsl(240, 26%, 20%)Iris Nocturne Soft#222244 · hsl(240, 34%, 20%)Iris Nocturne Clear#17174F · hsl(240, 54%, 20%)Iris Nocturne Vivid#0D0D59 · hsl(240, 74%, 20%)Iris Nocturne Bright#08085E · hsl(240, 84%, 20%)Iris Nocturne Pure#040462 · hsl(240, 92%, 20%)
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