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Iris Tone Faint
Color detail

Iris Tone Faint

Blue · Hue 240
Metrics
S 10% · L 60%
Contrast (WCAG)
on white3.2:1AA Largeon black6.6:1AA
Save to journalSign in to saveStart palette from thisRecent trail

About this color

Iris Tone Faint (#8F8FA3) belongs to the blue family — hue 240°, 10% saturation, 60% 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-tone-faint: #8F8FA3;
  --colorarchive-iris-tone-faint-hsl: hsl(240, 10%, 60%);
  --colorarchive-iris-tone-faint-rgb: rgb(143, 143, 163);
}

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 grounded mid-tone — sober, considered, well-suited to body text accents, editorial layouts, or any context where restraint reads as quality.

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 low saturation pulls this color toward earthen, vintage, or editorial palettes. It reads as confident and grown-up rather than playful, and it tolerates being used in large blocks without becoming visually noisy.

Brands using a similar color

Within the public brand-guidelines reference catalog, these are the closest matches to #8F8FA3.

  • Anthropicaccent
    Anthropic Blue · #6A9BCC
    →
  • Notionneutral
    Notion Gray · #787774
    →
  • Microsoftneutral
    Slate Gray · #737373
    →

Cultures using a similar color

From the cultural-palette catalog, these regions feature a color close to #8F8FA3.

  • France (Paris)Seine Steel
    #7E8A93 · River reflectivity in winter
    →
  • AustraliaEucalyptus Blue-Green
    #7EA08C · Eucalyptus regnans / globulus foliage
    →
  • Greece (Aegean)Olive Silver
    #9CA38F · Olea europaea leaf undersides
    →

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 BlueUI DesignDark Mode Color Design: Building a System, Not Just an Inversion

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 Silk Faint
#A5A5B6 · hsl(240, 10%, 68%)
Darker companion
Iris Radiant Faint
#7E7E95 · hsl(240, 10%, 54%)
Complementary counterpoint
Citrine Tone Faint
#A3A38F · hsl(60, 10%, 60%)
Analogous lead
Orchid Tone Faint
#968FA3 · hsl(260, 10%, 60%)
Analogous echo
Cobalt Tone Faint
#8F96A3 · hsl(220, 10%, 60%)
Triadic +120°
Crimson Tone Faint
#A38F8F · hsl(0, 10%, 60%)
Triadic +240°
Emerald Tone Faint
#8FA38F · hsl(120, 10%, 60%)
Split-comp +150°
Coral Tone Faint
#A3998F · hsl(30, 10%, 60%)
Split-comp +210°
Lime Tone Faint
#99A38F · hsl(90, 10%, 60%)
Export preview
Base: Iris Tone Faint #8F8FA3
Lighter companion: Iris Silk Faint #A5A5B6
Darker companion: Iris Radiant Faint #7E7E95
Complementary counterpoint: Citrine Tone Faint #A3A38F
Analogous lead: Orchid Tone Faint #968FA3
Analogous echo: Cobalt Tone Faint #8F96A3
Triadic +120°: Crimson Tone Faint #A38F8F
Triadic +240°: Emerald Tone Faint #8FA38F
Split-comp +150°: Coral Tone Faint #A3998F
Split-comp +210°: Lime Tone Faint #99A38F

Compare

See how Iris Tone Faint compares side by side with related colors.

vsIris Silk FaintvsIris Radiant FaintvsCitrine Tone FaintvsOrchid Tone FaintvsCobalt Tone FaintvsCrimson Tone Faint

Nearest neighbors

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

Search by hex
Nearby match
Iris Tone Muted
#8787AB · hsl(240, 18%, 60%)
Nearby match
Iris Radiant Faint
#7E7E95 · hsl(240, 10%, 54%)
Nearby match
Amethyst Tone Faint
#918FA3 · hsl(245, 10%, 60%)
Nearby match
Iris Silk Faint
#A5A5B6 · hsl(240, 10%, 68%)
Nearby match
Iris Tone Dust
#7E7EB4 · hsl(240, 26%, 60%)
Nearby match
Iris Radiant Muted
#75759F · hsl(240, 18%, 54%)

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
AA4.7:1
Citrine Ink Faint
#272720
AA4.6:1
Citrine Ink Muted
#2A2A1D
AA4.7:1
Canary Ink Faint
#272720
AA4.6:1
Canary Ink Muted
#2A291D
AA4.5:1
Canary Ink Dust
#2D2B1A
AA4.8:1
Amber Ink Faint
#272620

Color Vision Simulation

How this color appears with different color vision deficiencies.

Full simulator
Deuteranopia
#8F8F9D
Protanopia
#8F8F9E
Tritanopia
#8F9B9A
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Saturation ladder

Same hue and lightness, from gray to pure

Search
Iris Tone Faint#8F8FA3 · hsl(240, 10%, 60%)Iris Tone Muted#8787AB · hsl(240, 18%, 60%)Iris Tone Dust#7E7EB4 · hsl(240, 26%, 60%)Iris Tone Soft#7676BC · hsl(240, 34%, 60%)Iris Tone Clear#6262D0 · hsl(240, 54%, 60%)Iris Tone Vivid#4E4EE4 · hsl(240, 74%, 60%)Iris Tone Bright#4343EF · hsl(240, 84%, 60%)Iris Tone Pure#3B3BF7 · hsl(240, 92%, 60%)
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