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Sapphire Mist Muted
Color detail

Sapphire Mist Muted

Blue · Hue 210
Metrics
S 18% · L 90%
Contrast (WCAG)
on white1.3:1Failon black16.7:1AA
Save to journalSign in to saveStart palette from thisRecent trail

About this color

Sapphire Mist Muted (#E1E6EA) belongs to the blue family — hue 210°, 18% saturation, 90% 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-sapphire-mist-muted: #E1E6EA;
  --colorarchive-sapphire-mist-muted-hsl: hsl(210, 18%, 90%);
  --colorarchive-sapphire-mist-muted-rgb: rgb(225, 230, 234);
}

AI Color Names

Let AI suggest alternative poetic names for this color in English and Chinese.

Design Context

SereneTrustworthyClean
Common in

Social Media · Cloud Storage · Baby Products

Pairs well with

Light gray for tech minimalism, peach for friendly warmth

Design tip

The default choice for tech and social platforms for good reason. Light blue backgrounds reduce anxiety and increase trust.

Cultural context ▶

Light blue represents peace, sky, and openness. It's the most universally liked color, making it safe for global brands.

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 pale, gentle tone — pastel territory, where the hue acts more like a tinted neutral than a stated color.

Lightness band: At this lightness the hue almost recedes into the surface around it — useful for backgrounds, hover states, and any surface where the color should suggest a mood without competing with content.

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 #E1E6EA.

  • Anthropicneutral
    Light Gray · #E8E6DC
    →
  • Starbucksneutral
    Warm Neutral · #D4E9E2
    →
  • Aesopneutral
    Cream Paper · #EFE4D2
    →

Cultures using a similar color

From the cultural-palette catalog, these regions feature a color close to #E1E6EA.

  • Turkey (Istanbul)Marble White
    #F0EBE0 · Marmara marble, used since Roman era
    →
  • IrelandAran Cream
    #F0E8D2 · Undyed Aran wool sweater tradition
    →
  • AustraliaBeach Cream
    #F2EFE1 · Western Australian quartz sand
    →

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 ProblemAccessibilityAccessible Color Palette Ideas That Pass WCAG Without Looking Clinical

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
Sapphire Whisper Muted
#EDF0F2 · hsl(210, 18%, 94%)
Darker companion
Sapphire Pearl Muted
#CFD6DE · hsl(210, 18%, 84%)
Complementary counterpoint
Coral Mist Muted
#EAE6E1 · hsl(30, 18%, 90%)
Analogous lead
Indigo Mist Muted
#E1E2EA · hsl(230, 18%, 90%)
Analogous echo
Cerulean Mist Muted
#E1E9EA · hsl(190, 18%, 90%)
Triadic +120°
Blush Mist Muted
#EAE1E6 · hsl(330, 18%, 90%)
Triadic +240°
Lime Mist Muted
#E6EAE1 · hsl(90, 18%, 90%)
Split-comp +150°
Crimson Mist Muted
#EAE1E1 · hsl(0, 18%, 90%)
Split-comp +210°
Citrine Mist Muted
#EAEAE1 · hsl(60, 18%, 90%)
Export preview
Base: Sapphire Mist Muted #E1E6EA
Lighter companion: Sapphire Whisper Muted #EDF0F2
Darker companion: Sapphire Pearl Muted #CFD6DE
Complementary counterpoint: Coral Mist Muted #EAE6E1
Analogous lead: Indigo Mist Muted #E1E2EA
Analogous echo: Cerulean Mist Muted #E1E9EA
Triadic +120°: Blush Mist Muted #EAE1E6
Triadic +240°: Lime Mist Muted #E6EAE1
Split-comp +150°: Crimson Mist Muted #EAE1E1
Split-comp +210°: Citrine Mist Muted #EAEAE1

Compare

See how Sapphire Mist Muted compares side by side with related colors.

vsSapphire Whisper MutedvsSapphire Pearl MutedvsCoral Mist MutedvsIndigo Mist MutedvsCerulean Mist MutedvsBlush Mist Muted

Nearest neighbors

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

Search by hex
Nearby match
Sapphire Whisper Muted
#EDF0F2 · hsl(210, 18%, 94%)
Nearby match
Sapphire Mist Faint
#E3E6E8 · hsl(210, 10%, 90%)
Nearby match
Sapphire Mist Dust
#DFE6EC · hsl(210, 26%, 90%)
Nearby match
Sapphire Pearl Muted
#CFD6DE · hsl(210, 18%, 84%)
Nearby match
Cool Gray Mist
#E4E6E7 · hsl(210, 6%, 90%)
Nearby match
Steel Mist Muted
#E1E6EA · hsl(205, 18%, 90%)

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
AAA7.2:1
Coral Shadow Faint
#4F4740
AAA7.1:1
Coral Shadow Muted
#54473B
AAA7:1
Coral Shadow Dust
#5A4735
AAA9.9:1
Coral Nocturne Faint
#38332E
AAA9.8:1
Coral Nocturne Muted
#3C332A
AAA9.7:1
Coral Nocturne Dust
#403326

Color Vision Simulation

How this color appears with different color vision deficiencies.

Full simulator
Deuteranopia
#E3E3E9
Protanopia
#E3E3E9
Tritanopia
#E1E8E8
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Saturation ladder

Same hue and lightness, from gray to pure

Search
Cool Gray Mist#E4E6E7 · hsl(210, 6%, 90%)Sapphire Mist Faint#E3E6E8 · hsl(210, 10%, 90%)Sapphire Mist Muted#E1E6EA · hsl(210, 18%, 90%)Sapphire Mist Dust#DFE6EC · hsl(210, 26%, 90%)Sapphire Mist Soft#DDE6EE · hsl(210, 34%, 90%)Sapphire Mist Clear#D8E6F3 · hsl(210, 54%, 90%)Sapphire Mist Vivid#D3E5F8 · hsl(210, 74%, 90%)Sapphire Mist Bright#D0E5FB · hsl(210, 84%, 90%)Sapphire Mist Pure#CEE5FD · hsl(210, 92%, 90%)
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