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Sapphire Shadow Clear
Color detail

Sapphire Shadow Clear

Blue · Hue 210
Metrics
S 54% · L 28%
Contrast (WCAG)
on white9.6:1AAon black2.2:1Fail
Save to journalSign in to saveStart palette from thisRecent trail

About this color

Sapphire Shadow Clear (#21476E) belongs to the blue family — hue 210°, 54% saturation, 28% 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-shadow-clear: #21476E;
  --colorarchive-sapphire-shadow-clear-hsl: hsl(210, 54%, 28%);
  --colorarchive-sapphire-shadow-clear-rgb: rgb(33, 71, 110);
}

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 #21476E.

  • PlayStationprimary
    PlayStation Blue · #003791
    →
  • Airbnbneutral
    Hof Gray · #484848
    →
  • Xiaohongshu 小红书neutral
    Slate Text · #333333
    →

Cultures using a similar color

From the cultural-palette catalog, these regions feature a color close to #21476E.

  • China (Traditional)Indigo Blue (青)
    #1A4378 · Persicaria tinctoria — Han textile dye
    →
  • IndiaMughal Blue
    #1B4F72 · Indo-Persian miniature paintings
    →
  • EgyptLapis Lazuli
    #1F4287 · Lapis lazuli from Badakhshan (Afghanistan), jewelry and inlay
    →

Color guides

Go deeper on using blue and color in design.

Color PsychologyBlue Color Psychology in Branding: Why Every Bank and Tech Giant Chooses BlueHistoryIndigo: The Color That Built Trade Routes and Made Blue CheapDesign SystemsHow to Build a Tints and Shades Color Scale for Any Brand Color

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 Dusk Clear
#285786 · hsl(210, 54%, 34%)
Darker companion
Sapphire Nocturne Clear
#17334F · hsl(210, 54%, 20%)
Complementary counterpoint
Coral Shadow Clear
#6E4721 · hsl(30, 54%, 28%)
Analogous lead
Indigo Shadow Clear
#212E6E · hsl(230, 54%, 28%)
Analogous echo
Cerulean Shadow Clear
#21616E · hsl(190, 54%, 28%)
Triadic +120°
Blush Shadow Clear
#6E2147 · hsl(330, 54%, 28%)
Triadic +240°
Lime Shadow Clear
#476E21 · hsl(90, 54%, 28%)
Split-comp +150°
Crimson Shadow Clear
#6E2121 · hsl(0, 54%, 28%)
Split-comp +210°
Citrine Shadow Clear
#6E6E21 · hsl(60, 54%, 28%)
Export preview
Base: Sapphire Shadow Clear #21476E
Lighter companion: Sapphire Dusk Clear #285786
Darker companion: Sapphire Nocturne Clear #17334F
Complementary counterpoint: Coral Shadow Clear #6E4721
Analogous lead: Indigo Shadow Clear #212E6E
Analogous echo: Cerulean Shadow Clear #21616E
Triadic +120°: Blush Shadow Clear #6E2147
Triadic +240°: Lime Shadow Clear #476E21
Split-comp +150°: Crimson Shadow Clear #6E2121
Split-comp +210°: Citrine Shadow Clear #6E6E21

Compare

See how Sapphire Shadow Clear compares side by side with related colors.

vsSapphire Dusk ClearvsSapphire Nocturne ClearvsCoral Shadow ClearvsIndigo Shadow ClearvsCerulean Shadow ClearvsBlush Shadow Clear

Nearest neighbors

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

Search by hex
Nearby match
Sapphire Dusk Clear
#285786 · hsl(210, 54%, 34%)
Nearby match
Steel Shadow Clear
#214E6E · hsl(205, 54%, 28%)
Nearby match
Sapphire Nocturne Clear
#17334F · hsl(210, 54%, 20%)
Nearby match
Sapphire Shadow Soft
#2F4760 · hsl(210, 34%, 28%)
Nearby match
Sapphire Shadow Vivid
#13477C · hsl(210, 74%, 28%)
Nearby match
Steel Dusk Clear
#285F86 · hsl(205, 54%, 34%)

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
AAA9.2:1
Coral Veil Faint
#FAFAF9
AAA9.2:1
Coral Veil Muted
#FBFAF9
AAA9.2:1
Coral Veil Dust
#FBFAF9
AAA9.2:1
Coral Veil Soft
#FCFAF8
AAA9.2:1
Coral Veil Clear
#FDFAF7
AAA9.2:1
Coral Veil Vivid
#FEFAF6

Color Vision Simulation

How this color appears with different color vision deficiencies.

Full simulator
Deuteranopia
#333064
Protanopia
#353666
Tritanopia
#245F5E
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Saturation ladder

Same hue and lightness, from gray to pure

Search
Cool Gray Shadow#43474C · hsl(210, 6%, 28%)Sapphire Shadow Faint#40474F · hsl(210, 10%, 28%)Sapphire Shadow Muted#3B4754 · hsl(210, 18%, 28%)Sapphire Shadow Dust#35475A · hsl(210, 26%, 28%)Sapphire Shadow Soft#2F4760 · hsl(210, 34%, 28%)Sapphire Shadow Clear#21476E · hsl(210, 54%, 28%)Sapphire Shadow Vivid#13477C · hsl(210, 74%, 28%)Sapphire Shadow Bright#0B4783 · hsl(210, 84%, 28%)Sapphire Shadow Pure#064789 · hsl(210, 92%, 28%)
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