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Sapphire Silk Clear
Color detail

Sapphire Silk Clear

Blue · Hue 210
Metrics
S 54% · L 68%
Contrast (WCAG)
on white2.4:1Failon black8.9:1AA
Save to journalSign in to saveStart palette from thisRecent trail

About this color

Sapphire Silk Clear (#81ADD9) belongs to the blue family — hue 210°, 54% saturation, 68% 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-silk-clear: #81ADD9;
  --colorarchive-sapphire-silk-clear-hsl: hsl(210, 54%, 68%);
  --colorarchive-sapphire-silk-clear-rgb: rgb(129, 173, 217);
}

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 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 #81ADD9.

  • Anthropicaccent
    Anthropic Blue · #6A9BCC
    →
  • Redditsecondary
    Periwinkle · #7193FF
    →
  • Slackaccent
    Slack Blue · #36C5F0
    →

Cultures using a similar color

From the cultural-palette catalog, these regions feature a color close to #81ADD9.

  • MoroccoChefchaouen Blue
    #7BAFD4 · Painted medina walls (Rif mountains)
    →
  • IcelandGlacial Cyan
    #75BBC1 · Vatnajökull ice cave light
    →
  • Korea (Obangsaek)Celadon-Goryeo Green
    #7CA38E · Goryeo Dynasty ceramics, 12th-13th c.
    →

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 TheoryColor in Typography: How to Use Color in Text Without Losing Legibility

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 Bloom Clear
#A1C2E3 · hsl(210, 54%, 76%)
Darker companion
Sapphire Tone Clear
#6299D0 · hsl(210, 54%, 60%)
Complementary counterpoint
Coral Silk Clear
#D9AD81 · hsl(30, 54%, 68%)
Analogous lead
Indigo Silk Clear
#8190D9 · hsl(230, 54%, 68%)
Analogous echo
Cerulean Silk Clear
#81CBD9 · hsl(190, 54%, 68%)
Triadic +120°
Blush Silk Clear
#D981AD · hsl(330, 54%, 68%)
Triadic +240°
Lime Silk Clear
#ADD981 · hsl(90, 54%, 68%)
Split-comp +150°
Crimson Silk Clear
#D98181 · hsl(0, 54%, 68%)
Split-comp +210°
Citrine Silk Clear
#D9D981 · hsl(60, 54%, 68%)
Export preview
Base: Sapphire Silk Clear #81ADD9
Lighter companion: Sapphire Bloom Clear #A1C2E3
Darker companion: Sapphire Tone Clear #6299D0
Complementary counterpoint: Coral Silk Clear #D9AD81
Analogous lead: Indigo Silk Clear #8190D9
Analogous echo: Cerulean Silk Clear #81CBD9
Triadic +120°: Blush Silk Clear #D981AD
Triadic +240°: Lime Silk Clear #ADD981
Split-comp +150°: Crimson Silk Clear #D98181
Split-comp +210°: Citrine Silk Clear #D9D981

Compare

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

vsSapphire Bloom ClearvsSapphire Tone ClearvsCoral Silk ClearvsIndigo Silk ClearvsCerulean Silk ClearvsBlush Silk Clear

Nearest neighbors

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

Search by hex
Nearby match
Steel Silk Clear
#81B5D9 · hsl(205, 54%, 68%)
Nearby match
Sapphire Tone Clear
#6299D0 · hsl(210, 54%, 60%)
Nearby match
Sapphire Bloom Clear
#A1C2E3 · hsl(210, 54%, 76%)
Nearby match
Sapphire Silk Soft
#92ADC9 · hsl(210, 34%, 68%)
Nearby match
Sapphire Silk Vivid
#71ADEA · hsl(210, 74%, 68%)
Nearby match
Sapphire Radiant Clear
#4A8AC9 · hsl(210, 54%, 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
AAA7:1
Scarlet Ink Clear
#371410
AAA7:1
Scarlet Ink Vivid
#3E0E09
AAA7:1
Scarlet Ink Bright
#420B06
AAA7:1
Crimson Ink Dust
#2D1A1A
AAA7:1
Crimson Ink Soft
#301818
AAA7.2:1
Crimson Ink Clear
#371010

Color Vision Simulation

How this color appears with different color vision deficiencies.

Full simulator
Deuteranopia
#9390CD
Protanopia
#9696CF
Tritanopia
#84C7C6
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Saturation ladder

Same hue and lightness, from gray to pure

Search
Cool Gray Silk#A9ADB2 · hsl(210, 6%, 68%)Sapphire Silk Faint#A5ADB6 · hsl(210, 10%, 68%)Sapphire Silk Muted#9FADBC · hsl(210, 18%, 68%)Sapphire Silk Dust#98ADC3 · hsl(210, 26%, 68%)Sapphire Silk Soft#92ADC9 · hsl(210, 34%, 68%)Sapphire Silk Clear#81ADD9 · hsl(210, 54%, 68%)Sapphire Silk Vivid#71ADEA · hsl(210, 74%, 68%)Sapphire Silk Bright#69ADF2 · hsl(210, 84%, 68%)Sapphire Silk Pure#62ADF8 · hsl(210, 92%, 68%)
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