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Steel Core Clear
Color detail

Steel Core Clear

Blue · Hue 205
Metrics
S 54% · L 48%
Contrast (WCAG)
on white4:1AA Largeon black5.2:1AA
Save to journalSign in to saveStart palette from thisRecent trail

About this color

Steel Core Clear (#3885BC) belongs to the blue family — hue 205°, 54% saturation, 48% 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-steel-core-clear: #3885BC;
  --colorarchive-steel-core-clear-hsl: hsl(205, 54%, 48%);
  --colorarchive-steel-core-clear-rgb: rgb(56, 133, 188);
}

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 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 #3885BC.

  • Googleprimary
    Google Blue · #4285F4
    →
  • X (Twitter)secondary
    Twitter Blue (legacy) · #1D9BF0
    →
  • Disney+accent
    Hover Cyan · #1A8FFF
    →

Cultures using a similar color

From the cultural-palette catalog, these regions feature a color close to #3885BC.

  • VietnamJade River
    #3F8B7E · Halong Bay limestone water
    →
  • Korea (Obangsaek)Obangsaek Blue (청 / cheong)
    #1E68C1 · East — wood element, hanbok dyes
    →
  • Turkey (Istanbul)Bosphorus Turquoise
    #4DA8AC · Marmara strait water
    →

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 CheapBrand & MarketingWedding Color Palettes: How to Choose Colors That Photograph Well and Work Across a Full Event

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
Steel Radiant Clear
#4A94C9 · hsl(205, 54%, 54%)
Darker companion
Steel Velvet Clear
#3175A5 · hsl(205, 54%, 42%)
Complementary counterpoint
Tangerine Core Clear
#BC6F38 · hsl(25, 54%, 48%)
Analogous lead
Indigo Core Clear
#384EBC · hsl(230, 54%, 48%)
Analogous echo
Aqua Core Clear
#38BCBC · hsl(180, 54%, 48%)
Triadic +120°
Rose Core Clear
#BC3890 · hsl(320, 54%, 48%)
Triadic +240°
Olive Core Clear
#90BC38 · hsl(80, 54%, 48%)
Split-comp +150°
Crimson Core Clear
#BC3838 · hsl(0, 54%, 48%)
Split-comp +210°
Canary Core Clear
#BCB138 · hsl(55, 54%, 48%)
Export preview
Base: Steel Core Clear #3885BC
Lighter companion: Steel Radiant Clear #4A94C9
Darker companion: Steel Velvet Clear #3175A5
Complementary counterpoint: Tangerine Core Clear #BC6F38
Analogous lead: Indigo Core Clear #384EBC
Analogous echo: Aqua Core Clear #38BCBC
Triadic +120°: Rose Core Clear #BC3890
Triadic +240°: Olive Core Clear #90BC38
Split-comp +150°: Crimson Core Clear #BC3838
Split-comp +210°: Canary Core Clear #BCB138

Compare

See how Steel Core Clear compares side by side with related colors.

vsSteel Radiant ClearvsSteel Velvet ClearvsTangerine Core ClearvsIndigo Core ClearvsAqua Core ClearvsRose Core Clear

Nearest neighbors

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

Search by hex
Nearby match
Steel Velvet Clear
#3175A5 · hsl(205, 54%, 42%)
Nearby match
Steel Radiant Clear
#4A94C9 · hsl(205, 54%, 54%)
Nearby match
Azure Core Clear
#3890BC · hsl(200, 54%, 48%)
Nearby match
Sapphire Core Clear
#387ABC · hsl(210, 54%, 48%)
Nearby match
Steel Tone Clear
#62A2D0 · hsl(205, 54%, 60%)
Nearby match
Steel Core Soft
#5181A4 · hsl(205, 34%, 48%)

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
AA4.5:1
Plum Ink Pure
#240345
AA4.5:1
Orchid Ink Vivid
#1B093E
AA4.6:1
Orchid Ink Bright
#1A0642
AA4.6:1
Orchid Ink Pure
#190345
AA4.5:1
Violet Ink Clear
#171037
AA4.6:1
Violet Ink Vivid
#12093E

Color Vision Simulation

How this color appears with different color vision deficiencies.

Full simulator
Deuteranopia
#5E58AE
Protanopia
#6363B1
Tritanopia
#3FA7A5
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Saturation ladder

Same hue and lightness, from gray to pure

Search
Steel Core Faint#6E7C87 · hsl(205, 10%, 48%)Steel Core Muted#647E90 · hsl(205, 18%, 48%)Steel Core Dust#5B809A · hsl(205, 26%, 48%)Steel Core Soft#5181A4 · hsl(205, 34%, 48%)Steel Core Clear#3885BC · hsl(205, 54%, 48%)Steel Core Vivid#2089D5 · hsl(205, 74%, 48%)Steel Core Bright#148CE1 · hsl(205, 84%, 48%)Steel Core Pure#0A8DEB · hsl(205, 92%, 48%)
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