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Steel Radiant Pure
Color detail

Steel Radiant Pure

Blue · Hue 205
Metrics
S 92% · L 54%
Contrast (WCAG)
on white2.9:1Failon black7.1:1AA
Save to journalSign in to saveStart palette from thisRecent trail

About this color

Steel Radiant Pure (#1E9CF6) belongs to the blue family — hue 205°, 92% saturation, 54% 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-radiant-pure: #1E9CF6;
  --colorarchive-steel-radiant-pure-hsl: hsl(205, 92%, 54%);
  --colorarchive-steel-radiant-pure-rgb: rgb(30, 156, 246);
}

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 vivid mid-tone — distinctive enough to anchor an identity, saturated enough to demand a quiet supporting palette.

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: At this saturation the color is doing work. It reads as a brand statement, a sport accessory, or a UI signal. It should be used in small, deliberate doses against quieter neighbors; large fields at this saturation will exhaust the eye.

Brands using a similar color

Within the public brand-guidelines reference catalog, these are the closest matches to #1E9CF6.

  • X (Twitter)secondary
    Twitter Blue (legacy) · #1D9BF0
    →
  • Disney+accent
    Hover Cyan · #1A8FFF
    →
  • Frameraccent
    Framer Blue · #0099FF
    →

Cultures using a similar color

From the cultural-palette catalog, these regions feature a color close to #1E9CF6.

  • Turkey (Istanbul)Bosphorus Turquoise
    #4DA8AC · Marmara strait water
    →
  • AustraliaReef Turquoise
    #3FBFB9 · Whitsunday lagoons
    →
  • Korea (Obangsaek)Obangsaek Blue (청 / cheong)
    #1E68C1 · East — wood element, hanbok dyes
    →

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 ProblemColor TheoryMonochromatic Color Palette: How to Design with One Hue

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 Tone Pure
#3BA9F7 · hsl(205, 92%, 60%)
Darker companion
Steel Core Pure
#0A8DEB · hsl(205, 92%, 48%)
Complementary counterpoint
Tangerine Radiant Pure
#F6781E · hsl(25, 92%, 54%)
Analogous lead
Indigo Radiant Pure
#1E42F6 · hsl(230, 92%, 54%)
Analogous echo
Aqua Radiant Pure
#1EF6F6 · hsl(180, 92%, 54%)
Triadic +120°
Rose Radiant Pure
#F61EAE · hsl(320, 92%, 54%)
Triadic +240°
Olive Radiant Pure
#AEF61E · hsl(80, 92%, 54%)
Split-comp +150°
Crimson Radiant Pure
#F61E1E · hsl(0, 92%, 54%)
Split-comp +210°
Canary Radiant Pure
#F6E41E · hsl(55, 92%, 54%)
Export preview
Base: Steel Radiant Pure #1E9CF6
Lighter companion: Steel Tone Pure #3BA9F7
Darker companion: Steel Core Pure #0A8DEB
Complementary counterpoint: Tangerine Radiant Pure #F6781E
Analogous lead: Indigo Radiant Pure #1E42F6
Analogous echo: Aqua Radiant Pure #1EF6F6
Triadic +120°: Rose Radiant Pure #F61EAE
Triadic +240°: Olive Radiant Pure #AEF61E
Split-comp +150°: Crimson Radiant Pure #F61E1E
Split-comp +210°: Canary Radiant Pure #F6E41E

Compare

See how Steel Radiant Pure compares side by side with related colors.

vsSteel Tone PurevsSteel Core PurevsTangerine Radiant PurevsIndigo Radiant PurevsAqua Radiant PurevsRose Radiant Pure

Nearest neighbors

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

Search by hex
Nearby match
Steel Radiant Bright
#279AEC · hsl(205, 84%, 54%)
Nearby match
Steel Core Pure
#0A8DEB · hsl(205, 92%, 48%)
Nearby match
Steel Tone Pure
#3BA9F7 · hsl(205, 92%, 60%)
Nearby match
Azure Radiant Pure
#1EAEF6 · hsl(200, 92%, 54%)
Nearby match
Sapphire Radiant Pure
#1E8AF6 · hsl(210, 92%, 54%)
Nearby match
Steel Core Bright
#148CE1 · hsl(205, 84%, 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
AA5.3:1
Tangerine Ink Faint
#272320
AA5.3:1
Tangerine Ink Muted
#2A231D
AA5.3:1
Tangerine Ink Dust
#2D221A
AA5.2:1
Tangerine Ink Soft
#302218
AA5.2:1
Tangerine Ink Clear
#372010
AA5.1:1
Tangerine Ink Vivid
#3E1F09

Color Vision Simulation

How this color appears with different color vision deficiencies.

Full simulator
Deuteranopia
#665DE0
Protanopia
#6C6DE4
Tritanopia
#2FD5D2
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Saturation ladder

Same hue and lightness, from gray to pure

Search
Steel Radiant Faint#7E8C95 · hsl(205, 10%, 54%)Steel Radiant Muted#758D9F · hsl(205, 18%, 54%)Steel Radiant Dust#6B8FA8 · hsl(205, 26%, 54%)Steel Radiant Soft#6290B2 · hsl(205, 34%, 54%)Steel Radiant Clear#4A94C9 · hsl(205, 54%, 54%)Steel Radiant Vivid#3398E1 · hsl(205, 74%, 54%)Steel Radiant Bright#279AEC · hsl(205, 84%, 54%)Steel Radiant Pure#1E9CF6 · hsl(205, 92%, 54%)
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