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Steel Tone Muted
Color detail

Steel Tone Muted

Blue · Hue 205
Metrics
S 18% · L 60%
Contrast (WCAG)
on white2.8:1Failon black7.4:1AA
Save to journalSign in to saveStart palette from thisRecent trail

About this color

Steel Tone Muted (#879CAB) belongs to the blue family — hue 205°, 18% saturation, 60% 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-tone-muted: #879CAB;
  --colorarchive-steel-tone-muted-hsl: hsl(205, 18%, 60%);
  --colorarchive-steel-tone-muted-rgb: rgb(135, 156, 171);
}

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 grounded mid-tone — sober, considered, well-suited to body text accents, editorial layouts, or any context where restraint reads as quality.

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 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 #879CAB.

  • Anthropicaccent
    Anthropic Blue · #6A9BCC
    →
  • Redditsecondary
    Periwinkle · #7193FF
    →
  • Notionneutral
    Notion Gray · #787774
    →

Cultures using a similar color

From the cultural-palette catalog, these regions feature a color close to #879CAB.

  • AustraliaEucalyptus Blue-Green
    #7EA08C · Eucalyptus regnans / globulus foliage
    →
  • Korea (Obangsaek)Celadon-Goryeo Green
    #7CA38E · Goryeo Dynasty ceramics, 12th-13th c.
    →
  • IrelandConnemara Marble
    #8DA48A · Mottled green-grey native marble
    →

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
Steel Silk Muted
#9FB0BC · hsl(205, 18%, 68%)
Darker companion
Steel Radiant Muted
#758D9F · hsl(205, 18%, 54%)
Complementary counterpoint
Tangerine Tone Muted
#AB9687 · hsl(25, 18%, 60%)
Analogous lead
Indigo Tone Muted
#878DAB · hsl(230, 18%, 60%)
Analogous echo
Aqua Tone Muted
#87ABAB · hsl(180, 18%, 60%)
Triadic +120°
Rose Tone Muted
#AB879F · hsl(320, 18%, 60%)
Triadic +240°
Olive Tone Muted
#9FAB87 · hsl(80, 18%, 60%)
Split-comp +150°
Crimson Tone Muted
#AB8787 · hsl(0, 18%, 60%)
Split-comp +210°
Canary Tone Muted
#ABA887 · hsl(55, 18%, 60%)
Export preview
Base: Steel Tone Muted #879CAB
Lighter companion: Steel Silk Muted #9FB0BC
Darker companion: Steel Radiant Muted #758D9F
Complementary counterpoint: Tangerine Tone Muted #AB9687
Analogous lead: Indigo Tone Muted #878DAB
Analogous echo: Aqua Tone Muted #87ABAB
Triadic +120°: Rose Tone Muted #AB879F
Triadic +240°: Olive Tone Muted #9FAB87
Split-comp +150°: Crimson Tone Muted #AB8787
Split-comp +210°: Canary Tone Muted #ABA887

Compare

See how Steel Tone Muted compares side by side with related colors.

vsSteel Silk MutedvsSteel Radiant MutedvsTangerine Tone MutedvsIndigo Tone MutedvsAqua Tone MutedvsRose Tone Muted

Nearest neighbors

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

Search by hex
Nearby match
Steel Tone Faint
#8F9BA3 · hsl(205, 10%, 60%)
Nearby match
Steel Tone Dust
#7E9DB4 · hsl(205, 26%, 60%)
Nearby match
Steel Radiant Muted
#758D9F · hsl(205, 18%, 54%)
Nearby match
Azure Tone Muted
#879FAB · hsl(200, 18%, 60%)
Nearby match
Sapphire Tone Muted
#8799AB · hsl(210, 18%, 60%)
Nearby match
Steel Silk Muted
#9FB0BC · hsl(205, 18%, 68%)

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
AA5.5:1
Tangerine Ink Faint
#272320
AA5.4:1
Tangerine Ink Muted
#2A231D
AA5.4:1
Tangerine Ink Dust
#2D221A
AA5.4:1
Tangerine Ink Soft
#302218
AA5.4:1
Tangerine Ink Clear
#372010
AA5.2:1
Tangerine Ink Vivid
#3E1F09

Color Vision Simulation

How this color appears with different color vision deficiencies.

Full simulator
Deuteranopia
#8F8EA7
Protanopia
#9191A8
Tritanopia
#88A5A4
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Saturation ladder

Same hue and lightness, from gray to pure

Search
Steel Tone Faint#8F9BA3 · hsl(205, 10%, 60%)Steel Tone Muted#879CAB · hsl(205, 18%, 60%)Steel Tone Dust#7E9DB4 · hsl(205, 26%, 60%)Steel Tone Soft#769FBC · hsl(205, 34%, 60%)Steel Tone Clear#62A2D0 · hsl(205, 54%, 60%)Steel Tone Vivid#4EA6E4 · hsl(205, 74%, 60%)Steel Tone Bright#43A7EF · hsl(205, 84%, 60%)Steel Tone Pure#3BA9F7 · hsl(205, 92%, 60%)
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