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Azure Core Soft
Color detail

Azure Core Soft

Blue · Hue 200
Hex
#5188A4
RGB
rgb(81, 136, 164)
HSL
hsl(200, 34%, 48%)
CMYK
cmyk(51%, 17%, 0%, 36%)
Metrics
S 34% · L 48%
Contrast (WCAG)
on white
3.9:1AA Large
on black
5.4:1AA
Save to journalSign in to saveStart palette from thisRecent trail

About this color

Azure Core Soft (#5188A4) belongs to the blue family — hue 200°, 34% 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-azure-core-soft: #5188A4;
  --colorarchive-azure-core-soft-hsl: hsl(200, 34%, 48%);
  --colorarchive-azure-core-soft-rgb: rgb(81, 136, 164);
}

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 the rarest pigment in the natural world — and so, historically, the most expensive. Ultramarine, ground from lapis lazuli mined only in Afghanistan, was worth more than gold in Renaissance Europe; Vermeer's bills were enormous because of how much he used. Egyptian blue (the first synthetic pigment, ~3000 BCE) was lost for centuries and rediscovered in the 19th. Prussian blue (1704) democratized blue overnight; Yves Klein's IKB (1960) re-aristocratized it.

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 600 years. In Mediterranean traditions blue wards off the evil eye. In post-WWII America, blue became the corporate default ('IBM 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 — sometimes by 35% margins.

In the wild

Facebook is blue because Mark Zuckerberg is red-green colorblind. IBM's blue dates to 1947. Levi's blue is the natural color of indigo on cotton. Twitter Blue (#1DA1F2) defined social-media blue for a decade before X scrapped it. Pixar's Up famously runs on a single complementary palette built on blue. 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 recedes — physically, the eye focuses blue light slightly behind the retina, which makes 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 most successful brand colors live.

Lightness band: At mid-lightness the hue carries its full character. This is the band where most 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 the most 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 #5188A4.

  • Googleprimary
    Google Blue · #4285F4
    →
  • Linearprimary
    Linear Indigo · #5E6AD2
    →
  • Microsoftneutral
    Slate Gray · #737373
    →

Cultures using a similar color

From the cultural-palette catalog, these regions feature a color close to #5188A4.

  • VietnamJade River
    #3F8B7E · Halong Bay limestone water
    →
  • China (Traditional)Jade Green (碧玉)
    #5F9EA0 · Hetian and Burmese jadeite
    →
  • EgyptMalachite Green
    #3D9970 · Copper carbonate, Sinai mines
    →

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
Azure Radiant Soft
#6297B2 · hsl(200, 34%, 54%)
Darker companion
Azure Velvet Soft
#477790 · hsl(200, 34%, 42%)
Complementary counterpoint
Ember Core Soft
#A46D51 · hsl(20, 34%, 48%)
Analogous lead
Cobalt Core Soft
#516DA4 · hsl(220, 34%, 48%)
Analogous echo
Cyan Core Soft
#51A49D · hsl(175, 34%, 48%)
Triadic +120°
Rose Core Soft
#A45188 · hsl(320, 34%, 48%)
Triadic +240°
Olive Core Soft
#88A451 · hsl(80, 34%, 48%)
Split-comp +150°
Merlot Core Soft
#A4515F · hsl(350, 34%, 48%)
Split-comp +210°
Amber Core Soft
#A49651 · hsl(50, 34%, 48%)
Export preview
Base: Azure Core Soft #5188A4
Lighter companion: Azure Radiant Soft #6297B2
Darker companion: Azure Velvet Soft #477790
Complementary counterpoint: Ember Core Soft #A46D51
Analogous lead: Cobalt Core Soft #516DA4
Analogous echo: Cyan Core Soft #51A49D
Triadic +120°: Rose Core Soft #A45188
Triadic +240°: Olive Core Soft #88A451
Split-comp +150°: Merlot Core Soft #A4515F
Split-comp +210°: Amber Core Soft #A49651

Compare

See how Azure Core Soft compares side by side with related colors.

vsAzure Radiant SoftvsAzure Velvet SoftvsEmber Core SoftvsCobalt Core SoftvsCyan Core SoftvsRose Core Soft

Nearest neighbors

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

Search by hex
Nearby match
Azure Core Dust
#5B859A · hsl(200, 26%, 48%)
Nearby match
Azure Velvet Soft
#477790 · hsl(200, 34%, 42%)
Nearby match
Azure Radiant Soft
#6297B2 · hsl(200, 34%, 54%)
Nearby match
Steel Core Soft
#5181A4 · hsl(205, 34%, 48%)
Nearby match
Azure Core Muted
#648290 · hsl(200, 18%, 48%)
Nearby match
Azure Velvet Dust
#4F7487 · hsl(200, 26%, 42%)

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 Clear
#241037
AA4.6:1
Plum Ink Vivid
#24093E
AA4.6:1
Plum Ink Bright
#240642
AA4.6:1
Plum Ink Pure
#240345
AA4.6:1
Orchid Ink Clear
#1D1037
AA4.7:1
Orchid Ink Vivid
#1B093E

Color Vision Simulation

How this color appears with different color vision deficiencies.

Full simulator
Deuteranopia
#6A659C
Protanopia
#6D6E9E
Tritanopia
#559998
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