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Cerulean Tone Faint
Color detail

Cerulean Tone Faint

Blue · Hue 190
Hex
#8FA0A3
RGB
rgb(143, 160, 163)
HSL
hsl(190, 10%, 60%)
CMYK
cmyk(12%, 2%, 0%, 36%)
Metrics
S 10% · L 60%
Contrast (WCAG)
on white
2.7:1Fail
on black
7.7:1AA
Save to journalSign in to saveStart palette from thisRecent trail

About this color

Cerulean Tone Faint (#8FA0A3) belongs to the blue family — hue 190°, 10% 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-cerulean-tone-faint: #8FA0A3;
  --colorarchive-cerulean-tone-faint-hsl: hsl(190, 10%, 60%);
  --colorarchive-cerulean-tone-faint-rgb: rgb(143, 160, 163);
}

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 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 most 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 #8FA0A3.

  • Redditsecondary
    Periwinkle · #7193FF
    →
  • Notionneutral
    Notion Gray · #787774
    →
  • Microsoftneutral
    Slate Gray · #737373
    →

Cultures using a similar color

From the cultural-palette catalog, these regions feature a color close to #8FA0A3.

  • IrelandConnemara Marble
    #8DA48A · Mottled green-grey native marble
    →
  • Greece (Aegean)Olive Silver
    #9CA38F · Olea europaea leaf undersides
    →
  • AustraliaEucalyptus Blue-Green
    #7EA08C · Eucalyptus regnans / globulus foliage
    →

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
Cerulean Silk Faint
#A5B3B6 · hsl(190, 10%, 68%)
Darker companion
Cerulean Radiant Faint
#7E9295 · hsl(190, 10%, 54%)
Complementary counterpoint
Ruby Tone Faint
#A3928F · hsl(10, 10%, 60%)
Analogous lead
Sapphire Tone Faint
#8F99A3 · hsl(210, 10%, 60%)
Analogous echo
Lagoon Tone Faint
#8FA3A0 · hsl(170, 10%, 60%)
Triadic +120°
Peony Tone Faint
#A38FA0 · hsl(310, 10%, 60%)
Triadic +240°
Honey Tone Faint
#A0A38F · hsl(70, 10%, 60%)
Split-comp +150°
Garnet Tone Faint
#A38F96 · hsl(340, 10%, 60%)
Split-comp +210°
Apricot Tone Faint
#A39C8F · hsl(40, 10%, 60%)
Export preview
Base: Cerulean Tone Faint #8FA0A3
Lighter companion: Cerulean Silk Faint #A5B3B6
Darker companion: Cerulean Radiant Faint #7E9295
Complementary counterpoint: Ruby Tone Faint #A3928F
Analogous lead: Sapphire Tone Faint #8F99A3
Analogous echo: Lagoon Tone Faint #8FA3A0
Triadic +120°: Peony Tone Faint #A38FA0
Triadic +240°: Honey Tone Faint #A0A38F
Split-comp +150°: Garnet Tone Faint #A38F96
Split-comp +210°: Apricot Tone Faint #A39C8F

Compare

See how Cerulean Tone Faint compares side by side with related colors.

vsCerulean Silk FaintvsCerulean Radiant FaintvsRuby Tone FaintvsSapphire Tone FaintvsLagoon Tone FaintvsPeony Tone Faint

Nearest neighbors

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

Search by hex
Nearby match
Cerulean Tone Muted
#87A5AB · hsl(190, 18%, 60%)
Nearby match
Cerulean Radiant Faint
#7E9295 · hsl(190, 10%, 54%)
Nearby match
Cerulean Silk Faint
#A5B3B6 · hsl(190, 10%, 68%)
Nearby match
Cerulean Tone Dust
#7EABB4 · hsl(190, 26%, 60%)
Nearby match
Cerulean Radiant Muted
#75989F · hsl(190, 18%, 54%)
Nearby match
Cerulean Core Faint
#6E8387 · hsl(190, 10%, 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
AAA7:1
Amethyst Ink Pure
#080345
AAA7:1
Iris Ink Pure
#030345
AA4.7:1
Ruby Nocturne Faint
#38302E
AA4.8:1
Ruby Nocturne Muted
#3C2D2A
AA4.9:1
Ruby Nocturne Dust
#402A26
AA5:1
Ruby Nocturne Soft
#442722

Color Vision Simulation

How this color appears with different color vision deficiencies.

Full simulator
Deuteranopia
#9694A2
Protanopia
#9797A2
Tritanopia
#90A2A2
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Cerulean Tone Faint#8FA0A3 · hsl(190, 10%, 60%)Cerulean Ink Faint#202627 · hsl(190, 10%, 14%)Cerulean Nocturne Faint#2E3638 · hsl(190, 10%, 20%)Cerulean Shadow Faint#404C4F · hsl(190, 10%, 28%)Cerulean Dusk Faint#4E5C5F · hsl(190, 10%, 34%)Cerulean Velvet Faint#607276 · hsl(190, 10%, 42%)Cerulean Core Faint#6E8387 · hsl(190, 10%, 48%)Cerulean Radiant Faint#7E9295 · hsl(190, 10%, 54%)