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Cobalt Tone Muted
Color detail

Cobalt Tone Muted

Blue · Hue 220
Hex
#8793AB
RGB
rgb(135, 147, 171)
HSL
hsl(220, 18%, 60%)
CMYK
cmyk(21%, 14%, 0%, 33%)
Metrics
S 18% · L 60%
Contrast (WCAG)
on white
3.1:1AA Large
on black
6.8:1AA
Save to journalSign in to saveStart palette from thisRecent trail

About this color

Cobalt Tone Muted (#8793AB) belongs to the blue family — hue 220°, 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-cobalt-tone-muted: #8793AB;
  --colorarchive-cobalt-tone-muted-hsl: hsl(220, 18%, 60%);
  --colorarchive-cobalt-tone-muted-rgb: rgb(135, 147, 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 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 #8793AB.

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

Cultures using a similar color

From the cultural-palette catalog, these regions feature a color close to #8793AB.

  • France (Paris)Seine Steel
    #7E8A93 · River reflectivity in winter
    →
  • AustraliaEucalyptus Blue-Green
    #7EA08C · Eucalyptus regnans / globulus foliage
    →
  • Korea (Obangsaek)Celadon-Goryeo Green
    #7CA38E · Goryeo Dynasty ceramics, 12th-13th c.
    →

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
Cobalt Silk Muted
#9FA9BC · hsl(220, 18%, 68%)
Darker companion
Cobalt Radiant Muted
#75839F · hsl(220, 18%, 54%)
Complementary counterpoint
Apricot Tone Muted
#AB9F87 · hsl(40, 18%, 60%)
Analogous lead
Amethyst Tone Muted
#8A87AB · hsl(245, 18%, 60%)
Analogous echo
Azure Tone Muted
#879FAB · hsl(200, 18%, 60%)
Triadic +120°
Garnet Tone Muted
#AB8793 · hsl(340, 18%, 60%)
Triadic +240°
Moss Tone Muted
#93AB87 · hsl(100, 18%, 60%)
Split-comp +150°
Ruby Tone Muted
#AB8D87 · hsl(10, 18%, 60%)
Split-comp +210°
Honey Tone Muted
#A5AB87 · hsl(70, 18%, 60%)
Export preview
Base: Cobalt Tone Muted #8793AB
Lighter companion: Cobalt Silk Muted #9FA9BC
Darker companion: Cobalt Radiant Muted #75839F
Complementary counterpoint: Apricot Tone Muted #AB9F87
Analogous lead: Amethyst Tone Muted #8A87AB
Analogous echo: Azure Tone Muted #879FAB
Triadic +120°: Garnet Tone Muted #AB8793
Triadic +240°: Moss Tone Muted #93AB87
Split-comp +150°: Ruby Tone Muted #AB8D87
Split-comp +210°: Honey Tone Muted #A5AB87

Compare

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

vsCobalt Silk MutedvsCobalt Radiant MutedvsApricot Tone MutedvsAmethyst Tone MutedvsAzure Tone MutedvsGarnet Tone Muted

Nearest neighbors

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

Search by hex
Nearby match
Cobalt Tone Faint
#8F96A3 · hsl(220, 10%, 60%)
Nearby match
Cobalt Tone Dust
#7E90B4 · hsl(220, 26%, 60%)
Nearby match
Cobalt Radiant Muted
#75839F · hsl(220, 18%, 54%)
Nearby match
Cobalt Silk Muted
#9FA9BC · hsl(220, 18%, 68%)
Nearby match
Cobalt Tone Soft
#768DBC · hsl(220, 34%, 60%)
Nearby match
Cobalt Radiant Faint
#7E8695 · hsl(220, 10%, 54%)

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
AA5:1
Apricot Ink Faint
#272520
AA4.9:1
Apricot Ink Muted
#2A261D
AA4.8:1
Apricot Ink Dust
#2D271A
AA4.7:1
Apricot Ink Soft
#302818
AA4.5:1
Apricot Ink Clear
#372A10
AA5:1
Taupe Gray Ink
#252422

Color Vision Simulation

How this color appears with different color vision deficiencies.

Full simulator
Deuteranopia
#8C8BA4
Protanopia
#8C8CA6
Tritanopia
#88A1A0
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