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Cobalt Tone Vivid
Color detail

Cobalt Tone Vivid

Blue · Hue 220
Hex
#4E80E4
RGB
rgb(78, 128, 228)
HSL
hsl(220, 74%, 60%)
CMYK
cmyk(66%, 44%, 0%, 11%)
Metrics
S 74% · L 60%
Contrast (WCAG)
on white
3.8:1AA Large
on black
5.5:1AA
Save to journalSign in to saveStart palette from thisRecent trail

About this color

Cobalt Tone Vivid (#4E80E4) belongs to the blue family — hue 220°, 74% 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-vivid: #4E80E4;
  --colorarchive-cobalt-tone-vivid-hsl: hsl(220, 74%, 60%);
  --colorarchive-cobalt-tone-vivid-rgb: rgb(78, 128, 228);
}

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 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 most 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 #4E80E4.

  • Googleprimary
    Google Blue · #4285F4
    →
  • Linearprimary
    Linear Indigo · #5E6AD2
    →
  • Discordprimary
    Blurple · #5865F2
    →

Cultures using a similar color

From the cultural-palette catalog, these regions feature a color close to #4E80E4.

  • China (Traditional)Jade Green (碧玉)
    #5F9EA0 · Hetian and Burmese jadeite
    →
  • Korea (Obangsaek)Obangsaek Blue (청 / cheong)
    #1E68C1 · East — wood element, hanbok dyes
    →
  • Turkey (Istanbul)Bosphorus Turquoise
    #4DA8AC · Marmara strait water
    →

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 Vivid
#7199EA · hsl(220, 74%, 68%)
Darker companion
Cobalt Radiant Vivid
#336DE1 · hsl(220, 74%, 54%)
Complementary counterpoint
Apricot Tone Vivid
#E4B24E · hsl(40, 74%, 60%)
Analogous lead
Amethyst Tone Vivid
#5A4EE4 · hsl(245, 74%, 60%)
Analogous echo
Azure Tone Vivid
#4EB2E4 · hsl(200, 74%, 60%)
Triadic +120°
Garnet Tone Vivid
#E44E80 · hsl(340, 74%, 60%)
Triadic +240°
Moss Tone Vivid
#80E44E · hsl(100, 74%, 60%)
Split-comp +150°
Ruby Tone Vivid
#E4674E · hsl(10, 74%, 60%)
Split-comp +210°
Honey Tone Vivid
#CBE44E · hsl(70, 74%, 60%)
Export preview
Base: Cobalt Tone Vivid #4E80E4
Lighter companion: Cobalt Silk Vivid #7199EA
Darker companion: Cobalt Radiant Vivid #336DE1
Complementary counterpoint: Apricot Tone Vivid #E4B24E
Analogous lead: Amethyst Tone Vivid #5A4EE4
Analogous echo: Azure Tone Vivid #4EB2E4
Triadic +120°: Garnet Tone Vivid #E44E80
Triadic +240°: Moss Tone Vivid #80E44E
Split-comp +150°: Ruby Tone Vivid #E4674E
Split-comp +210°: Honey Tone Vivid #CBE44E

Compare

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

vsCobalt Silk VividvsCobalt Radiant VividvsApricot Tone VividvsAmethyst Tone VividvsAzure Tone VividvsGarnet Tone Vivid

Nearest neighbors

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

Search by hex
Nearby match
Cobalt Radiant Vivid
#336DE1 · hsl(220, 74%, 54%)
Nearby match
Cobalt Tone Bright
#437CEF · hsl(220, 84%, 60%)
Nearby match
Cobalt Silk Vivid
#7199EA · hsl(220, 74%, 68%)
Nearby match
Cobalt Tone Pure
#3B7AF7 · hsl(220, 92%, 60%)
Nearby match
Cobalt Core Vivid
#205CD5 · hsl(220, 74%, 48%)
Nearby match
Cobalt Radiant Bright
#2769EC · hsl(220, 84%, 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
AA4.5:1
Mulberry Ink Clear
#2A1037
AA4.5:1
Mulberry Ink Vivid
#2D093E
AA4.5:1
Mulberry Ink Bright
#2E0642
AA4.5:1
Mulberry Ink Pure
#2F0345
AA4.6:1
Plum Ink Clear
#241037
AA4.7:1
Plum Ink Vivid
#24093E

Color Vision Simulation

How this color appears with different color vision deficiencies.

Full simulator
Deuteranopia
#6460CD
Protanopia
#6768D1
Tritanopia
#51C1BD
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Appears in collections
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