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Indigo Ink Clear
Color detail

Indigo Ink Clear

Blue · Hue 230
Hex
#101737
RGB
rgb(16, 23, 55)
HSL
hsl(230, 54%, 14%)
CMYK
cmyk(71%, 58%, 0%, 78%)
Metrics
S 54% · L 14%
Contrast (WCAG)
on white
17.5:1AA
on black
1.2:1Fail
Save to journalSign in to saveStart palette from thisRecent trail

About this color

Indigo Ink Clear (#101737) belongs to the blue family — hue 230°, 54% saturation, 14% 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-indigo-ink-clear: #101737;
  --colorarchive-indigo-ink-clear-hsl: hsl(230, 54%, 14%);
  --colorarchive-indigo-ink-clear-rgb: rgb(16, 23, 55);
}

AI Color Names

Let AI suggest alternative poetic names for this color in English and Chinese.

Design Context

AuthoritativeIntellectualLuxurious
Common in

Defense · Aviation · Higher Education

Pairs well with

Gold for prestige, white for sharp readability, electric blue for energy

Design tip

Perfect for dark mode backgrounds and headers. Navy is softer than black and adds character. Pair with bright accents for contrast.

Cultural context ▶

Navy and midnight blue symbolize authority, intelligence, and tradition. The color of uniforms, institutions, and power.

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 deep, weighted version of the hue — formal, considered, and pairs especially well with off-white and warm metallic accents.

Lightness band: At this depth the hue starts behaving like a neutral — it can substitute for black in many contexts while still carrying a faint chromatic temperature. It pairs especially well with off-whites and warm metallics.

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 #101737.

  • Didi 滴滴neutral
    Didi Navy · #0E1733
    →
  • Patagonianeutral
    Forest Black · #0F1F2E
    →
  • Disney+primary
    Disney+ Navy · #01153E
    →

Cultures using a similar color

From the cultural-palette catalog, these regions feature a color close to #101737.

  • AustraliaSouthern Sky Navy
    #0C1E3F · Outback night sky
    →
  • IcelandBasalt Black
    #1A1B1F · Reynisfjara basalt columns
    →
  • JapanSumi Black (墨)
    #1A1A1A · Pine-soot stick ink
    →

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
Indigo Nocturne Clear
#17214F · hsl(230, 54%, 20%)
Complementary counterpoint
Amber Ink Clear
#373110 · hsl(50, 54%, 14%)
Analogous lead
Violet Ink Clear
#171037 · hsl(250, 54%, 14%)
Analogous echo
Steel Ink Clear
#102737 · hsl(205, 54%, 14%)
Triadic +120°
Merlot Ink Clear
#371017 · hsl(350, 54%, 14%)
Triadic +240°
Leaf Ink Clear
#173710 · hsl(110, 54%, 14%)
Split-comp +150°
Ember Ink Clear
#371D10 · hsl(20, 54%, 14%)
Split-comp +210°
Olive Ink Clear
#2A3710 · hsl(80, 54%, 14%)
Export preview
Base: Indigo Ink Clear #101737
Lighter companion: Indigo Nocturne Clear #17214F
Complementary counterpoint: Amber Ink Clear #373110
Analogous lead: Violet Ink Clear #171037
Analogous echo: Steel Ink Clear #102737
Triadic +120°: Merlot Ink Clear #371017
Triadic +240°: Leaf Ink Clear #173710
Split-comp +150°: Ember Ink Clear #371D10
Split-comp +210°: Olive Ink Clear #2A3710

Compare

See how Indigo Ink Clear compares side by side with related colors.

vsIndigo Nocturne ClearvsAmber Ink ClearvsViolet Ink ClearvsSteel Ink ClearvsMerlot Ink ClearvsLeaf Ink Clear

Nearest neighbors

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

Search by hex
Nearby match
Indigo Nocturne Clear
#17214F · hsl(230, 54%, 20%)
Nearby match
Indigo Ink Soft
#181C30 · hsl(230, 34%, 14%)
Nearby match
Indigo Ink Vivid
#09123E · hsl(230, 74%, 14%)
Nearby match
Indigo Shadow Clear
#212E6E · hsl(230, 54%, 28%)
Nearby match
Cobalt Ink Clear
#101D37 · hsl(220, 54%, 14%)
Nearby match
Iris Ink Clear
#101037 · hsl(240, 54%, 14%)

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
AAA16.8:1
Amber Veil Faint
#FAFAF9
AAA16.9:1
Amber Veil Muted
#FBFBF9
AAA16.9:1
Amber Veil Dust
#FBFBF9
AAA16.9:1
Amber Veil Soft
#FCFBF8
AAA17:1
Amber Veil Clear
#FDFCF7
AAA17.1:1
Amber Veil Vivid
#FEFCF6

Color Vision Simulation

How this color appears with different color vision deficiencies.

Full simulator
Deuteranopia
#131230
Protanopia
#131331
Tritanopia
#102C2B
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