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Sapphire Ink Clear
Color detail

Sapphire Ink Clear

Blue · Hue 210
Hex
#102437
RGB
rgb(16, 36, 55)
HSL
hsl(210, 54%, 14%)
CMYK
cmyk(71%, 35%, 0%, 78%)
Metrics
S 54% · L 14%
Contrast (WCAG)
on white
15.8:1AA
on black
1.3:1Fail
Save to journalSign in to saveStart palette from thisRecent trail

About this color

Sapphire Ink Clear (#102437) belongs to the blue family — hue 210°, 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-sapphire-ink-clear: #102437;
  --colorarchive-sapphire-ink-clear-hsl: hsl(210, 54%, 14%);
  --colorarchive-sapphire-ink-clear-rgb: rgb(16, 36, 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 #102437.

  • Stripeneutral
    Slate Navy · #0A2540
    →
  • Patagonianeutral
    Forest Black · #0F1F2E
    →
  • Webflowneutral
    Charcoal · #1D1F26
    →

Cultures using a similar color

From the cultural-palette catalog, these regions feature a color close to #102437.

  • AustraliaSouthern Sky Navy
    #0C1E3F · Outback night sky
    →
  • England (London)Royal Navy
    #0A2351 · Royal Navy / Royal Mail livery
    →
  • IcelandBasalt Black
    #1A1B1F · Reynisfjara basalt columns
    →

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
Sapphire Nocturne Clear
#17334F · hsl(210, 54%, 20%)
Complementary counterpoint
Coral Ink Clear
#372410 · hsl(30, 54%, 14%)
Analogous lead
Indigo Ink Clear
#101737 · hsl(230, 54%, 14%)
Analogous echo
Cerulean Ink Clear
#103137 · hsl(190, 54%, 14%)
Triadic +120°
Blush Ink Clear
#371024 · hsl(330, 54%, 14%)
Triadic +240°
Lime Ink Clear
#243710 · hsl(90, 54%, 14%)
Split-comp +150°
Crimson Ink Clear
#371010 · hsl(0, 54%, 14%)
Split-comp +210°
Citrine Ink Clear
#373710 · hsl(60, 54%, 14%)
Export preview
Base: Sapphire Ink Clear #102437
Lighter companion: Sapphire Nocturne Clear #17334F
Complementary counterpoint: Coral Ink Clear #372410
Analogous lead: Indigo Ink Clear #101737
Analogous echo: Cerulean Ink Clear #103137
Triadic +120°: Blush Ink Clear #371024
Triadic +240°: Lime Ink Clear #243710
Split-comp +150°: Crimson Ink Clear #371010
Split-comp +210°: Citrine Ink Clear #373710

Compare

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

vsSapphire Nocturne ClearvsCoral Ink ClearvsIndigo Ink ClearvsCerulean Ink ClearvsBlush Ink ClearvsLime Ink Clear

Nearest neighbors

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

Search by hex
Nearby match
Sapphire Nocturne Clear
#17334F · hsl(210, 54%, 20%)
Nearby match
Steel Ink Clear
#102737 · hsl(205, 54%, 14%)
Nearby match
Sapphire Ink Soft
#182430 · hsl(210, 34%, 14%)
Nearby match
Sapphire Ink Vivid
#09243E · hsl(210, 74%, 14%)
Nearby match
Steel Nocturne Clear
#17384F · hsl(205, 54%, 20%)
Nearby match
Sapphire Shadow Clear
#21476E · hsl(210, 54%, 28%)

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
AAA15.1:1
Coral Veil Faint
#FAFAF9
AAA15.2:1
Coral Veil Muted
#FBFAF9
AAA15.2:1
Coral Veil Dust
#FBFAF9
AAA15.2:1
Coral Veil Soft
#FCFAF8
AAA15.2:1
Coral Veil Clear
#FDFAF7
AAA15.2:1
Coral Veil Vivid
#FEFAF6

Color Vision Simulation

How this color appears with different color vision deficiencies.

Full simulator
Deuteranopia
#191832
Protanopia
#1A1B33
Tritanopia
#11302F
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