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Steel Core Muted
Color detail

Steel Core Muted

Blue · Hue 205
Hex
#647E90
RGB
rgb(100, 126, 144)
HSL
hsl(205, 18%, 48%)
CMYK
cmyk(31%, 12%, 0%, 44%)
Metrics
S 18% · L 48%
Contrast (WCAG)
on white
4.3:1AA Large
on black
4.9:1AA
Save to journalSign in to saveStart palette from thisRecent trail

About this color

Steel Core Muted (#647E90) belongs to the blue family — hue 205°, 18% saturation, 48% 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-steel-core-muted: #647E90;
  --colorarchive-steel-core-muted-hsl: hsl(205, 18%, 48%);
  --colorarchive-steel-core-muted-rgb: rgb(100, 126, 144);
}

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 #647E90.

  • Microsoftneutral
    Slate Gray · #737373
    →
  • Notionneutral
    Notion Gray · #787774
    →
  • Linearprimary
    Linear Indigo · #5E6AD2
    →

Cultures using a similar color

From the cultural-palette catalog, these regions feature a color close to #647E90.

  • France (Paris)Seine Steel
    #7E8A93 · River reflectivity in winter
    →
  • England (London)Plane Tree Green
    #5C7A5A · Platanus × hispanica, London street tree
    →
  • IrelandAtlantic Slate
    #5A6770 · Cliff face + winter sea
    →

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
Steel Radiant Muted
#758D9F · hsl(205, 18%, 54%)
Darker companion
Steel Velvet Muted
#586E7E · hsl(205, 18%, 42%)
Complementary counterpoint
Tangerine Core Muted
#907764 · hsl(25, 18%, 48%)
Analogous lead
Indigo Core Muted
#646C90 · hsl(230, 18%, 48%)
Analogous echo
Aqua Core Muted
#649090 · hsl(180, 18%, 48%)
Triadic +120°
Rose Core Muted
#906482 · hsl(320, 18%, 48%)
Triadic +240°
Olive Core Muted
#829064 · hsl(80, 18%, 48%)
Split-comp +150°
Crimson Core Muted
#906464 · hsl(0, 18%, 48%)
Split-comp +210°
Canary Core Muted
#908D64 · hsl(55, 18%, 48%)
Export preview
Base: Steel Core Muted #647E90
Lighter companion: Steel Radiant Muted #758D9F
Darker companion: Steel Velvet Muted #586E7E
Complementary counterpoint: Tangerine Core Muted #907764
Analogous lead: Indigo Core Muted #646C90
Analogous echo: Aqua Core Muted #649090
Triadic +120°: Rose Core Muted #906482
Triadic +240°: Olive Core Muted #829064
Split-comp +150°: Crimson Core Muted #906464
Split-comp +210°: Canary Core Muted #908D64

Compare

See how Steel Core Muted compares side by side with related colors.

vsSteel Radiant MutedvsSteel Velvet MutedvsTangerine Core MutedvsIndigo Core MutedvsAqua Core MutedvsRose Core Muted

Nearest neighbors

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

Search by hex
Nearby match
Steel Core Faint
#6E7C87 · hsl(205, 10%, 48%)
Nearby match
Steel Core Dust
#5B809A · hsl(205, 26%, 48%)
Nearby match
Steel Velvet Muted
#586E7E · hsl(205, 18%, 42%)
Nearby match
Steel Radiant Muted
#758D9F · hsl(205, 18%, 54%)
Nearby match
Azure Core Muted
#648290 · hsl(200, 18%, 48%)
Nearby match
Sapphire Core Muted
#647A90 · hsl(210, 18%, 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
AA4.5:1
Iris Ink Pure
#030345
AA Large4.1:1
Tangerine Veil Faint
#FAFAF9
AA Large4.1:1
Tangerine Veil Muted
#FBFAF9
AA Large4.1:1
Tangerine Veil Dust
#FBFAF9
AA Large4.1:1
Tangerine Veil Soft
#FCFAF8
AA Large4.1:1
Tangerine Veil Clear
#FDF9F7

Color Vision Simulation

How this color appears with different color vision deficiencies.

Full simulator
Deuteranopia
#6F6D8B
Protanopia
#70708C
Tritanopia
#658988
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