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Steel Radiant Vivid
Color detail

Steel Radiant Vivid

Blue · Hue 205
Hex
#3398E1
RGB
rgb(51, 152, 225)
HSL
hsl(205, 74%, 54%)
CMYK
cmyk(77%, 32%, 0%, 12%)
Metrics
S 74% · L 54%
Contrast (WCAG)
on white
3.1:1AA Large
on black
6.7:1AA
Save to journalSign in to saveStart palette from thisRecent trail

About this color

Steel Radiant Vivid (#3398E1) belongs to the blue family — hue 205°, 74% saturation, 54% 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-radiant-vivid: #3398E1;
  --colorarchive-steel-radiant-vivid-hsl: hsl(205, 74%, 54%);
  --colorarchive-steel-radiant-vivid-rgb: rgb(51, 152, 225);
}

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 #3398E1.

  • X (Twitter)secondary
    Twitter Blue (legacy) · #1D9BF0
    →
  • Googleprimary
    Google Blue · #4285F4
    →
  • Disney+accent
    Hover Cyan · #1A8FFF
    →

Cultures using a similar color

From the cultural-palette catalog, these regions feature a color close to #3398E1.

  • Turkey (Istanbul)Bosphorus Turquoise
    #4DA8AC · Marmara strait water
    →
  • China (Traditional)Jade Green (碧玉)
    #5F9EA0 · Hetian and Burmese jadeite
    →
  • AustraliaReef Turquoise
    #3FBFB9 · Whitsunday lagoons
    →

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 Tone Vivid
#4EA6E4 · hsl(205, 74%, 60%)
Darker companion
Steel Core Vivid
#2089D5 · hsl(205, 74%, 48%)
Complementary counterpoint
Tangerine Radiant Vivid
#E17B33 · hsl(25, 74%, 54%)
Analogous lead
Indigo Radiant Vivid
#3350E1 · hsl(230, 74%, 54%)
Analogous echo
Aqua Radiant Vivid
#33E1E1 · hsl(180, 74%, 54%)
Triadic +120°
Rose Radiant Vivid
#E133A7 · hsl(320, 74%, 54%)
Triadic +240°
Olive Radiant Vivid
#A7E133 · hsl(80, 74%, 54%)
Split-comp +150°
Crimson Radiant Vivid
#E13333 · hsl(0, 74%, 54%)
Split-comp +210°
Canary Radiant Vivid
#E1D233 · hsl(55, 74%, 54%)
Export preview
Base: Steel Radiant Vivid #3398E1
Lighter companion: Steel Tone Vivid #4EA6E4
Darker companion: Steel Core Vivid #2089D5
Complementary counterpoint: Tangerine Radiant Vivid #E17B33
Analogous lead: Indigo Radiant Vivid #3350E1
Analogous echo: Aqua Radiant Vivid #33E1E1
Triadic +120°: Rose Radiant Vivid #E133A7
Triadic +240°: Olive Radiant Vivid #A7E133
Split-comp +150°: Crimson Radiant Vivid #E13333
Split-comp +210°: Canary Radiant Vivid #E1D233

Compare

See how Steel Radiant Vivid compares side by side with related colors.

vsSteel Tone VividvsSteel Core VividvsTangerine Radiant VividvsIndigo Radiant VividvsAqua Radiant VividvsRose Radiant Vivid

Nearest neighbors

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

Search by hex
Nearby match
Steel Core Vivid
#2089D5 · hsl(205, 74%, 48%)
Nearby match
Steel Tone Vivid
#4EA6E4 · hsl(205, 74%, 60%)
Nearby match
Steel Radiant Bright
#279AEC · hsl(205, 84%, 54%)
Nearby match
Azure Radiant Vivid
#33A7E1 · hsl(200, 74%, 54%)
Nearby match
Sapphire Radiant Vivid
#338AE1 · hsl(210, 74%, 54%)
Nearby match
Steel Radiant Pure
#1E9CF6 · hsl(205, 92%, 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
Tangerine Ink Faint
#272320
AA5:1
Tangerine Ink Muted
#2A231D
AA5:1
Tangerine Ink Dust
#2D221A
AA4.9:1
Tangerine Ink Soft
#302218
AA4.9:1
Tangerine Ink Clear
#372010
AA4.8:1
Tangerine Ink Vivid
#3E1F09

Color Vision Simulation

How this color appears with different color vision deficiencies.

Full simulator
Deuteranopia
#6860CF
Protanopia
#6E6ED2
Tritanopia
#3DC6C3
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