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blue · cool

#033859

a deep, electric blue · cool · closest name: Midnight Blue

Token name suggestion: Abyss Harbour

RGB
3, 56, 89
HSL
203°, 94%, 18%
CMYK
97, 37, 0, 65
Luminance
0.0357

#033859 is a deep electric blue, 203° on the wheel and 97/100 on the cool side. Put white text on it (12.25:1). As text it scores 12.25:1 on white — safe at any size. Nearest name is Midnight Blue, nearest Tailwind family is slate.

hsl(203 94% 18%)rgb(3 56 89)Base step 950AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #033859 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#033859
Hue
203°
blue
Saturation
94%
electric
Lightness
18%
deep
Brightness
35%
HSV value
Perceived
21%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.0357
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
97/100 cool
Color family
Blue
Tone
Electric
Best ink
White
12.25:1
Closest name
Midnight Blue
ΔE2000 13.4
Chroma
24.4
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.328
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
slate
500 · ΔE 22.4
Web-safe
#003366
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue203° of 360°
Saturation94%
Lightness18%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #033859.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool97% cool

Reads cool. Warm and cool siblings keep the same lightness, so you can swap one in without redoing your contrast maths.

Luminance by channel
Red1%
Green79%
Blue20%

Green carries most of what the eye calls brightness — that is why WCAG weights it 0.7152.

Every format

HEX#033859
HEX (8-digit)#033859ff
RGBrgb(3, 56, 89)
RGBArgba(3, 56, 89, 1)
HSLhsl(203, 94%, 18%)
HSV / HSBhsv(203, 97%, 35%)
HWBhwb(203 1% 65%)
CMYKcmyk(97%, 37%, 0%, 65%)
LABlab(22.2 -2.3 -24.3)
LCHlch(22.2 24.4 264.7)
OKLCHoklch(0.328 0.077 243.4)
XYZ (D65)xyz(3.25, 3.57, 9.97)
Decimal211033
Display P3color(display-p3 0.012 0.220 0.349)
Web-safe#003366

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #033859;
background-color: #033859;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #033859;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#033859] bg-[#033859]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #033859;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.012, green: 0.220, blue: 0.349)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.012, green: 0.220, blue: 0.349, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#033859</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFF033859)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFF033859)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(89, 56, 3)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(3, 56, 89)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(3, 56, 89)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 3, 56, 89)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.0118f, 0.2196f, 0.3490f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{3,56,89}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #033859 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #033859 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#044E7B, #D3E4EE);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #033859 h s calc(l - 7));

Design tokens

The same ramp in the four formats a team actually needs. Paste one and the whole palette lands with it.

css custom propertiesclick to select
:root {
  --brand-50: #F2F9FD;
  --brand-100: #E4F2FB;
  --brand-200: #C2E4FA;
  --brand-300: #92D3FB;
  --brand-400: #5CBDFA;
  --brand-500: #26A7F8;
  --brand-600: #0895ED;
  --brand-700: #077CC5;
  --brand-800: #05639E;
  --brand-900: #094972;
  --brand-950: #033859;
  --brand: #033859;
  --brand-ink: #ffffff;
  --brand-surface: #F4F8FA;
  --brand-border: #C0DBED;
  --brand-hover: #022236;
  --brand-pressed: #010C14;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #141E24;
    --brand-ink: #D3E4EE;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F2F9FD',
        100: '#E4F2FB',
        200: '#C2E4FA',
        300: '#92D3FB',
        400: '#5CBDFA',
        500: '#26A7F8',
        600: '#0895ED',
        700: '#077CC5',
        800: '#05639E',
        900: '#094972',
        950: '#033859',
        DEFAULT: '#033859',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F2F9FD,
  '100': #E4F2FB,
  '200': #C2E4FA,
  '300': #92D3FB,
  '400': #5CBDFA,
  '500': #26A7F8,
  '600': #0895ED,
  '700': #077CC5,
  '800': #05639E,
  '900': #094972,
  '950': #033859,
);
$brand-base: #033859;
$brand-ink: #ffffff;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F2F9FD", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#E4F2FB", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#C2E4FA", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#92D3FB", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#5CBDFA", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#26A7F8", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#0895ED", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#077CC5", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#05639E", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#094972", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#033859", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$value": "#ffffff", "$type": "color" }
  }
}

Best text color

Only one of black and white can be right. This is the one, with the number that proves it.

Readable at a glance#ffffff on #033859 · 12.25:1
Use #ffffffAAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 12.25:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Aa
Black text · 1.71:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Reading the other direction: #033859 as text scores 12.25:1 on white and 1.71:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #E6F5FE at 11.00:1.

Make it accessible

A contrast checker tells you that you failed. This tells you what to ship instead — same hue, same saturation, lightness moved only as far as WCAG demands.

The quick fox
#033859 · 12.25:1
AA on whitealready passes
#033859
The quick fox
#033859 · 12.25:1
AAA on whitealready passes
#033859
The quick fox
#0679C0 · 4.50:1
AA on black+21% L
#0679C0
The quick fox
#089BF7 · 7.04:1
AAA on black+32% L
#089BF7

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #033859 is enough for headings on white. Non-text elements such as icons, chart strokes and focus rings also sit at 3:1 under WCAG 2.2 (1.4.11).

Accessibility — WCAG contrast

Aa
#033859 on white: 12.25:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#033859 on black: 1.71:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #033859 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #033859.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White12.25:1AaAa
Slate 5011.71:1AaAa
Slate 10011.19:1AaAa
Slate 2009.94:1AaAa
Slate 3008.25:1AaAa
Slate 4004.78:1AaAa
Slate 5002.57:1AaAa
Slate 6001.62:1AaAa
Slate 7001.18:1AaAa
Slate 8001.19:1AaAa
Slate 9001.46:1AaAa
Black1.71:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #28395A
deuteranopia · #1C3258
tritanopia · #004044

Roughly one man in twelve has some form of colour vision deficiency. If any of the three panels above is hard to tell apart from a neighbouring colour in your palette, add a shape, an icon or a label so the meaning does not rest on hue alone.

Color scale — 50 to 950

A Tailwind-shaped ramp built around this exact hex. #033859 is pinned to step 950; the rest hold its hue and let saturation ease off at the extremes so the pale end never turns neon.

#F2F9FD
#E4F2FB
#C2E4FA
#92D3FB
#5CBDFA
#26A7F8
#0895ED
#077CC5
#05639E
#094972
#033859
Base = 950Lightest = 50 · #F2F9FDDarkest = 950 · #033859Text step on white = 800
Perceptual ramp — OKLCH

The same eleven steps expressed in OKLCH, where equal lightness numbers actually look equally spaced. HSL ramps go muddy in the yellows and washed out in the blues; this one does not. Modern browsers render it natively — the hex ramp above is the fallback.

50100200300400500600700800900950
oklch tokensclick to select
:root {
  --brand-50: oklch(0.97 0.019 243.4);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.031 243.4);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.046 243.4);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.060 243.4);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.071 243.4);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.077 243.4);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.077 243.4);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.073 243.4);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.065 243.4);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.054 243.4);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.043 243.4);
}

Colors that work with #033859

Not a palette — a role sheet. Each swatch answers one question you will hit while building the component.

Text on it#ffffff
White wins here
Surface#F4F8FA
Tinted page background
Border#C0DBED
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#4B7C9B
Captions on the surface
Accent#5B0D01
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#044E7B
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#E6F5FE
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#141E24
Dark-mode background
Hover#022236
One step down in lightness
Pressed#010C14
Two steps down
Disabled#506B7C
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#004570
Offset from the fill so it reads
Light mode
Everything in its place

Surface, border, heading and body all derive from this one hue, so the screen stays coherent without a second palette.

Primary actionSecondaryBadge
Dark mode
Same hue, inverted

Lightness flips, hue holds. The accent stays the anchor in both themes.

Primary actionSecondaryAccent

In real components

The same eight roles, wired into the interface patterns you will actually build with them. Every state below is a computed value, not a mock-up.

Buttons and states
Save changesHoverPressedDisabled
OutlineSubtleLinkFocused
Form field
you@company.com

Focus ring uses the light variant so the field still reads as one shape.

Send me product updates
Notice
Your export is ready

The file stays available for seven days. Download it before it expires.

NewBetaDraft
Data
Storage used68%
Acme LtdActive
NorthwindTrial
GlobexActive

How to use #033859

Derived from its contrast, chroma and lightness — not from taste.

Works well for
  • Body text and links on white
  • Primary buttons and calls to action
  • Focus rings, active and selected states
  • Headers, footers and dark-mode surfaces
  • Brand accents, badges and data highlights
Use with care
  • Text on black or near-black surfaces
  • Full-page backgrounds — tiring over long sessions
  • Black text placed on it
  • Pairing with a same-lightness hue — edges vibrate
Minimum size as text on white
Any size
Safe as a fill behind white type
Yes
Safe as a 1px border on white
Yes

Meaning and mood

What a colour in this family tends to signal, and how this particular chroma and lightness change the reading.

trustedcalmcompetentcorporate

The default of institutions for a reason: blue is read as stable and safe across nearly every culture that has been surveyed.

At this chroma the association is amplified — it will dominate anything placed beside it, so give it space and use it sparingly. The low lightness adds weight and formality.

Worth knowing

It is also the most crowded hue on the web. Distinctiveness has to come from your other choices.

Reads as
  • FormalityHigh
  • EnergyHigh
  • Weight82/100
  • TemperatureCool
  • ApproachabilityReserved

Colour associations are cultural and vary by market. Treat these as a starting point for a conversation with your audience, not a finding about them.

Similar colors

One move away from this hex in each direction. Every swatch is its own page.

Color relationships

The wheel positions with their names attached, so you can grab the one you actually need.

Complementary#592403
Analogous left#03594F
Analogous right#030D59
Split-complement 1#59030D
Split-complement 2#594F03
Triadic 1#590338
Triadic 2#385903
Tetradic#4F0359
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°203°

#033859 sits at 203°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red1.2%
Green22.0%
Blue34.9%
R · 0–255
3
0x03
G · 0–255
56
0x38
B · 0–255
89
0x59

CMYK percentages

Cyan96.6%
Magenta37.1%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)65.1%

Total ink coverage is 199%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#033859 text on a black background

contrast 1.71:1

Card sample

#033859 text on a white background

contrast 12.25:1

Card sample

#033859 on grey

11.19:1

#033859 on its own surface

11.47:1

#033859 on its dark surface

1.38:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #033859;
Background color
Panel with #033859 background
background-color: #033859;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #033859;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(3, 56, 89, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(3, 56, 89, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #033859;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #033859, #070359);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #033859, #1D0359);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #033859;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #033859;
caret-color: #033859;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #033859;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #E6F5FE;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #033859;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#033859 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #033859 over white; the bottom row is the same alpha over a checkerboard, so you can see what survives on a photo or a video.

Bottom row of hexes is the flattened result over white — use those when a design tool refuses transparency, or when you need a solid fallback.

alpha in every syntaxclick to select
rgba(3, 56, 89, 0.5)
rgb(3 56 89 / 50%)
#03385980
hsl(203 94% 18% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #033859 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#0338591a#E6EBEE
20%#03385933#CDD7DE
40%#03385966#9AAFBD
60%#03385999#68889B
80%#033859cc#35607A

Gradients from #033859

Six recipes, each built from this hex and shown with the exact CSS that produced it.

Elevation
Same hue, three lightnesses — safe anywhere
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #055D94, #033859 45%, #044E7B);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #033859, #0A023B);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #033859, #592403);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #0670B2 0%, #033859 45%, #044E7B 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F4F8FA, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #058A6F 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #040876 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #044E7B 0%, transparent 65%), #033859;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #033859

Shades — darker

Tints — lighter

Tones — desaturated

Color harmonies

Nearest named colors

Ranked with CIEDE2000 across all 139 CSS keywords. Under ΔE 2 the eye stops telling them apart; over ΔE 10 they are plainly different colors.

#033859 in the real world

Where a color in this family tends to land, and the interface roles it is usually asked to play.

Industries
TechnologyFinanceHealthcareEnterprise SaaS
Common UI roles
ButtonsLinksFocus statesCharts
Print note

Sits outside most CMYK gamuts — expect a duller press result, or specify a spot ink.

On screens

Very dark values collapse into each other on cheap panels — leave more lightness between your darkest steps than the numbers suggest.

In dark mode

Too dim on dark surfaces at 1.71:1 — lift it to #0679C0 for body text, or reserve it for fills.

Explore nearby colors

Small, deliberate steps away from this hex — useful when you are hunting for the version of a colour that finally feels right.

#033859, answered

What color is #033859?

#033859 is a deep electric blue, closest to Midnight Blue (ΔE2000 13.4). It sits at 203° on the hue wheel with 94% saturation and 18% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #033859?

rgb(3, 56, 89) — 3 red, 56 green and 89 blue out of 255, or 1.2% / 22% / 34.9% by channel.

What is #033859 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(203, 94%, 18%) and hsv(203, 97%, 35%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #033859 a light or a dark color?

It is a dark color. Relative luminance is 0.0357 and perceived brightness is 21%, so white text on it reaches 12.25:1.

Should I use black or white text on #033859?

White. It scores 12.25:1 against #033859, versus 1.71:1 for black — AAA at any size.

Is #033859 accessible on a white background?

#033859 on white scores 12.25:1, which clears AAA at every size.

What is the complementary color of #033859?

#592403 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #59030D and #594F03, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #033859?

For interface work: #F4F8FA as the surface, #C0DBED for borders, #4B7C9B for secondary text, #5B0D01 as an accent and #044E7B for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #03594F and #030D59 stays calm, while #592403 is the loudest partner.

What is #033859 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(97%, 37%, 0%, 65%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — a color this saturated sits outside most CMYK gamuts and will print duller than it looks here.

Is #033859 warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 97 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #035759; nudged cooler, #022F5A.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #033859?

The slate family — its 500 step is #64748b, ΔE2000 22.4 away. That is a visible difference, so define #033859 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #033859 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#033859] or text-[#033859], or register the whole ramp under theme.extend.colors.brand so you get bg-brand-500 and friends. The generated 50–950 scale on this page is ready to paste into your config.

What is #033859 with 50% opacity?

rgba(3, 56, 89, 0.5), or #03385980 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #819CAC; over black, #021C2D.

Is #033859 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #003366, ΔE2000 4.7 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #033859 mean?

As a blue, it reads trusted, calm, competent. The default of institutions for a reason: blue is read as stable and safe across nearly every culture that has been surveyed. At this chroma the effect is amplified — it will dominate whatever sits beside it.

What gradient works with #033859?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #055D94, #033859 45%, #044E7B). For more colour, a short hue run to #0A023B keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #033859 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #033859 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.