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blue · cool

#537893

a balanced, soft blue · cool · closest name: Steel Blue

Token name suggestion: Atlas Harbour

RGB
83, 120, 147
HSL
205°, 28%, 45%
CMYK
44, 18, 0, 42
Luminance
0.1738

#537893 is a balanced soft blue, 205° on the wheel and 88/100 on the cool side. Put white text on it (4.69:1). As text it scores 4.69:1 on white — safe at any size. Nearest name is Steel Blue, nearest Tailwind family is slate.

hsl(205 28% 45%)rgb(83 120 147)Base step 600AA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #537893 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#537893
Hue
205°
blue
Saturation
28%
soft
Lightness
45%
balanced
Brightness
58%
HSV value
Perceived
45%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.1738
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
88/100 cool
Color family
Blue
Tone
Soft
Best ink
White
4.69:1
Closest name
Steel Blue
ΔE2000 6.5
Chroma
19.5
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.556
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
slate
500 · ΔE 6.1
Web-safe
#666699
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue205° of 360°
Saturation28%
Lightness45%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #537893.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool88% 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
Red11%
Green77%
Blue12%

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

Every format

HEX#537893
HEX (8-digit)#537893ff
RGBrgb(83, 120, 147)
RGBArgba(83, 120, 147, 1)
HSLhsl(205, 28%, 45%)
HSV / HSBhsv(205, 44%, 58%)
HWBhwb(205 33% 42%)
CMYKcmyk(44%, 18%, 0%, 42%)
LABlab(48.7 -5.6 -18.7)
LCHlch(48.7 19.5 253.5)
OKLCHoklch(0.556 0.059 240.8)
XYZ (D65)xyz(15.55, 17.38, 30.13)
Decimal5470355
Display P3color(display-p3 0.325 0.471 0.576)
Web-safe#666699

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #537893;
background-color: #537893;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #537893;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#537893] bg-[#537893]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #537893;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.325, green: 0.471, blue: 0.576)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.325, green: 0.471, blue: 0.576, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#537893</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFF537893)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFF537893)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(147, 120, 83)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(83, 120, 147)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(83, 120, 147)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 83, 120, 147)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.3255f, 0.4706f, 0.5765f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{83,120,147}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #537893 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #537893 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#2E4351, #D8E2E9);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #537893 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: #F6F8F9;
  --brand-100: #ECF0F3;
  --brand-200: #D6DFE6;
  --brand-300: #B7C9D6;
  --brand-400: #93AFC2;
  --brand-500: #7094AE;
  --brand-600: #537893;
  --brand-700: #4A6A82;
  --brand-800: #3B5568;
  --brand-900: #2E404D;
  --brand-950: #1C2830;
  --brand: #537893;
  --brand-ink: #ffffff;
  --brand-surface: #F5F8F9;
  --brand-border: #CBD8E2;
  --brand-hover: #46657C;
  --brand-pressed: #395365;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #141D24;
    --brand-ink: #D8E2E9;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F6F8F9',
        100: '#ECF0F3',
        200: '#D6DFE6',
        300: '#B7C9D6',
        400: '#93AFC2',
        500: '#7094AE',
        600: '#537893',
        700: '#4A6A82',
        800: '#3B5568',
        900: '#2E404D',
        950: '#1C2830',
        DEFAULT: '#537893',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F6F8F9,
  '100': #ECF0F3,
  '200': #D6DFE6,
  '300': #B7C9D6,
  '400': #93AFC2,
  '500': #7094AE,
  '600': #537893,
  '700': #4A6A82,
  '800': #3B5568,
  '900': #2E404D,
  '950': #1C2830,
);
$brand-base: #537893;
$brand-ink: #ffffff;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F6F8F9", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#ECF0F3", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#D6DFE6", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#B7C9D6", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#93AFC2", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#7094AE", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#537893", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#4A6A82", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#3B5568", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#2E404D", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#1C2830", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #537893 · 4.69:1
Use #ffffffAA at every size, AAA for large text only.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 4.69:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 4.48:1
AA fail · AA large pass · AAA fail
Reading the other direction: #537893 as text scores 4.69:1 on white and 4.48:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #EFF3F6 at 4.21:1.

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
#537893 · 4.69:1
AA on whitealready passes
#537893
The quick fox
#3F5B6F · 7.15:1
AAA on white−11% L
#3F5B6F
The quick fox
#557B96 · 4.66:1
AA on black+1% L
#557B96
The quick fox
#7A9BB4 · 7.18:1
AAA on black+14% L
#7A9BB4

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #537893 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
#537893 on white: 4.69:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#537893 on black: 4.48:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #537893 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #537893.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White4.69:1AaAa
Slate 504.48:1AaAa
Slate 1004.28:1AaAa
Slate 2003.81:1AaAa
Slate 3003.16:1AaAa
Slate 4001.83:1AaAa
Slate 5001.01:1AaAa
Slate 6001.62:1AaAa
Slate 7002.21:1AaAa
Slate 8003.12:1AaAa
Slate 9003.80:1AaAa
Black4.48:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #6C7894
deuteranopia · #647193
tritanopia · #3A7F81

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. #537893 is pinned to step 600; the rest hold its hue and let saturation ease off at the extremes so the pale end never turns neon.

#F6F8F9
#ECF0F3
#D6DFE6
#B7C9D6
#93AFC2
#7094AE
#537893
#4A6A82
#3B5568
#2E404D
#1C2830
Base = 600Lightest = 50 · #F6F8F9Darkest = 950 · #1C2830Text step on white = 600
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 0.015 240.8);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.024 240.8);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.036 240.8);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.046 240.8);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.055 240.8);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.059 240.8);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.059 240.8);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.056 240.8);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.050 240.8);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.042 240.8);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.033 240.8);
}

Colors that work with #537893

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#F5F8F9
Tinted page background
Border#CBD8E2
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#537893
Captions on the surface
Accent#985B4E
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#2E4351
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#EFF3F6
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#141D24
Dark-mode background
Hover#46657C
One step down in lightness
Pressed#395365
Two steps down
Disabled#99AEBE
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#4E85AD
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 #537893

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

Works well for
  • Body text and links on white
  • Charts, tags and secondary surfaces
  • Brand accents, badges and data highlights
  • Chart series and data categories
Use with care
  • 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.

The muted chroma softens the association — it reads considered rather than loud, which suits long-form and data-heavy screens. The mid lightness keeps it versatile in both themes.

Worth knowing

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

Reads as
  • FormalityMedium
  • EnergyMedium
  • Weight55/100
  • 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#936E53
Analogous left#53938E
Analogous right#535893
Split-complement 1#935358
Split-complement 2#938E53
Triadic 1#935378
Triadic 2#789353
Tetradic#8E5393
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°205°

#537893 sits at 205°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red32.5%
Green47.1%
Blue57.6%
R · 0–255
83
0x53
G · 0–255
120
0x78
B · 0–255
147
0x93

CMYK percentages

Cyan43.5%
Magenta18.4%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)42.4%

Total ink coverage is 104%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#537893 text on a black background

contrast 4.48:1

Card sample

#537893 text on a white background

contrast 4.69:1

Card sample

#537893 on grey

4.28:1

#537893 on its own surface

4.40:1

#537893 on its dark surface

3.64:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #537893;
Background color
Panel with #537893 background
background-color: #537893;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #537893;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(83, 120, 147, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(83, 120, 147, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #537893;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #537893, #595393);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #537893, #695393);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #537893;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #537893;
caret-color: #537893;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #537893;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #EFF3F6;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #537893;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#537893 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #537893 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(83, 120, 147, 0.5)
rgb(83 120 147 / 50%)
#53789380
hsl(205 28% 45% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #537893 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#5378931a#EEF2F4
20%#53789333#DDE4E9
40%#53789366#BAC9D4
60%#53789399#98AEBE
80%#537893cc#7593A9

Gradients from #537893

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, #7396B0, #537893 45%, #2E4351);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #537893, #52487F);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #537893, #936E53);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #87A5BB 0%, #537893 45%, #2E4351 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F5F8F9, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #6DACA2 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #6060A5 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #2E4351 0%, transparent 65%), #537893;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #537893

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.

#537893 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

Converts to four-color process without much drama. Proof it anyway.

On screens

Holds up across typical panel gamma. Still worth checking on an uncalibrated laptop, where mid-tones shift most.

In dark mode

Too dim on dark surfaces at 4.48:1 — lift it to #557B96 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.

#537893, answered

What color is #537893?

#537893 is a balanced soft blue, closest to Steel Blue (ΔE2000 6.5). It sits at 205° on the hue wheel with 28% saturation and 45% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #537893?

rgb(83, 120, 147) — 83 red, 120 green and 147 blue out of 255, or 32.5% / 47.1% / 57.6% by channel.

What is #537893 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(205, 28%, 45%) and hsv(205, 44%, 58%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #537893 a light or a dark color?

It is a dark color. Relative luminance is 0.1738 and perceived brightness is 45%, so white text on it reaches 4.69:1.

Should I use black or white text on #537893?

White. It scores 4.69:1 against #537893, versus 4.48:1 for black — AA at any size.

Is #537893 accessible on a white background?

#537893 on white scores 4.69:1, which clears AA at every size but not AAA.

What is the complementary color of #537893?

#936E53 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #935358 and #938E53, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #537893?

For interface work: #F5F8F9 as the surface, #CBD8E2 for borders, #537893 for secondary text, #985B4E as an accent and #2E4351 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #53938E and #535893 stays calm, while #936E53 is the loudest partner.

What is #537893 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(44%, 18%, 0%, 42%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #537893 warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 88 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #538F93; nudged cooler, #486685.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #537893?

The slate family — its 500 step is #64748b, ΔE2000 6.1 away. That is a visible difference, so define #537893 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #537893 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#537893] or text-[#537893], 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 #537893 with 50% opacity?

rgba(83, 120, 147, 0.5), or #53789380 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #A9BCC9; over black, #2A3C4A.

Is #537893 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #666699, ΔE2000 13.6 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #537893 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 moderate chroma the association is present but not shouted.

What gradient works with #537893?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #7396B0, #537893 45%, #2E4351). For more colour, a short hue run to #52487F keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #537893 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #537893 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.