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blue · cool

#596f97

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

Token name suggestion: Atlas Sapphire

RGB
89, 111, 151
HSL
219°, 26%, 47%
CMYK
41, 27, 0, 41
Luminance
0.1573

#596f97 is a balanced soft blue, 219° on the wheel and 83/100 on the cool side. Put white text on it (5.07:1). As text it scores 5.07:1 on white — safe at any size. Nearest name is Royal Blue, nearest Tailwind family is slate.

hsl(219 26% 47%)rgb(89 111 151)Base step 600AA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #596f97 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#596f97
Hue
219°
blue
Saturation
26%
soft
Lightness
47%
balanced
Brightness
59%
HSV value
Perceived
43%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.1573
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
83/100 cool
Color family
Blue
Tone
Soft
Best ink
White
5.07:1
Closest name
Royal Blue
ΔE2000 9.5
Chroma
24.5
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.540
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
slate
500 · ΔE 5.4
Web-safe
#666699
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue219° of 360°
Saturation26%
Lightness47%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #596f97.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool83% 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
Red14%
Green72%
Blue14%

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

Every format

HEX#596f97
HEX (8-digit)#596f97ff
RGBrgb(89, 111, 151)
RGBArgba(89, 111, 151, 1)
HSLhsl(219, 26%, 47%)
HSV / HSBhsv(219, 41%, 59%)
HWBhwb(219 35% 41%)
CMYKcmyk(41%, 27%, 0%, 41%)
LABlab(46.6 2.6 -24.3)
LCHlch(46.6 24.5 276.2)
OKLCHoklch(0.540 0.068 262.0)
XYZ (D65)xyz(15.39, 15.73, 31.50)
Decimal5861271
Display P3color(display-p3 0.349 0.435 0.592)
Web-safe#666699

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #596f97;
background-color: #596f97;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #596f97;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#596f97] bg-[#596f97]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #596f97;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.349, green: 0.435, blue: 0.592)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.349, green: 0.435, blue: 0.592, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#596F97</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFF596F97)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFF596F97)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(151, 111, 89)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(89, 111, 151)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(89, 111, 151)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 89, 111, 151)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.3490f, 0.4353f, 0.5922f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{89,111,151}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #596f97 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #596f97 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#2F3B50, #D9DEE8);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #596f97 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: #F6F7F9;
  --brand-100: #EDEFF3;
  --brand-200: #D6DCE5;
  --brand-300: #B8C3D5;
  --brand-400: #95A5C1;
  --brand-500: #7286AC;
  --brand-600: #596f97;
  --brand-700: #4C5E80;
  --brand-800: #3D4B67;
  --brand-900: #2F394C;
  --brand-950: #1D242F;
  --brand: #596f97;
  --brand-ink: #ffffff;
  --brand-surface: #F5F7F9;
  --brand-border: #CCD3E1;
  --brand-hover: #4C5F81;
  --brand-pressed: #3F4E6A;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #151A23;
    --brand-ink: #D9DEE8;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F6F7F9',
        100: '#EDEFF3',
        200: '#D6DCE5',
        300: '#B8C3D5',
        400: '#95A5C1',
        500: '#7286AC',
        600: '#596f97',
        700: '#4C5E80',
        800: '#3D4B67',
        900: '#2F394C',
        950: '#1D242F',
        DEFAULT: '#596f97',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F6F7F9,
  '100': #EDEFF3,
  '200': #D6DCE5,
  '300': #B8C3D5,
  '400': #95A5C1,
  '500': #7286AC,
  '600': #596f97,
  '700': #4C5E80,
  '800': #3D4B67,
  '900': #2F394C,
  '950': #1D242F,
);
$brand-base: #596f97;
$brand-ink: #ffffff;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F6F7F9", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#EDEFF3", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#D6DCE5", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#B8C3D5", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#95A5C1", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#7286AC", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#596f97", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#4C5E80", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#3D4B67", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#2F394C", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#1D242F", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #596f97 · 5.07:1
Use #ffffffAA at every size, AAA for large text only.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 5.07:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 4.15:1
AA fail · AA large pass · AAA fail
Reading the other direction: #596f97 as text scores 5.07:1 on white and 4.15:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #EFF1F6 at 4.48:1.

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
#596f97 · 5.07:1
AA on whitealready passes
#596f97
The quick fox
#465877 · 7.19:1
AAA on white−10% L
#465877
The quick fox
#5F76A1 · 4.59:1
AA on black+3% L
#5F76A1
The quick fox
#8597B7 · 7.11:1
AAA on black+15% L
#8597B7

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #596F97 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
#596f97 on white: 5.07:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#596f97 on black: 4.15:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #596f97 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #596f97.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White5.07:1AaAa
Slate 504.84:1AaAa
Slate 1004.62:1AaAa
Slate 2004.11:1AaAa
Slate 3003.41:1AaAa
Slate 4001.98:1AaAa
Slate 5001.06:1AaAa
Slate 6001.50:1AaAa
Slate 7002.04:1AaAa
Slate 8002.89:1AaAa
Slate 9003.52:1AaAa
Black4.15:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #617299
deuteranopia · #5A6C96
tritanopia · #44777D

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. #596f97 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.

#F6F7F9
#EDEFF3
#D6DCE5
#B8C3D5
#95A5C1
#7286AC
#596f97
#4C5E80
#3D4B67
#2F394C
#1D242F
Base = 600Lightest = 50 · #F6F7F9Darkest = 950 · #1D242FText 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 0.017 262.0);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.027 262.0);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.041 262.0);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.053 262.0);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.063 262.0);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.068 262.0);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.068 262.0);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.064 262.0);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.057 262.0);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.048 262.0);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.038 262.0);
}

Colors that work with #596f97

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#F5F7F9
Tinted page background
Border#CCD3E1
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#556A90
Captions on the surface
Accent#9C7154
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#2F3B50
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#EFF1F6
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#151A23
Dark-mode background
Hover#4C5F81
One step down in lightness
Pressed#3F4E6A
Two steps down
Disabled#9FABC2
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#5675AF
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 #596f97

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
  • Weight53/100
  • 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#978159
Analogous left#598E97
Analogous right#625997
Split-complement 1#976259
Split-complement 2#8E9759
Triadic 1#97596F
Triadic 2#6F9759
Tetradic#97598E
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°219°

#596f97 sits at 219°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red34.9%
Green43.5%
Blue59.2%
R · 0–255
89
0x59
G · 0–255
111
0x6f
B · 0–255
151
0x97

CMYK percentages

Cyan41.1%
Magenta26.5%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)40.8%

Total ink coverage is 108%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#596f97 text on a black background

contrast 4.15:1

Card sample

#596f97 text on a white background

contrast 5.07:1

Card sample

#596f97 on grey

4.62:1

#596f97 on its own surface

4.72:1

#596f97 on its dark surface

3.44:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #596f97;
Background color
Panel with #596f97 background
background-color: #596f97;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #596f97;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(89, 111, 151, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(89, 111, 151, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #596f97;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #596f97, #6C5997);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #596f97, #7C5997);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #596f97;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #596f97;
caret-color: #596f97;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #596f97;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #EFF1F6;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #596f97;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#596f97 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #596f97 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(89, 111, 151, 0.5)
rgb(89 111 151 / 50%)
#596f9780
hsl(219 26% 47% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #596f97 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#596f971a#EEF1F5
20%#596f9733#DEE2EA
40%#596f9766#BDC5D5
60%#596f9799#9BA9C1
80%#596f97cc#7A8CAC

Gradients from #596f97

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, #7C8FB2, #596f97 45%, #2F3B50);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #596f97, #634E84);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #596f97, #978159);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #8F9FBD 0%, #596f97 45%, #2F3B50 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F5F7F9, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #75AAAE 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #7769A6 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #2F3B50 0%, transparent 65%), #596f97;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #596f97

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.

#596f97 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 4.15:1 — lift it to #5F76A1 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.

#596f97, answered

What color is #596f97?

#596f97 is a balanced soft blue, closest to Royal Blue (ΔE2000 9.5). It sits at 219° on the hue wheel with 26% saturation and 47% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #596f97?

rgb(89, 111, 151) — 89 red, 111 green and 151 blue out of 255, or 34.9% / 43.5% / 59.2% by channel.

What is #596f97 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(219, 26%, 47%) and hsv(219, 41%, 59%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #596f97 a light or a dark color?

It is a dark color. Relative luminance is 0.1573 and perceived brightness is 43%, so white text on it reaches 5.07:1.

Should I use black or white text on #596f97?

White. It scores 5.07:1 against #596f97, versus 4.15:1 for black — AA at any size.

Is #596f97 accessible on a white background?

#596f97 on white scores 5.07:1, which clears AA at every size but not AAA.

What is the complementary color of #596f97?

#978159 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #976259 and #8E9759, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #596f97?

For interface work: #F5F7F9 as the surface, #CCD3E1 for borders, #556A90 for secondary text, #9C7154 as an accent and #2F3B50 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #598E97 and #625997 stays calm, while #978159 is the loudest partner.

What is #596f97 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(41%, 27%, 0%, 41%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #596f97 warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 83 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #5A5997; nudged cooler, #4E6889.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #596f97?

The slate family — its 500 step is #64748b, ΔE2000 5.4 away. That is a visible difference, so define #596f97 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #596f97 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#596f97] or text-[#596f97], 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 #596f97 with 50% opacity?

rgba(89, 111, 151, 0.5), or #596f9780 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #ACB7CB; over black, #2D384C.

Is #596f97 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #666699, ΔE2000 6.9 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #596f97 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 #596f97?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #7C8FB2, #596f97 45%, #2F3B50). For more colour, a short hue run to #634E84 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #596f97 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #596f97 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.