Blue

#0000FF

What color is Blue?

Blue is a cool, clear color ranging from pale sky tones to deep navy, hex #0000FF, at its purest a vivid, saturated hue with no red or green mixed in. The color shares its intensity with the bright petals of a cornflower.

What is the meaning of the color Blue?

Ancient Egyptians were among the first to produce blue pigment, creating Egyptian blue from copper and sand around 2500 BCE for use in tomb paintings and decorative objects. The color became strongly associated with royalty and the divine across medieval Europe, where ultramarine — ground from imported lapis lazuli — was more expensive than gold and reserved for paintings of the Virgin Mary. By the 18th century, synthetic Prussian blue, discovered in Berlin around 1704, made the color widely available to artists and dye-makers for the first time. In 1890, Yves Klein later codified a specific shade as International Klein Blue, registered as a trademark in France in 1960, anchoring blue firmly in the vocabulary of fine art.

RGB
0, 0, 255
HSL
240°, 100%, 50%
CMYK
100, 100, 0, 0
HSV
240°, 100%, 100%
Blue color

What colors go with Blue?

Colors that pair well with Blue include:
White: clean, open contrast
Gold: warm, rich balance
Navy: deep tonal depth
Coral: bright, warm lift
Gray: calm, neutral base

Similar Colors

Conversions & Codes

Format Value CSS
HEX #0000FF color: #0000FF;
RGB 0, 0, 255 color: rgb(0, 0, 255);
RGB Percentage 0%, 0%, 100% color: rgb(0%, 0%, 100%);
CMYK 100%, 100%, 0%, 0% Not supported in CSS
HSL 240°, 100%, 50% color: hsl(240, 100%, 50%);
HSV 240°, 100%, 100% Not supported in CSS
CIE-LAB 40, 0, -85 color: lab(40% 0 -85);
Decimal 255 Not supported in CSS

Color Variations

Shades

#0000FF
#0000E6
#0000CC
#0000B3
#000099
#000080
#000066
#00004D

Tints

#B3B3FF
#9999FF
#8080FF
#6666FF
#4D4DFF
#3333FF
#1A1AFF
#0000FF

Tones

#0000FF
#0D0DF2
#1A1AE6
#2626D9
#3333CC
#4040BF
#4D4DB3
#5959A6

Hues

#0000FF
#BF00FF
#FF0080
#FF4000
#FFFF00
#40FF00
#00FF80
#00BFFF

Color Harmonies

Analogous

#0080FF
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100%
#0000FF
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100%
#8000FF
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Complementary

#0000FF
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100%
#FFFF00
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Split Complementary

#0000FF
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100%
#FF8000
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#80FF00
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Triadic

#0000FF
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100%
#FF0000
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98%
#00FF00
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100%

Tetradic

#0000FF
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100%
#FF0080
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98%
#FFFF00
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#00FF80
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Square

#0000FF
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100%
#FF0080
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98%
#FFFF00
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#00FF80
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CSS & Dev Snippets

CSS
.blue {
  color: #0000FF;
}
SCSS
$blue: #0000FF;
RGB
rgb(0, 0, 255)

Accessibility & Contrast

White background

8.59:1
8.59
contrast ratio on a white background
Element
AA
AAA
Small text
Large text
UI element

Black background

2.44:1
2.44
contrast ratio on a black background
Element
AA
AAA
Small text
Large text
UI element

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