Dark Blue Color Codes

Dark Blue is a very dark, vivid blue with the hex code #00008B, RGB values of 0, 0, 139 and an HSL value of hsl(240, 100%, 27%).

HEX	#00008B
RGB	0, 0, 139
HSL	hsl(240, 100%, 27%)
HSV	240°, 100%, 55%
CMYK	100%, 100%, 0%, 45%
LAB	14.75, 50.42, -68.68
CIELCHuv	14.75, 59.70, 265.87°

Nearest Pantone: PMS 2738 C ΔE 5.1 · approximate
Nearest CSS name: darkblue ΔE 0.0

Source CSS Color Module Level 4 keyword 'DarkBlue'

Dark Blue Color Hex Code

The Dark Blue color hex code is #00008B. Those six digits are three pairs, 00 for red, 00 for green and 8B for blue, which is the same triplet a browser reads from the CSS value below.

#00008B

Dark Blue Color RGB Code

The Dark Blue RGB code is rgb(0, 0, 139). Blue carries the most light at 139 of 255, which is what puts this color where it sits on the wheel.

rgb(0, 0, 139)

Dark Blue Color HSV Code

The Dark Blue HSV code is 240°, 100%, 55%. Read it as a hue of 240 degrees, 100% saturation and 55% value, which is the form most color pickers use because moving one number changes one thing.

240°, 100%, 55%

Dark Blue Color CIELChuv Code

The Dark Blue CIELCHuv code is 14.75, 59.70, 265.87°. Unlike hex or RGB this one is perceptual: lightness 15 means dark to the eye rather than to the screen, and chroma 60 is how far it sits from grey.

14.75, 59.70, 265.87°

Tonal scale

What are Dark Blue Color Palettes?

A shade mixes toward black, a tint toward white, a tone toward grey. Every step keeps the hue and is copy-ready.

Shades, toward black

Tints, toward white

Tones, toward grey

Open in the shades & tints generator →

Palettes

What are Dark Blue Color Palette Codes?

Each of these is a hue rotation from #00008B. They are generated, not curated, so they are exact.

Complementary

The opposite hue is #8B8B00, a mid-tone, vivid yellow. Complements carry the strongest contrast of any two-color scheme, so this pair suits a call to action better than a background. Both are saturated, so give the complement much less area than the base or the two will fight.

Analogous

Its two neighbours are #00458B and #45008B. Because they overlap heavily in hue, nothing in the group competes, and the eye reads the whole set as a single color with variation.

Triadic

#8B0000 and #008B00 complete an even 120 degree split. Three fully independent hues, so one has to lead: keep this base dominant and let the other two appear in small quantities.

Split-complementary

Instead of the direct complement, this takes the two hues either side of it: #8B4500 and #468B00. Almost the same contrast, without the edge shimmer a true complementary pair produces at high saturation.

Tetradic

Two complementary pairs forming a rectangle: this base with #8B8B00, and #8B0046 with #008B46. The richest of the five and the hardest to balance, so treat this base as the lead and hold the other three well back.

See these on the color wheel →

Accessibility

Measured against white and against black, with a separate verdict for each element type. Small text, large text and UI components have different thresholds, so one pass or fail for the whole color would be wrong roughly a third of the time.

White background

15.30:1

15.30

contrast ratio on white background

Element	AA	AAA
Small text needs 4.5:1 / 7:1	Passes	Passes
Large text needs 3:1 / 4.5:1	Passes	Passes
UI component needs 3:1	Passes	n/a

Black background

1.37:1

1.37

contrast ratio on black background

Element	AA	AAA
Small text needs 4.5:1 / 7:1	Fails	Fails
Large text needs 3:1 / 4.5:1	Fails	Fails
UI component needs 3:1	Fails	n/a

Dark Blue clears WCAG AA against white at 15.30:1, so it is safe for body copy as well as headings. Text placed on it should be white, which gives 15.30:1. It is a highly saturated color, so it will dominate anything it sits beside. Give it space rather than surrounding it with other strong colors.

Check Dark Blue against another color →

Color vision

How Dark Blue looks with color blindness

Around 300 million people see color differently from the way it is specified. Each card shows the actual color beside how it appears, and how common that form of vision is.

Protanopia

About 1% of men

actual

#00007A

Dark Blue shifts slightly here. ΔE 8.1

No working red cones. Reds darken sharply and drift toward the same muddy olive as green.

Deuteranopia

About 1% of men

actual

#000076

Dark Blue shifts noticeably here. ΔE 10.1

No working green cones. With the milder deuteranomaly at nearer 6% of men, this is by far the most common form, and the one worth designing around.

Tritanopia

About 1 in 10,000

actual

#006B67

Dark Blue changes substantially here. ΔE 103.1

No working blue cones. Blues shift toward green and yellows toward pink. Rare, and unlike the others it is not sex-linked, so it affects men and women equally.

Achromatopsia

About 1 in 30,000

actual

#252525

Dark Blue changes substantially here. ΔE 85.2

No color vision at all. Also a fair proxy for how the color survives a greyscale print or a failing screen.

To a deuteranope, the most common form, Dark Blue reads as #000076. That is a shift of ΔE 10.1, so it is a different color to roughly one man in sixteen. Blues survive red-green deficiency well, which is why so much interface design leans on them. The form to watch here is tritanopia, though at roughly 1 in 10,000 it affects far fewer people. The widest shift is under tritanopia, at ΔE 103.1. The rule this leads to needs no simulator: never let color be the only thing carrying a message. Add a label, an icon, or a clear difference in lightness, and the problem disappears for everyone.

Simulate a whole palette →

Snippets

Using Dark Blue in code

:root {
  --dark-blue: #00008B;
}

.example {
  color: var(--dark-blue);
}

// tailwind.config.js
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      'dark-blue': '#00008B',
    },
  },
}

// SwiftUI takes 0–1 components, not 0–255.
let darkBlue = Color(
    red: 0.000,
    green: 0.000,
    blue: 0.545
)

<!-- res/values/colors.xml -->
<color name="dark_blue">#00008B</color>

// Flutter wants ARGB: FF for full opacity, then the hex.
const darkBlue = Color(0xFF00008B);

Meaning

What is the Meaning of Dark Blue Color?

Dark Blue reads as distance and quiet. It is dark enough to hold white type without help, and at 100% saturation with a perceptual lightness of 15 it behaves as a cool color, which is the practical reason it turns up where it does.

What are Other Names of Dark Blue Color?

In CSS you can write DarkBlue instead of the hex and get the same color: the two are 0.0 apart, which no eye resolves. For print the nearest Pantone is PMS 2738 C at #2D008E. The name Dark Blue comes from the community color-name index rather than a standards body, so you will meet it under other names elsewhere.

How is Dark Blue Color Made?

On a screen Dark Blue is made by additive light: 0 red, 0 green and 139 blue out of 255, with blue leading and 0 as the floor. In print it is subtractive instead, mixed as 100%, 100%, 0%, 45%. Starting from the pure hue at 240 degrees, Dark Blue is a shade, so it is that hue with black added.