Royal Blue Color Codes

Royal Blue is a mid-tone, saturated azure blue with the hex code #4169E1, RGB values of 65, 105, 225 and an HSL value of hsl(225, 73%, 57%).

HEX	#4169E1
RGB	65, 105, 225
HSL	hsl(225, 73%, 57%)
HSV	225°, 71%, 88%
CMYK	71%, 53%, 0%, 12%
LAB	47.83, 26.26, -65.26
CIELCHuv	47.83, 102.72, 260.19°

Nearest Pantone: PMS 293 C ΔE 12.7 · approximate
Nearest CSS name: royalblue ΔE 0.0

Source CSS Color Module Level 4 keyword 'RoyalBlue'

Royal Blue Color Hex Code

The Royal Blue color hex code is #4169E1. Those six digits are three pairs, 41 for red, 69 for green and E1 for blue, which is the same triplet a browser reads from the CSS value below.

#4169E1

Royal Blue Color RGB Code

The Royal Blue RGB code is rgb(65, 105, 225). Blue carries the most light at 225 of 255, which is what puts this color where it sits on the wheel.

rgb(65, 105, 225)

Royal Blue Color HSV Code

The Royal Blue HSV code is 225°, 71%, 88%. Read it as a hue of 225 degrees, 71% saturation and 88% value, which is the form most color pickers use because moving one number changes one thing.

225°, 71%, 88%

Royal Blue Color CIELChuv Code

The Royal Blue CIELCHuv code is 47.83, 102.72, 260.19°. Unlike hex or RGB this one is perceptual: lightness 48 means mid-toned to the eye rather than to the screen, and chroma 103 is how far it sits from grey.

47.83, 102.72, 260.19°

Tonal scale

What are Royal 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 Royal Blue Color Palette Codes?

Each of these is a hue rotation from #4169E1. They are generated, not curated, so they are exact.

Complementary

The opposite hue is #E1B941, a light, saturated amber. 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 #41B9E1 and #6941E1. 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

#E14169 and #69E141 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: #E16941 and #B9E141. 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 #E1B941, and #E141B9 with #41E169. 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

4.85:1

4.85

contrast ratio on white background

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

Black background

4.33:1

4.33

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	Passes	Fails
UI component needs 3:1	Passes	n/a

Royal Blue clears WCAG AA against white at 4.85:1, so it is safe for body copy as well as headings. Text placed on it should be white, which gives 4.85:1.

Check Royal Blue against another color →

Color vision

How Royal 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

#5555CC

Royal Blue shifts noticeably here. ΔE 10.5

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

Deuteranopia

About 1% of men

actual

#5350C7

Royal Blue shifts noticeably here. ΔE 12.3

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

#44BAB5

Royal Blue changes substantially here. ΔE 86.1

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

#717171

Royal Blue changes substantially here. ΔE 70.4

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, Royal Blue reads as #5350C7. That is a shift of ΔE 12.3, 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 86.1. 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 Royal Blue in code

:root {
  --royal-blue: #4169E1;
}

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

// tailwind.config.js
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      'royal-blue': '#4169E1',
    },
  },
}

// SwiftUI takes 0–1 components, not 0–255.
let royalBlue = Color(
    red: 0.255,
    green: 0.412,
    blue: 0.882
)

<!-- res/values/colors.xml -->
<color name="royal_blue">#4169E1</color>

// Flutter wants ARGB: FF for full opacity, then the hex.
const royalBlue = Color(0xFF4169E1);

Meaning

What is the Meaning of Royal Blue Color?

Royal Blue reads as trust and institution. It is saturated enough to dominate anything it sits beside, and at 73% saturation with a perceptual lightness of 48 it behaves as a cool color, which is the practical reason it turns up where it does.

What are Other Names of Royal Blue Color?

In CSS you can write RoyalBlue 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 293 C at #0051BA. The name Royal Blue comes from the community color-name index rather than a standards body, so you will meet it under other names elsewhere.

How is Royal Blue Color Made?

On a screen Royal Blue is made by additive light: 65 red, 105 green and 225 blue out of 255, with blue leading and 65 as the floor. In print it is subtractive instead, mixed as 71%, 53%, 0%, 12%. Starting from the pure hue at 225 degrees, Royal Blue is close to the pure hue, with little white or black in it.