Steel Blue Color Codes
Steel Blue is a mid-tone, muted azure blue with the hex code #4682B4, RGB values of 70, 130, 180 and an HSL value of hsl(207, 44%, 49%).
| HEX | #4682B4 |
|---|---|
| RGB | 70, 130, 180 |
| HSL | hsl(207, 44%, 49%) |
| HSV | 207°, 61%, 71% |
| CMYK | 61%, 28%, 0%, 29% |
| LAB | 52.47, -4.08, -32.19 |
| CIELCHuv | 52.47, 54.49, 242.56° |
- Nearest Pantone
- PMS 542 C ΔE 9.2 · approximate
- Nearest CSS name
-
steelblueΔE 0.0
Source CSS Color Module Level 4 keyword 'SteelBlue'
Steel Blue Color Hex Code
The Steel Blue color hex code is #4682B4. Those six digits are three pairs, 46 for red, 82 for green and B4 for blue, which is the same triplet a browser reads from the CSS value below.
#4682B4
Steel Blue Color RGB Code
The Steel Blue RGB code is rgb(70, 130, 180). Blue carries the most light at 180 of 255, which is what puts this color where it sits on the wheel.
rgb(70, 130, 180)
Steel Blue Color HSV Code
The Steel Blue HSV code is 207°, 61%, 71%. Read it as a hue of 207 degrees, 61% saturation and 71% value, which is the form most color pickers use because moving one number changes one thing.
207°, 61%, 71%
Steel Blue Color CIELChuv Code
The Steel Blue CIELCHuv code is 52.47, 54.49, 242.56°. Unlike hex or RGB this one is perceptual: lightness 52 means mid-toned to the eye rather than to the screen, and chroma 54 is how far it sits from grey.
52.47, 54.49, 242.56°
Tonal scale
What are Steel 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
Palettes
What are Steel Blue Color Palette Codes?
Each of these is a hue rotation from #4682B4. They are generated, not curated, so they are exact.
Complementary
The opposite hue is #B47846, a mid-tone, muted orange. Complements carry the strongest contrast of any two-color scheme, so this pair suits a call to action better than a background. Neither is especially saturated, so this pairing stays calm enough for large areas of both.
Analogous
Its two neighbours are #46B4AF and #464BB4. 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
#B44682 and #82B446 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: #B4464B and #B4AF46. 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 #B47846, and #AF46B4 with #4BB446. The richest of the five and the hardest to balance, so treat this base as the lead and hold the other three well back.
Accessibility
Contrast checker: is Steel Blue accessible?
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
4.11:14.11
contrast ratio on white 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 |
Black background
5.11:15.11
contrast ratio on black 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 |
Against white Steel Blue reaches 4.11:1, enough for large text and UI borders, but short of the 4.5:1 that body copy needs. Darken it for anything set small. Text placed on it should be black, which gives 5.11:1.
Color vision
How Steel 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#6566AA
Steel Blue shifts noticeably here. ΔE 22.6
No working red cones. Reds darken sharply and drift toward the same muddy olive as green.
Deuteranopia
About 1% of men#625DA7
Steel Blue changes substantially here. ΔE 27.7
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#4AA19F
Steel Blue changes substantially here. ΔE 34.9
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#7D7D7D
Steel Blue changes substantially here. ΔE 32.4
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, Steel Blue reads as #625DA7. That is a shift of ΔE 27.7, 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 34.9. 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.
Snippets
Using Steel Blue in code
:root {
--steel-blue: #4682B4;
}
.example {
color: var(--steel-blue);
}// tailwind.config.js
theme: {
extend: {
colors: {
'steel-blue': '#4682B4',
},
},
}// SwiftUI takes 0–1 components, not 0–255.
let steelBlue = Color(
red: 0.275,
green: 0.510,
blue: 0.706
)<!-- res/values/colors.xml -->
<color name="steel_blue">#4682B4</color>// Flutter wants ARGB: FF for full opacity, then the hex.
const steelBlue = Color(0xFF4682B4);