Blue color

Inspect Blue (#0000FF) in HEX, RGB, HSL, LCH and OKLCH, check its contrast, and copy the value you need.

#0000ff

Blue

Blue color values

Blue

#0000FF

White text reads best on this background, at 8.59:1.

Blue is one of the 148 CSS named colors, and resolves to #0000FF in every browser. In numbers that is rgb(0, 0, 255) and hsl(240, 100%, 50%). Perceptually it is a mid-toned, vivid color: OKLCH puts its lightness at 45% and its chroma at 0.313. It sits in the blues at 264 degrees of OKLCH hue, and reads as a cool color.

White text clears WCAG AA on a Blue background at 8.59:1, and AAA as well. At this chroma it is loud enough to be an accent or a call to action, but it will fight anything else vivid placed next to it.

The closest CSS named colors to Blue, measured with CIEDE2000, are MediumBlue (#0000CD), BlueViolet (#8A2BE2), DarkViolet (#9400D3). If Blue is not quite right, those are the nearest keywords to try before reaching for a custom value.

HEX

#0000FF

RGB

rgb(0, 0, 255)

HSL

hsl(240, 100%, 50%)

HWB

hwb(240 0% 0%)

CMYK

cmyk(100%, 100%, 0%, 0%)

LAB

lab(29.57 68.29 -112.03)

LCH

lch(29.57 131.2 301.36)

OKLCH

oklch(45.2% 0.3132 264.05)

Is Blue accessible?

WCAG asks for 4.5:1 between body text and its background. On #0000FF white text measures 8.59:1 and black text 2.44:1, so white clears it and black does not.

White text on Blue

WCAG 2.2

8.59:1

APCA

Lc 90

Passes AA body text

Passes AAA body text

Passes AA large text

Black text on Blue

WCAG 2.2

2.44:1

APCA

Lc 18

Fails AA body text

Fails AAA body text

Fails AA large text

Check Blue against any other color in the contrast checker.

Tints and shades of Blue

Blue sits at 45% OKLCH lightness. Holding its hue and chroma and moving only that value carries it up to #F5F9FF and down to #000220, which keeps the family recognizable instead of letting it drift toward gray the way a plain HSL ramp does.

Tints, toward white

#2460FF

20% lighter

#5A8DFF

40% lighter

#8EB3FF

60% lighter

#C1D6FF

80% lighter

#F5F9FF

100% lighter

Shades, toward black

#0025B9

20% darker

#001B8F

40% darker

#001068

60% darker

#000742

80% darker

#000220

100% darker

Build a full accessible scale from #0000FF in the shade generator.

Colors that go with Blue

Hues rotated around #0000FF in OKLCH, then pulled back into the sRGB gamut. Each swatch is labelled with the nearest CSS named color so you have a keyword to start from.

Complementary

Blue sits at 264 degrees. Rotating it a half turn lands on 84 degrees, the hue directly opposite. It is the strongest pairing you can make without changing lightness, and the one most likely to vibrate if you use both at full chroma.

Analogous

The neighbors of Blue at 234 and 294 degrees. They stay close enough to read as the same family, which is what you want for hover states, secondary surfaces and gradients.

Triadic

264, 24 and 144 degrees divide the wheel into thirds. Balanced enough to carry a whole palette without one color dominating the other two.

Split complementary

Instead of the complement at 84 degrees, this pair flanks it at 54 and 114. You keep most of the contrast of a complementary pairing while losing the harshness.

Explore more combinations around Blue on the color wheel.

How Blue looks with color blindness

The biggest shift is under achromatopsia, where #0000FF reads as #121213, 37.2 CIEDE2000 units away. If Blue is the only thing marking a state or a series, roughly one viewer in twelve will miss it.

Protanopia

#0019FF

Deuteranopia

#000CF7

Tritanopia

#00264D

Achromatopsia

#121213

Colors similar to Blue

The nearest CSS keywords to #0000FF, ranked by perceptual distance rather than by how close their hex digits happen to look.