Denim color: hex codes, shades and palettes

Palettes built around denim. Click any swatch to copy its hex code.

The blue of indigo-dyed cotton after a few washes: deep, slightly grey, never quite saturated. Real denim varies enormously, so treat this as the middle of a range.

Denim hex, RGB, HSL and OKLCH

#3B5C7E

HEX: #3B5C7E
RGB: rgb(59, 92, 126)
HSL: hsl(210, 36%, 36%)
OKLCH: oklch(46.5% 0.068 250.2)
On white: 6.96:1
On black: 3.02:1

Shades of denim

9 steps from one base color, generated in OKLCH so each step is an equal perceived step rather than an equal numeric one. Click a swatch to copy it.

Denim color values

#3B5C7Ergb(59, 92, 126)

Color spaces of #3b5c7e
RGB	59	92	126
HSL	210°	36%	36%
HSV	210°	53%	49%
CMYK	0.53	0.27	0.00	0.51
XYZ	9.3954	10.0897	21.1870
Yxy	10.0897	0.2310	0.2481
CIE-Lab	38.0030	-1.5855	-22.7869
Hunter Lab	31.7644	-2.7903	-17.3118
OKLCH	46.5%	0.068	250.2°

#3B5C7E is 59 red, 92 green and 126 blue. Its blue channel carries the most of it. The nearest of the 216 web safe colors is #336666.

CIE-Lab, XYZ and Yxy are measured against D65, the white point sRGB itself is defined against. Hunter Lab uses the original illuminant C constants, which is what paint and plastics specifications quote, so the two Lab rows are not directly comparable. CMYK is the plain arithmetic conversion: real ink values depend on the press, the paper and the profile.

Base numbers
Base	Red	Green	Blue
Binary	00111011	01011100	01111110
Octal	73	134	176
Decimal	59	92	126
Hex	3B	5C	7E

#3b5c7e mixed with black

Ten even steps of the classic shade ramp, worked out in RGB, which is how the term has always been defined and how other references list it. The OKLCH scale further down this page answers a different question: it steps by equal perceived amounts, so its values are not the same.

#3B5C7E
#355271
#2F4964
#294058
#23374B
#1D2E3F
#172432
#111B25
#0B1219
#05090C
#000000

#3b5c7e mixed with white

The tint ramp, by the same rule in the other direction.

#3B5C7E
#4E6C8A
#627C97
#758CA4
#899DB1
#9DADBE
#B0BDCB
#C4CED8
#D7DEE5
#EBEEF2
#FFFFFF

Channel shares

Red21.3%
Green33.2%
Blue45.5%

Color schemes

Turned in OKLCH rather than HSL, so every member keeps the lightness and chroma of the original instead of one of them arriving washed out.

Complementary

#3B5C7E
#72522D

Triadic

#3B5C7E
#7A4950
#4C6138

Analogous

#3B5C7E
#52557F
#256274

Monochromatic

#00040E
#001C38
#1B3B5B
#3B5C7E
#5D7FA3
#80A4C9
#A5CAF1

#3b5c7e on black and on white

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. 3.02:1

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. 6.96:1

Body text needs 4.5:1 to meet AA and large text needs 3:1, so a ratio tells you which of the two backgrounds this color can be read on, and at what size.

CSS for #3b5c7e

color: #3b5c7e;
background-color: #3b5c7e;
border: 3px solid #3b5c7e;
box-shadow: 1px 1px 3px 2px #3b5c7e;
text-shadow: 4px 4px 2px rgba(59, 92, 126, 0.8);

/* Perceptually even, and what a modern stylesheet wants */
color: oklch(46.5% 0.068 250.2);

The OKLCH form is the same color stated so that lightening or darkening it moves by an amount the eye agrees with. Every current browser understands it.

Contrast and readability

Denim on white measures 6.96:1 and on black 3.02:1. WCAG AA asks for 4.5:1 on normal text and 3:1 on large text and UI components, so the higher of those two decides which background it belongs on. In the scale above, 500 is the first to clear 4.5:1 on white, at 5.24:1.

The contrast checker reports every level for a given pair and suggests the nearest passing shade on the same hue. The color picker builds this same scale from any color you paste in.

Related colors: blue, navy, royal blue, cobalt, periwinkle, transparent blue. See every shade on the colors index.

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#C3D3F7

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#9E8CA8

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