Sky blue color: hex codes, shades and palettes

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

Sky blue is #87CEEB, light azure. Below are its shades with hex codes, the values in every common format, and sky blue color palettes to copy.

Sky blue hex, RGB, HSL and OKLCH

#87CEEB

HEX: #87CEEB
RGB: rgb(135, 206, 235)
HSL: hsl(197, 71%, 73%)
OKLCH: oklch(81.5% 0.082 225.8)
On white: 1.74:1
On black: 12.06:1

Shades of sky blue

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.

Sky blue color values

#87CEEBrgb(135, 206, 235)

Color spaces of #87ceeb
RGB	135	206	235
HSL	197°	71%	73%
HSV	197°	43%	92%
CMYK	0.43	0.12	0.00	0.08
XYZ	47.0531	55.2884	86.7734
Yxy	55.2884	0.2488	0.2924
CIE-Lab	79.2071	-14.8390	-21.2765
Hunter Lab	74.3562	-17.1673	-17.1419
OKLCH	81.5%	0.082	225.8°

#87CEEB is 135 red, 206 green and 235 blue. Its blue channel carries the most of it. The nearest of the 216 web safe colors is #99CCFF.

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	10000111	11001110	11101011
Octal	207	316	353
Decimal	135	206	235
Hex	87	CE	EB

#87ceeb 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.

#87CEEB
#79B9D3
#6CA4BC
#5E90A4
#517B8D
#436775
#36525E
#283D46
#1A292E
#0D1417
#000000

#87ceeb mixed with white

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

#87CEEB
#93D2ED
#9FD7EF
#ABDCF1
#B7E1F3
#C3E6F5
#CFEBF7
#DBF0F9
#E7F5FB
#F3FAFD
#FFFFFF

Channel shares

Red23.4%
Green35.8%
Blue40.8%

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

#87CEEB
#F0B296

Triadic

#87CEEB
#EAADCE
#C9C688

Analogous

#87CEEB
#A0C5F7
#7FD3D3

Monochromatic

#0F5F79
#3B839E
#61A8C4
#87CEEB
#CDF0FF
#F0FAFF
#F0FAFF

#87ceeb on black and on white

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. 12.06:1

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. 1.74:1

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 #87ceeb

color: #87ceeb;
background-color: #87ceeb;
border: 3px solid #87ceeb;
box-shadow: 1px 1px 3px 2px #87ceeb;
text-shadow: 4px 4px 2px rgba(135, 206, 235, 0.8);

/* Perceptually even, and what a modern stylesheet wants */
color: oklch(81.5% 0.082 225.8);

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

Sky blue on white measures 1.74:1 and on black 12.06:1. 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 5.17:1.

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.

#DAE7FF

#B8D1F2

#A6B9D5

#7FA4D5

#A1CEDA

#7F99AD

#C3D3F7

#D7D3EE

#8EC7DA

#9ABCDA

#A7B4D4

#9A8CD0

#77C2C2

#7EBFDA

#CBE4FF

#A5ADDA

#BDEEFE

#8DD8F3

#92BBC7

#76A4B2

#6397B2

#8FC0E8

#92B0EC

#A1AADA

#AADFF1

#A8CADD

#71BFE7

#87A8C4

#91E5D9

#C9E7E9

#4FA3B8

#D2E3EE

#61A6B4

#89BCC6

#A7D3DC

#ACF0FB

#B0D8F0

#A6C6D5

#76B9D8

#82A2B4

#85C5C8

#A6C0CB

#7496C0

#A2ADE3

#88A3AC

#9DB9C2

#B3CFDA

#BFE8FB

#B1E3F4

#96CBE6

#73B4E2

#7B99B6

#BEE1EA

#B1C9D0

#88B8C4

#65A6B3

#D3E6FF

#BFCCDD

#A5B3C7

#769DCB

#78BBBD

#88A6AC

#82A8BA

#C7E1FF

#D0E8FF

#B3D0F9

#A4B7E4

#97A1C0

#C7E3FC

#BECADA

#A4AFE5

#9795D3

#7D99C5

#A1AAD5

#BDBDEA

#DAD4E8

#54ADCF

#90BCCC

#B5CCD6

#C6E1EA

#A9D2CE

#599EAA

#ABCFE7

#B6C4D9

#439FB3

#C5D8E5

#B6C9E0

#C8D1F4

#7B9EC6

#8EB0D8

#AFC1D5

#BED3F0

#6E9ECC

#9AADCE

#B9BEDB

#D3D2E3