Steel blue color: hex codes, shades and palettes

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

A mid blue with grey mixed in, named for the tone of tempered steel. The grey is what makes it usable as a large area where a saturated blue would shout.

Steel blue hex, RGB, HSL and OKLCH

#4A7396

HEX: #4A7396
RGB: rgb(74, 115, 150)
HSL: hsl(208, 34%, 44%)
OKLCH: oklch(54.0% 0.072 245.4)
On white: 5.02:1
On black: 4.18:1

Shades of steel 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.

Steel blue color values

#4A7396rgb(74, 115, 150)

Color spaces of #4a7396
RGB	74	115	150
HSL	208°	34%	44%
HSV	208°	51%	59%
CMYK	0.51	0.23	0.00	0.41
XYZ	14.4579	15.9182	31.1589
Yxy	15.9182	0.2350	0.2587
CIE-Lab	46.8670	-4.0725	-23.4051
Hunter Lab	39.8977	-5.1372	-18.3754
OKLCH	54.0%	0.072	245.4°

#4A7396 is 74 red, 115 green and 150 blue. Its blue channel carries the most of it. The nearest of the 216 web safe colors is #336699.

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	01001010	01110011	10010110
Octal	112	163	226
Decimal	74	115	150
Hex	4A	73	96

#4a7396 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.

#4A7396
#426787
#3B5C78
#335069
#2C455A
#25394B
#1D2E3C
#16222D
#0E161D
#070B0E
#000000

#4a7396 mixed with white

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

#4A7396
#5C81A0
#6E8FAB
#809DB5
#92ABC0
#A4B9CA
#B6C7D5
#C8D5DF
#DAE3EA
#ECF1F4
#FFFFFF

Channel shares

Red21.8%
Green33.9%
Blue44.2%

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

#4A7396
#8C6640

Triadic

#4A7396
#925D69
#657647

Analogous

#4A7396
#636B99
#367989

Monochromatic

#001325
#04304F
#285172
#4A7396
#6D97BC
#91BDE3
#C2E2FF

#4a7396 on black and on white

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. 4.18:1

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. 5.02:1

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 #4a7396

color: #4a7396;
background-color: #4a7396;
border: 3px solid #4a7396;
box-shadow: 1px 1px 3px 2px #4a7396;
text-shadow: 4px 4px 2px rgba(74, 115, 150, 0.8);

/* Perceptually even, and what a modern stylesheet wants */
color: oklch(54.0% 0.072 245.4);

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

Steel blue on white measures 5.02:1 and on black 4.18:1. 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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