Steel blue

#238cbf

Hex, rgb, cmyk and Pantone values for steel blue, with shades, tints, matching colors and free print quality patterns.

Steel blue sits in the blue band, deep and strong. Deep blues like this anchor serious, established brands. It pairs with warm neutrals for balance, or with a brighter accent for contrast.

Steel blue color values

Every conversion for #238cbf, ready to copy. Hex, rgb, hsl, hsv, cmyk, cie-lab, xyz, decimal, web safe and the nearest Pantone.

Hex#238cbf

RGB35, 140, 191

HSL200, 69%, 44%

HSV200, 82%, 75%

CMYK82%, 27%, 0%, 25%

Lab54.94, -11.02, -34.69

XYZ19.48, 22.88, 52.68

Decimal2329791

Web safe#3399cc

Pantone2925 C

Shades of steel blue

#2080ae #1d749e #1a688d #175c7d #144f6c #11435c #0e374b #0b2b3b #081f2a #05131a

Tints of steel blue

#279cd5 #3ca7db #52b1df #69bbe4 #7fc6e8 #96d0ec #acdaf0 #c3e4f4 #d9eef8 #f0f8fc

Colors that go with steel blue

Complementary#bf5623 Analogous#23bfa4 Analogous#233ebf Triadic#bf238c Triadic#8cbf23 Split complementary#bf233e Split complementary#bfa423

Steel blue in print

The cmyk build is well inside gamut, so what you see on screen is close to what prints. The cmyk build is 82, 27, 0, 25.

The same color needs a different cmyk build depending on the paper. Here is #238cbf on both.

Coated stockgloss or silk, C

82 27 0 25

Ink sits on the surface, so colors stay bright and close to screen.

Uncoated stocknatural or matte, U

79 29 4 31

The stock absorbs ink and gains dot, so it needs a heavier build and reads a touch softer.

This color converts to cmyk comfortably and should hold on press.

See how it converts in the rgb to cmyk converter, or readrgb vs cmyk for print andwhat the k in cmyk means.

Steel blue in css

Copy #238cbf straight into your stylesheet.

.background { background-color: #238cbf; }
.text { color: #238cbf; }
.border { border: 2px solid #238cbf; }

How steel blue looks on light and dark

Sample text on black

Sample text on white

Text on this color

Steel blue and accessibility

Contrast ratios for #238cbf against black and white text, measured to the WCAG standard.

Use black text on this color for readable body copy. To test #238cbf against any other color, not just black and white, run the pair through ourcontrast checker for a live WCAG reading.

Steel blue on a business card, sticker and pattern

A quick look at how #238cbf sits on real print products. Start any of these in the maker.

Business card

Sticker

Repeat pattern

Building a full palette around steel blue? Pull matching colors from any photo with thecolor palette generator, or check a design for print with thergb to cmyk converter.

Turn steel blue into a seamless pattern

Four patterns built from #238cbf and its shades, free at print quality. Click any one to keep editing in the pattern maker.

Arches Signature stripes Gem Shingles

Make posters, wallpaper and packaging art from steel blue, free and print ready.

Open in pattern maker

How we calculate these values

The figures for #238cbf come from standard color math, shown so you can check them. We convert from sRGB to each space with the standard formulas, so the codes match what design tools show. Two cmyk builds are shown because coated and uncoated papers behave differently, uncoated soaks up ink and needs more of it to hit the same target. For Pantone we return the nearest reference by perceptual distance, which gets you close but is not a substitute for a physical swatch book.