Royal blue

#255bb9

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

Royal 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.

Royal blue color values

Every conversion for #255bb9, ready to copy. Hex, rgb, hsl, hsv, cmyk, cie-lab, xyz, decimal, web safe and the nearest Pantone.

Hex#255bb9

RGB37, 91, 185

HSL218, 67%, 44%

HSV218, 80%, 73%

CMYK80%, 51%, 0%, 27%

Lab40.21, 17.04, -54.66

XYZ13.26, 11.38, 47.4

Decimal2448313

Web safe#3366cc

Pantone2935 C

Shades of royal blue

#2253a9 #1f4b99 #1b4389 #183c79 #153469 #122c59 #0f2449 #0b1c39 #081429 #050d19

Tints of royal blue

#2a66d0 #3c75d8 #5385dd #6995e1 #80a5e6 #96b5ea #adc5ef #c3d5f3 #dae5f8 #f0f4fc

Colors that go with royal blue

Complementary#b98325 Analogous#25a5b9 Analogous#3925b9 Triadic#b9255b Triadic#5bb925 Split complementary#b93925 Split complementary#a5b925

Royal 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 80, 51, 0, 27.

The same color needs a different cmyk build depending on the paper. Here is #255bb9 on both.

Coated stockgloss or silk, C

80 51 0 27

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

Uncoated stocknatural or matte, U

78 51 4 33

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 read rgb vs cmyk for print and what the k in cmyk means.

Royal blue in css

Copy #255bb9 straight into your stylesheet.

.background { background-color: #255bb9; }
.text { color: #255bb9; }
.border { border: 2px solid #255bb9; }

How royal blue looks on light and dark

Sample text on black

Sample text on white

Text on this color

Royal blue and accessibility

Contrast ratios for #255bb9 against black and white text, measured to the WCAG standard.

Use white text on this color for readable body copy. To test #255bb9 against any other color, not just black and white, run the pair through our contrast checker for a live WCAG reading.

Royal blue on a business card, sticker and pattern

A quick look at how #255bb9 sits on real print products. Start any of these in the maker.

Business card

Sticker

Repeat pattern

Building a full palette around royal blue? Pull matching colors from any photo with the color palette generator, or check a design for print with the rgb to cmyk converter.

Turn royal blue into a seamless pattern

Four patterns built from #255bb9 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 royal blue, free and print ready.

Open in pattern maker

How we calculate these values

Here is how the numbers for #255bb9 are worked out. The rgb, hsl, hsv, cie-lab and xyz values follow the standard conversions from the sRGB color space. The uncoated cmyk build carries more ink than the coated one, which is what a printer would compensate for when the same color runs on a rougher stock. The Pantone value is the closest reference by perceptual color distance and should be treated as a starting point, not a guaranteed match.