Steel blue

#268cba

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

Steel blue is a deep blue that reads serious. 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 #268cba, ready to copy. Hex, rgb, hsl, hsv, cmyk, cie-lab, xyz, decimal, web safe and the nearest Pantone.

Hex#268cba

RGB38, 140, 186

HSL199, 66%, 44%

HSV199, 80%, 73%

CMYK80%, 25%, 0%, 27%

Lab54.78, -12.51, -32.1

XYZ19.04, 22.71, 49.83

Decimal2526394

Web safe#3399cc

Pantone640 C

Shades of steel blue

#2380aa #1f749a #1c688a #195c7a #16506a #12435a #0f374a #0c2b3a #081f29 #051319

Tints of steel blue

#2b9dd0 #3ea8d8 #54b2dc #6bbce1 #81c6e5 #97d0ea #addaee #c4e4f3 #daeef7 #f0f8fc

Colors that go with steel blue

Complementary#ba5426 Analogous#26ba9e Analogous#2642ba Triadic#ba268c Triadic#8cba26 Split complementary#ba2642 Split complementary#ba9e26

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 80, 25, 0, 27.

The same color needs a different cmyk build depending on the paper. Here is #268cba on both.

Coated stockgloss or silk, C

80 25 0 27

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

Uncoated stocknatural or matte, U

78 27 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.

Steel blue in css

Copy #268cba straight into your stylesheet.

.background { background-color: #268cba; }
.text { color: #268cba; }
.border { border: 2px solid #268cba; }

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 #268cba against black and white text, measured to the WCAG standard.

Use black text on this color for readable body copy. To test #268cba against any other color, not just black and white, run the pair through our contrast checker for a live WCAG reading.

Steel blue on a business card, sticker and pattern

A quick look at how #268cba 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 the color palette generator, or check a design for print with the rgb to cmyk converter.

Turn steel blue into a seamless pattern

Four patterns built from #268cba 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

Here is how the numbers for #268cba are worked out. We convert from sRGB to each space with the standard formulas, so the codes match what design tools show. 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 figure is the nearest match in our reference set by perceptual distance and it is an approximation, not an exact spot color.