Steel blue

#2f8ea9

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

Steel blue lands where green meets blue, deep and strong. Teals like this feel modern and clean. Warm corals opposite it on the wheel bring contrast and sand tones keep it coastal.

Steel blue color values

Every conversion for #2f8ea9, ready to copy. Hex, rgb, hsl, hsv, cmyk, cie-lab, xyz, decimal, web safe and the nearest Pantone.

Hex#2f8ea9

RGB47, 142, 169

HSL193, 56%, 42%

HSV193, 72%, 66%

CMYK72%, 16%, 0%, 34%

Lab54.88, -18.35, -22.2

XYZ18.01, 22.81, 40.99

Decimal3116713

Web safe#339999

Pantone640 C

Shades of steel blue

#2b829a #27768c #23697d #1f5d6f #1b5160 #174552 #133943 #0f2c35 #0b2026 #071418

Tints of steel blue

#35a0bf #44adcb #5ab7d1 #6fc0d7 #85cadd #9bd3e3 #b0dde9 #c6e6ef #dbeff5 #f1f9fb

Colors that go with steel blue

Complementary#a94a2f Analogous#2fa987 Analogous#2f51a9 Triadic#a92f8e Triadic#8ea92f Split complementary#a92f51 Split complementary#a9872f

Steel blue in print

It sits in a comfortable part of the gamut and reproduces reliably on press. The cmyk build is 72, 16, 0, 34.

The same color needs a different cmyk build depending on the paper. Here is #2f8ea9 on both.

Coated stockgloss or silk, C

72 16 0 34

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

Uncoated stocknatural or matte, U

70 19 4 40

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 #2f8ea9 straight into your stylesheet.

.background { background-color: #2f8ea9; }
.text { color: #2f8ea9; }
.border { border: 2px solid #2f8ea9; }

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 #2f8ea9 against black and white text, measured to the WCAG standard.

Use black text on this color for readable body copy. To test #2f8ea9 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 #2f8ea9 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 #2f8ea9 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 #2f8ea9 are worked out. We convert from sRGB to each space with the standard formulas, so the codes match what design tools show. The coated and uncoated cmyk builds differ because uncoated stock absorbs more ink and gains dot, so the same color needs a heavier, slightly duller build on press. For Pantone we return the nearest reference by perceptual distance, which gets you close but is not a substitute for a physical swatch book.