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Rich Naval

#517be5
Notes

Rich Naval (#517BE5) is a true azure with a vibrant character. It holds its own as a focal accent, carrying visual weight without tipping into neon territory. Its HSL profile (223°, 74%, 61%) places it in the balanced band at a mid lightness. It works across type, buttons, and borders, saturated enough to feel deliberate but balanced enough to not fight the rest of the palette. For a confident two-color system, pair it with its complementary amber. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#517be5
RGB
rgb(81, 123, 229)
HSL
hsl(223, 74%, 61%)
HWB
hwb(223 32% 10%)
OKLCH
oklch(60.6% 0.167 265.5)
HSV
hsv(223, 65%, 90%)
LAB
lab(53.57% 18.84 -58.23)
LCH
lch(53.57% 61.20 287.93)
CMYK
cmyk(65%, 46%, 0%, 10%)

Etymology

Rich
adjective

Old French riche, wealthy, abundant — applied to color since the medieval period for hues that read as plentiful in pigment. Rich red, rich brown: the implication is depth combined with saturation, a color that gives the eye more to absorb. Sits at the saturated mid-light corner of the engine's grid, slightly warmer than bold and deeper than vivid.

Naval
noun

Of the navy — the seagoing branch of a national military. Naval blue refers to the working color of warship paint and naval-shipyard equipment: a slightly muted very deep blue with the matte finish of marine enamel. Deeper than navy (the dress color), cooler than ocean, with the operational specificity of a color used to make a ship harder to spot at distance against North Atlantic water.

Closest matches

The nearest named color in three reference sources, ranked by perceptual distance (ΔE76 in CIELAB). ΔE < 1 is imperceptible to most viewers; ΔE > 10 is clearly different. When two sources point to the same hex they’re merged into one tile; click any to open that color’s page.

Variations

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Harmonies

Accessibility

Color-vision simulation

How this color appears to viewers with the four major color-vision-deficiency types. Computed via the Machado (2009) physiologically-based model. If a tile matches the original, the color reads the same to that viewer.

#517be5
Original
#4687e9
Protanopia
#297ae3
Deuteranopia
#0093a5
Tritanopia
#7a7a7a
Achromatopsia
WCAG contrast

The color used as foreground text against pure white and pure black, with the contrast ratio and WCAG 2.1 grade. Aim for AA (4.5:1) for body text and AA Large (3:1) for 18 pt+ headlines; AAA (7:1) is the gold standard for long-form reading surfaces.

The quick brown foxSample body text at normal size. The wcag minimum for body contrast is 4.5:1 (AA) or 7:1 (AAA).
AA Largeon White
3.95:1
The quick brown foxSample body text at normal size. The wcag minimum for body contrast is 4.5:1 (AA) or 7:1 (AAA).
AAon Black
5.31:1

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