Buzzed Admiralty
Buzzed Admiralty (#548EFF) is a true azure with a cool character. It leans cool, sitting on the blue, green, and violet side of the wheel. Quiet and dependable, a fit for product UI and data visualization. Its HSL profile (220°, 100%, 66%) places it in the highly saturated band at a mid lightness. Best used in small doses, like logos, CTAs, focus rings, or highlight text, where its saturation becomes a feature rather than noise. 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.
Etymology
Imitative-onomatopoeic origin — past-participle of buzz, evoking the sound of bee-hum. As a color modifier, buzzed implies a saturated-and-vibrating-and-active quality, the bright color of insect-pollinator and neon-lamp low-amplitude-buzz visual-vibration. Sits at the bright-and-active end of the grid, parallel to jazzed and wired in usage.
The British government department responsible for the Royal Navy from 1546 to 1964 — and the deep blue of Admiralty Blue paint specified for naval ship interiors and document covers. The color refers to an Admiralty-issue document folder: a saturated, slightly cool very deep blue with the matte finish of dyed institutional paper.
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
Click any swatch to exploreHarmonies
Accessibility
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.
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.