colors
Back to gallery

Aligned Niagara

#87b3f8
Notes

Aligned Niagara (#87B3F8) is a soft 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 (217°, 89%, 75%) places it in the highly saturated band at a light 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.

HEX
#87b3f8
RGB
rgb(135, 179, 248)
HSL
hsl(217, 89%, 75%)
HWB
hwb(217 53% 3%)
OKLCH
oklch(76.2% 0.111 259.2)
HSV
hsv(217, 46%, 97%)
LAB
lab(72.34% 3.21 -38.83)
LCH
lch(72.34% 38.96 274.73)
CMYK
cmyk(46%, 28%, 0%, 3%)

Etymology

Aligned
adjective

French à-ligne, to-line-up — past-participle of align. As a color modifier, aligned implies a clear-and-axis-coordinated quality where the hue carries the visual register of carefully-parallel-arranged elements. Sits at the crisp-and-balanced end of the grid, parallel to symmetrical and squared in usage.

Niagara
noun

The triple waterfall on the Niagara River between New York and Ontario — the largest waterfall by flow rate east of the Mississippi. Niagara blue refers to the color of the water as it falls: a saturated, slightly green-shifted deep blue with the optical complexity of glacial-melt water mixed with limestone-derived calcium carbonate. Cooler than turquoise, deeper than aqua, with the natural-wonder weight of a falls visited by millions annually.

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 explore

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.

#87b3f8
Original
#99b7fb
Protanopia
#8cadf7
Deuteranopia
#5ac2cb
Tritanopia
#afafaf
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).
Failon White
2.14:1
The quick brown foxSample body text at normal size. The wcag minimum for body contrast is 4.5:1 (AA) or 7:1 (AAA).
AAAon Black
9.83:1

Related Colors

Canvas