colors
Back to gallery

Calm Dumortierite

#9cb1f6
Notes

Calm Dumortierite (#9CB1F6) is a soft blue with a pastel character. It reads calm and airy, with enough chroma to feel intentional rather than washed out. Its HSL profile (226°, 83%, 79%) 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
#9cb1f6
RGB
rgb(156, 177, 246)
HSL
hsl(226, 83%, 79%)
HWB
hwb(226 61% 4%)
OKLCH
oklch(77.0% 0.102 270.9)
HSV
hsv(226, 37%, 96%)
LAB
lab(73.00% 9.12 -36.63)
LCH
lch(73.00% 37.74 283.98)
CMYK
cmyk(37%, 28%, 0%, 4%)

Etymology

Calm
adjective

Latin calma, heat of the day — paradoxically drifted in Italian to mean stillness. Used as a color modifier since the seventeenth century for hues that read as untroubled. Calm blue, calm gray: moderate saturation combined with optical quiet. Sits at the crisp-bucket near quiet and steady.

Dumortierite
noun

An aluminum-borate-silicate mineral — saturated deep blue, mined principally in Madagascar, Brazil, and Nevada. Used as ornamental stone and porcelain manufacturing additive. The color refers to a polished dumortierite cabochon: a saturated, slightly cool deep blue with the matte finish of opaque silicate mineral.

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.

#9cb1f6
Original
#9ab7f9
Protanopia
#93b0f4
Deuteranopia
#81bfc9
Tritanopia
#b2b2b2
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
2.09:1
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
10.03:1

Related Colors

Canvas