Tints & Shades
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Scale from white (50) through Denim (500) to black (900), interpolated in Lab color space.
Color Values
- HEX
- #1560BD
- RGB
- rgb(21, 96, 189)
- HSL
- hsl(213, 80%, 41%)
- OKLCH
- oklch(0.5 0.162 257)
- CMYK
- cmyk(89%, 49%, 0%, 26%)
--color-denimbg-[#1560BD]Accessibility
Score: 54/100On White (#FFF)
6.1:1
On Black (#000)
3.44:1
On Light Gray (#F5F5F5)
5.6:1
Best text color on this background:
Design Applications
background-color: #1560BD
color: #1560BD
bg-[#1560BD] text-[#FFFFFF]
border-left: 4px solid #1560BD
Color Harmonies
Complementary
Tangerine
#F28500
Split-Complementary
Similar Colors
Color Meaning & Psychology
Blue is the world's most universally preferred color across cultures. It slows respiration, lowers blood pressure, and promotes calm — the physiological opposite of red. Blue's associations with sky and water make it feel limitless, trustworthy, and reliable. In corporate design, blue dominates banking, insurance, healthcare, and technology precisely because it communicates stability. Dark navy conveys authority and tradition; royal blues suggest quality and aspiration; sky blues feel open and optimistic; teal bridges trust with modernity. The primary limitation of blue is food — it suppresses appetite, with almost no naturally blue foods existing in nature. Its deeper, richer tone gives it gravitas and sophistication, making it well-suited for primary brand colors, typography, and contexts where authority matters.
Industry Usage
Common contexts and industries where Denim is applied in professional design.
- Banking, insurance, and financial institutions
- Healthcare and medical device companies
- Enterprise software and SaaS platforms
- Government and public sector organizations
- Airlines and aviation brands
- Communication and social networking apps
- Cybersecurity and data protection products
- Pharmaceutical companies and clinical products
Accessibility Considerations
Normal Text
Passes AA
4.5:1 minimum required
Large Text
Passes AA Large
3:1 minimum required
UI Components
Meets 1.4.11
3:1 for non-text UI
Denim is a dark color. Use white (#FFFFFF) text on top of it for maximum readability (6.10:1). Avoid small black text on this background.
CSS & Code Examples
Background
background-color: #1560BD;Text
color: #1560BD;Border
border: 2px solid #1560BD;Box Shadow
box-shadow: 0 4px 20px #1560BD40;Gradient
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #1560BD, #5d8df0);Tailwind-style
--color-denim: #1560BD;Tailwind CSS Utilities
Use arbitrary value syntax in Tailwind CSS to apply Denim without a custom config.
Background
bg-[#1560BD]Text
text-[#1560BD]Border
border-[#1560BD]Ring
ring-[#1560BD]Fill
fill-[#1560BD]From (gradient)
from-[#1560BD]Via (gradient)
via-[#1560BD]To (gradient)
to-[#1560BD]Design Tokens
Ready-to-use Denim design token in CSS custom properties, SCSS, Tailwind v3/v4, and JSON formats.
CSS Custom Properties
:root {
--color-denim: #1560BD;
--color-denim-rgb: 21, 96, 189;
--color-denim-hsl: 213, 80%, 41%;
}SCSS Variables
$color-denim: #1560BD; $color-denim-rgb: 21, 96, 189; $color-denim-hsl: 213, 80%, 41%;
Tailwind v3 Config
// tailwind.config.js
module.exports = {
theme: {
extend: {
colors: {
'denim': '#1560BD',
},
},
},
};Tailwind v4 (@theme)
/* tailwind.css */
@theme {
--color-denim: #1560BD;
}JSON Design Token (W3C format)
{
"denim": {
"value": "#1560BD",
"type": "color",
"description": "Denim — #1560BD"
}
}Related Palettes & Combinations
Color Combinations
More blue colors
View all →What Does Denim Mean? Color Psychology & Cultural Symbolism
The reason Denim projects trust is partly evolutionary (blue skies and clean water = safety) and partly cultural (centuries of professional, governmental, and institutional use have trained associations). The result is a color that creates instant psychological permission to engage.
- Blue is the most universally trusted color in Western design—associated with authority (government, police, corporate), intelligence (universities, technology), and emotional calm (water, sky). It's the dominant color in corporate branding precisely because it creates immediate credibility.
- In Chinese tradition, blue represents immortality and the heavens, associated with the element of wood and spring vitality. In many Islamic cultures, blue offers protection from evil (the "evil eye" tradition), and in Indian traditions it's associated with divinity (Krishna).
- Denim's medium lightness (41%) shifts its psychological register: a balanced mid-tone that embodies trust, reliability, calm, and professionalism at its most direct.
- At 80% saturation, Denim reads as vivid—Electric and royal blues are modern, confident, and digitally native—they signal tech-forward positioning and work well for startups challenging traditional industries.
The power of Denim is quiet consistency. It builds trust cumulatively, appearing wherever credibility matters.
How to Use Denim in Design: Applications, Pairings & Best Practices
The design challenge with Denim is differentiation: every major institution uses blue. The answer lies in tone, proportion, and pairing—how a specific blue is used matters more than whether it's used.
- UI components: primary brand color, link color, interactive states—Denim performs reliably in all these roles with its medium tonal character.
- Brand & identity: corporate identity, banking and finance UIs, healthcare platforms—contexts where Denim's vivid quality creates the right register.
- Typography: Denim works as a background behind white text but requires careful sizing—test at intended heading and body sizes before finalizing.
- As a dark tone, Denim creates maximum contrast with white and light neutrals—excellent for creating premium dark-mode sections, bold headers, and high-drama brand moments
- Proportional use: Denim's vivid saturation (80%) means small applications—accents, highlights, icons—deliver maximum impact without visual fatigue. Reserve large-scale use for intentional brand moments.
The power of Denim is quiet consistency. It builds trust cumulatively, appearing wherever credibility matters.
Denim Accessibility: WCAG Contrast Ratios, Color Blindness & Inclusive Design
Denim (#1560BD) reaches 6.10:1 contrast with white text—meeting WCAG 2.1 AA minimum of 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text. It clears standard production accessibility requirements. Relative luminance: 12.2%.
- As text on white (#FFFFFF): 6.10:1 — AA ✓
- As text on black (#000000): 3.44:1 — AA (large text only)
- Best text color on Denim background: White (#FFFFFF) at 6.10:1
- WCAG 2.1 luminance: 12.2% — low luminance (dark)—it provides strong contrast for white and light overlaid text, functioning well as a background in dark-mode and header contexts
- Denim qualifies for normal body text and all larger sizes (AA).
- Color blindness consideration: tritanopia (blue-yellow color blindness, ~0.003% of population) may affect how this color reads. While rare, for maximum accessibility supplement color signals with text or icon indicators in critical states.
For production use, test Denim against your specific background colors rather than assuming #FFFFFF or #000000 performance translates. Surrounding colors alter perceived contrast.
Denim in Industry: Branding, Design & Market Applications
Denim (#1560BD) is most at home in industries where trust, reliability, calm, and professionalism are key brand values. Its medium quality makes it particularly effective in Finance & Banking contexts, where the vivid saturation signals reliability at exactly the right register.
- Finance & Banking: Blue is the most trusted color in financial services—a global design convention built over decades. It signals fiduciary reliability, stability, and the conservative stewardship that depositors and investors need to feel comfortable transferring wealth. (examples: JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Visa) Dark navy communicates established tradition; mid-tone blues suggest accessible, modern banking. Avoid pure bright blue for legacy institutions.
- Technology: Technology brands use blue to communicate intelligence, reliability, and forward-thinking professionalism. From legacy enterprise software to consumer apps, blue provides a neutral credibility that scales across markets and cultures. (examples: Notion, Slack, Salesforce) Varying the tone of blue is how tech brands differentiate: sky blue for friendliness (consumer apps), royal blue for confidence (productivity tools), navy for enterprise seriousness.
- Healthcare: Healthcare's use of blue is a trust transfer from corporate credibility to clinical reliability. Patients associate blue with cleanliness, precision, and medical competence—making it the second most common healthcare color after white. (examples: Headspace, One Medical, Kaiser Permanente) Teal-blue works particularly well for health tech and telemedicine, balancing clinical trust with digital accessibility.
- Brand positioning: Denim is best suited for brands projecting trustworthiness, reliability, professionalism. Categories outside this positioning—food contexts where it suppresses appetite (the only major color with no natural blue foods)—tend to see weaker results.
- Adjacent applications: Beyond primary industries, Denim works effectively in corporate identity, banking and finance UIs, healthcare platforms—contexts where reliability serves a secondary but reinforcing role.
The industries where Denim performs best are those where the audience expects reliability. Build brand strategy around this alignment, not against it.
Accessibility & Design Guides
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is the hex code for Denim? ▾
- The hex code for Denim is #1560BD. Its RGB values are rgb(21, 96, 189) and its HSL values are hsl(213, 80%, 41%).
- What does Denim mean in design? ▾
- Blue is the world's most universally preferred color across cultures. It slows respiration, lowers blood pressure, and promotes calm — the physiological opposite of red. Blue's associations with sky and water make it feel limitless, trustworthy, and reliable. In corporate design, blue dominates banking, insurance, healthcare, and technology precisely because it communicates stability. Dark navy conveys authority and tradition; royal blues suggest quality and aspiration; sky blues feel open and optimistic; teal bridges trust with modernity. The primary limitation of blue is food — it suppresses appetite, with almost no naturally blue foods existing in nature. Its deeper, richer tone gives it gravitas and sophistication, making it well-suited for primary brand colors, typography, and contexts where authority matters.
- Is Denim WCAG accessible? ▾
- Denim (#1560BD) passes WCAG AA on white with a 6.1:1 contrast ratio. Its overall accessibility score is 54/100.
- What colors go well with Denim? ▾
- Denim pairs well with its complementary color Tangerine (#F28500). Analogous colors like Electric Blue and Sea Blue also work harmoniously. Check the Color Harmonies section above for the full palette.
- What is Denim used for? ▾
- Denim is commonly used for: Banking, insurance, and financial institutions; Healthcare and medical device companies; Enterprise software and SaaS platforms; Government and public sector organizations; Airlines and aviation brands.
- What are the CSS and Tailwind values for Denim? ▾
- In CSS, use `color: #1560BD` or `background-color: #1560BD`. The CSS custom property is `--color-denim: #1560BD`. In Tailwind CSS, use the arbitrary value class `bg-[#1560BD]` for backgrounds or `text-[#1560BD]` for text.