Tints & Shades
50
100
200
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400
500
600
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800
900
Scale from white (50) through Egyptian Blue (500) to black (900), interpolated in Lab color space.
Color Values
- HEX
- #1034A6
- RGB
- rgb(16, 52, 166)
- HSL
- hsl(226, 82%, 36%)
- OKLCH
- oklch(0.389 0.186 265)
- CMYK
- cmyk(90%, 69%, 0%, 35%)
--color-egyptian-bluebg-[#1034A6]Accessibility
Score: 96/100On White (#FFF)
10.18:1
On Black (#000)
2.06:1
On Light Gray (#F5F5F5)
9.33:1
Best text color on this background:
Design Applications
background-color: #1034A6
color: #1034A6
bg-[#1034A6] text-[#FFFFFF]
border-left: 4px solid #1034A6
Color Harmonies
Complementary
Ecru
#C2B280
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 Egyptian Blue 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
Egyptian Blue is a dark color. Use white (#FFFFFF) text on top of it for maximum readability (10.18:1). Avoid small black text on this background.
CSS & Code Examples
Background
background-color: #1034A6;Text
color: #1034A6;Border
border: 2px solid #1034A6;Box Shadow
box-shadow: 0 4px 20px #1034A640;Gradient
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #1034A6, #585ed8);Tailwind-style
--color-egyptian-blue: #1034A6;Tailwind CSS Utilities
Use arbitrary value syntax in Tailwind CSS to apply Egyptian Blue without a custom config.
Background
bg-[#1034A6]Text
text-[#1034A6]Border
border-[#1034A6]Ring
ring-[#1034A6]Fill
fill-[#1034A6]From (gradient)
from-[#1034A6]Via (gradient)
via-[#1034A6]To (gradient)
to-[#1034A6]Design Tokens
Ready-to-use Egyptian Blue design token in CSS custom properties, SCSS, Tailwind v3/v4, and JSON formats.
CSS Custom Properties
:root {
--color-egyptian-blue: #1034A6;
--color-egyptian-blue-rgb: 16, 52, 166;
--color-egyptian-blue-hsl: 226, 82%, 36%;
}SCSS Variables
$color-egyptian-blue: #1034A6; $color-egyptian-blue-rgb: 16, 52, 166; $color-egyptian-blue-hsl: 226, 82%, 36%;
Tailwind v3 Config
// tailwind.config.js
module.exports = {
theme: {
extend: {
colors: {
'egyptian-blue': '#1034A6',
},
},
},
};Tailwind v4 (@theme)
/* tailwind.css */
@theme {
--color-egyptian-blue: #1034A6;
}JSON Design Token (W3C format)
{
"egyptian-blue": {
"value": "#1034A6",
"type": "color",
"description": "Egyptian Blue — #1034A6"
}
}More blue colors
View all →What Does Egyptian Blue Mean? Color Psychology & Cultural Symbolism
Evolutionary color psychology suggests blue's dominance traces to the sky and clean water—stable, expansive environments our ancestors associated with safety and resources. Egyptian Blue carries this ancient signal into contemporary design as stability, doing perceptual work before a single word is read.
- 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).
- Egyptian Blue's deep lightness (36%) shifts its psychological register: a balanced mid-tone that embodies trust, reliability, calm, and professionalism at its most direct.
- At 82% saturation, Egyptian Blue 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.
Egyptian Blue doesn't need to announce itself—it simply makes everything around it feel more reliable.
How to Use Egyptian Blue in Design: Applications, Pairings & Best Practices
Egyptian Blue is a workhorse color in design systems—reliable in both semantic (interactive, informational) and aesthetic (trusted, professional) roles. Its vivid saturation means it performs across both digital and print contexts without fatigue.
- UI components: primary brand color, link color, interactive states—Egyptian Blue performs reliably in all these roles with its deep tonal character.
- Brand & identity: corporate identity, banking and finance UIs, healthcare platforms—contexts where Egyptian Blue's vivid quality creates the right register.
- Typography: Egyptian Blue works as a background behind white text but requires careful sizing—test at intended heading and body sizes before finalizing.
- As a dark tone, Egyptian Blue creates maximum contrast with white and light neutrals—excellent for creating premium dark-mode sections, bold headers, and high-drama brand moments
- Proportional use: Egyptian Blue's vivid saturation (82%) means small applications—accents, highlights, icons—deliver maximum impact without visual fatigue. Reserve large-scale use for intentional brand moments.
Egyptian Blue doesn't need to announce itself—it simply makes everything around it feel more reliable.
Egyptian Blue Accessibility: WCAG Contrast Ratios, Color Blindness & Inclusive Design
Egyptian Blue (#1034A6) achieves a 10.18:1 contrast ratio with white text, surpassing the WCAG 2.1 AAA threshold of 7:1. This exceptional contrast qualifies it for body text, UI components at any size, and all accessibility-sensitive interface contexts. Relative luminance: 5.3%.
- As text on white (#FFFFFF): 10.18:1 — AAA ✓
- As text on black (#000000): 2.06:1 — Fail
- Best text color on Egyptian Blue background: White (#FFFFFF) at 10.18:1
- WCAG 2.1 luminance: 5.3% — low luminance (dark)—it provides strong contrast for white and light overlaid text, functioning well as a background in dark-mode and header contexts
- Egyptian Blue qualifies for all text sizes including small body copy (AAA).
- 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.
Always verify Egyptian Blue at its final intended size and weight using a real contrast checker—font weight and rendering environment affect perceived legibility beyond what raw ratios capture.
Egyptian Blue in Industry: Branding, Design & Market Applications
Across industry research, blue-family tones consistently outperform competitors in categories built on trust, reliability, calm, and professionalism. Egyptian Blue is a deep expression of this advantage—best positioned in Finance & Banking and adjacent markets.
- 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: Apple, Microsoft, 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: CVS Health, Mayo Clinic, Kaiser Permanente) Teal-blue works particularly well for health tech and telemedicine, balancing clinical trust with digital accessibility.
- Brand positioning: Egyptian Blue 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, Egyptian Blue works effectively in corporate identity, banking and finance UIs, healthcare platforms—contexts where professionalism serves a secondary but reinforcing role.
Egyptian Blue earns its strongest ROI in industries where trust and recognition compound over time: Finance & Banking, Technology, Healthcare. Use it to build the kind of brand recognition that decades reinforce.
Accessibility & Design Guides
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is the hex code for Egyptian Blue? ▾
- The hex code for Egyptian Blue is #1034A6. Its RGB values are rgb(16, 52, 166) and its HSL values are hsl(226, 82%, 36%).
- What does Egyptian Blue 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 Egyptian Blue WCAG accessible? ▾
- Egyptian Blue (#1034A6) passes WCAG AAA on white with a 10.18:1 contrast ratio. Its overall accessibility score is 96/100.
- What colors go well with Egyptian Blue? ▾
- Egyptian Blue pairs well with its complementary color Ecru (#C2B280). Analogous colors like Cerulean and Viridian Blue also work harmoniously. Check the Color Harmonies section above for the full palette.
- What is Egyptian Blue used for? ▾
- Egyptian Blue 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 Egyptian Blue? ▾
- In CSS, use `color: #1034A6` or `background-color: #1034A6`. The CSS custom property is `--color-egyptian-blue: #1034A6`. In Tailwind CSS, use the arbitrary value class `bg-[#1034A6]` for backgrounds or `text-[#1034A6]` for text.