Tints & Shades
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Scale from white (50) through Persian Blue (500) to black (900), interpolated in Lab color space.
Color Values
- HEX
- #1C39BB
- RGB
- rgb(28, 57, 187)
- HSL
- hsl(229, 74%, 42%)
- OKLCH
- oklch(0.423 0.205 266)
- CMYK
- cmyk(85%, 70%, 0%, 27%)
--color-persian-bluebg-[#1C39BB]Accessibility
Score: 96/100On White (#FFF)
8.93:1
On Black (#000)
2.35:1
On Light Gray (#F5F5F5)
8.19:1
Best text color on this background:
Design Applications
background-color: #1C39BB
color: #1C39BB
bg-[#1C39BB] text-[#FFFFFF]
border-left: 4px solid #1C39BB
Color Harmonies
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 Persian 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
Persian Blue is a dark color. Use white (#FFFFFF) text on top of it for maximum readability (8.93:1). Avoid small black text on this background.
CSS & Code Examples
Background
background-color: #1C39BB;Text
color: #1C39BB;Border
border: 2px solid #1C39BB;Box Shadow
box-shadow: 0 4px 20px #1C39BB40;Gradient
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #1C39BB, #6263ee);Tailwind-style
--color-persian-blue: #1C39BB;Tailwind CSS Utilities
Use arbitrary value syntax in Tailwind CSS to apply Persian Blue without a custom config.
Background
bg-[#1C39BB]Text
text-[#1C39BB]Border
border-[#1C39BB]Ring
ring-[#1C39BB]Fill
fill-[#1C39BB]From (gradient)
from-[#1C39BB]Via (gradient)
via-[#1C39BB]To (gradient)
to-[#1C39BB]Design Tokens
Ready-to-use Persian Blue design token in CSS custom properties, SCSS, Tailwind v3/v4, and JSON formats.
CSS Custom Properties
:root {
--color-persian-blue: #1C39BB;
--color-persian-blue-rgb: 28, 57, 187;
--color-persian-blue-hsl: 229, 74%, 42%;
}SCSS Variables
$color-persian-blue: #1C39BB; $color-persian-blue-rgb: 28, 57, 187; $color-persian-blue-hsl: 229, 74%, 42%;
Tailwind v3 Config
// tailwind.config.js
module.exports = {
theme: {
extend: {
colors: {
'persian-blue': '#1C39BB',
},
},
},
};Tailwind v4 (@theme)
/* tailwind.css */
@theme {
--color-persian-blue: #1C39BB;
}JSON Design Token (W3C format)
{
"persian-blue": {
"value": "#1C39BB",
"type": "color",
"description": "Persian Blue — #1C39BB"
}
}More blue colors
View all →What Does Persian Blue Mean? Color Psychology & Cultural Symbolism
Persian Blue at #1C39BB is a medium expression of the trust spectrum. Blue tones are processed by the brain's credibility centers before conscious evaluation—which is why virtually every major financial institution, technology company, and government body defaults to the blue family to establish authority.
- Across color psychology research, blue consistently tests high for "trustworthiness" associations, making Persian Blue a reliable vehicle for stability in cross-demographic audiences.
- Brand designers draw on blue-family tones to project stability and competence—values that Persian Blue communicates in a medium key.
- At 74% saturation, Persian Blue reads as moderately saturated—neither overwhelming nor passive, landing in the trust, reliability, calm, and professionalism zone with measured confidence.
- Persian Blue's medium lightness (42%) shifts its psychological register: a balanced mid-tone that embodies trust, reliability, calm, and professionalism at its most direct.
The power of Persian Blue is quiet consistency. It builds trust cumulatively, appearing wherever credibility matters.
How to Use Persian Blue in Design: Applications, Pairings & Best Practices
The design challenge with Persian Blue 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.
- Avoid: food contexts where it suppresses appetite (the only major color with no natural blue foods), extreme urgency signals, and applications targeting very young children where warmer colors perform better.
- Color harmonies: Persian Blue's complementary color creates a high-energy split ideal for promotional design; its analogous palette (±30° hue) builds cohesive, monochromatic sophistication.
- Proportional use: Persian Blue's moderately saturated saturation (74%) means small applications—accents, highlights, icons—deliver maximum impact without visual fatigue. Reserve large-scale use for intentional brand moments.
- As a dark tone, Persian Blue creates maximum contrast with white and light neutrals—excellent for creating premium dark-mode sections, bold headers, and high-drama brand moments
- Typography: Persian Blue works as a background behind white text but requires careful sizing—test at intended heading and body sizes before finalizing.
The power of Persian Blue is quiet consistency. It builds trust cumulatively, appearing wherever credibility matters.
Persian Blue Accessibility: WCAG Contrast Ratios, Color Blindness & Inclusive Design
Persian Blue (#1C39BB) achieves a 8.93:1 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: 6.8%.
- As text on white (#FFFFFF): 8.93:1 — AAA ✓
- As text on black (#000000): 2.35:1 — Fail
- Best text color on Persian Blue background: White (#FFFFFF) at 8.93:1
- WCAG 2.1 luminance: 6.8% — low luminance (dark)—it provides strong contrast for white and light overlaid text, functioning well as a background in dark-mode and header contexts
- Persian 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.
For production use, test Persian Blue against your specific background colors rather than assuming #FFFFFF or #000000 performance translates. Surrounding colors alter perceived contrast.
Persian Blue in Industry: Branding, Design & Market Applications
Persian Blue (#1C39BB) 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 moderately saturated saturation signals trust 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: Capital One, PayPal, 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: Persian 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, Persian Blue works effectively in corporate identity, banking and finance UIs, healthcare platforms—contexts where trust serves a secondary but reinforcing role.
The industries where Persian Blue performs best are those where the audience expects trust. Build brand strategy around this alignment, not against it.
Accessibility & Design Guides
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is the hex code for Persian Blue? ▾
- The hex code for Persian Blue is #1C39BB. Its RGB values are rgb(28, 57, 187) and its HSL values are hsl(229, 74%, 42%).
- What does Persian 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 Persian Blue WCAG accessible? ▾
- Persian Blue (#1C39BB) passes WCAG AAA on white with a 8.93:1 contrast ratio. Its overall accessibility score is 96/100.
- What colors go well with Persian Blue? ▾
- Persian Blue pairs well with its complementary color Butter (#F0DC82). Analogous colors like Baby Blue and Brandeis Blue also work harmoniously. Check the Color Harmonies section above for the full palette.
- What is Persian Blue used for? ▾
- Persian 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 Persian Blue? ▾
- In CSS, use `color: #1C39BB` or `background-color: #1C39BB`. The CSS custom property is `--color-persian-blue: #1C39BB`. In Tailwind CSS, use the arbitrary value class `bg-[#1C39BB]` for backgrounds or `text-[#1C39BB]` for text.