2196F3 (Blue 500) — RGB, HSL, CMYK and Contrast

Q: What text colour should sit on 2196F3?

Black gives 6.72:1 and white gives 3.12:1, so black wins at 6.72:1. That clears the 4.5:1 AA threshold for normal text, but not the 7:1 AAA threshold.

Every value recomputed from the hex code · WCAG 2.1 contrast ratios

A blue at 54% lightness and 90% saturation, which puts it at 3.12:1 against white and 6.72:1 against black. The tables below give the notation conversions, the tints and shades that keep the hue intact, and the harmonies that pair with it.

2196F3

Notation conversions

Notation	Value
HEX	`2196F3`
RGB	rgb(33, 150, 243)
HSL	hsl(207, 90%, 54%)
CMYK	cmyk(86%, 38%, 0%, 5%)
Relative luminance	0.2861
Perceived brightness	49.3 / 100

R=33 G=150 B=243 · hue 206.6° · saturation 89.7% · lightness 54.1%

Contrast against pure white and pure black

Pair this colour with the two extremes to see which is the safer text partner. AA needs 4.5:1 for body text and 3:1 for large text; AAA raises that to 7:1 and 4.5:1.

Against	Hex	Ratio	AA text	AA large	AAA text
#FFFFFF	`white`	3.12:1	fail	pass	fail
#000000	`black`	6.72:1	pass	pass	fail

Tints and shades

Lightness moves in ten-point steps while hue and saturation stay fixed, which keeps the colour recognisable in a scale. The last column is the ratio against white text, useful for deciding where a scale stops working as a background.

Step	Hex	HSL	vs white text
shade -30	`#064475`	hsl(207, 90%, 24%)	10.04:1
shade -20	`#0960a5`	hsl(207, 90%, 34%)	6.51:1
shade -10	`#0c7cd5`	hsl(207, 90%, 44%)	4.32:1
tint +10	`#51adf6`	hsl(207, 90%, 64%)	2.43:1
tint +20	`#82c4f8`	hsl(207, 90%, 74%)	1.87:1
tint +30	`#b2dbfb`	hsl(207, 90%, 84%)	1.46:1

Harmonies

Scheme	Hex
Complementary	`#f37e21`
Analogous −30	`#21f3e7`
Analogous +30	`#212df3`
Triadic −120	`#96f321`
Triadic +120	`#f32196`

Read back from the notation table, 2196F3 is rgb(33, 150, 243), which normalises to hue 206.6° at 89.7% saturation and 54.1% lightness. Its relative luminance of 0.2861 is what produces the two ratios above: 3.12:1 against white and 6.72:1 against black, a gap of 3.60. Position 42 of 69 in the colour library, it darkens to #064475 thirty points lower on the lightness axis and lifts to #b2dbfb thirty higher, while the complementary rotation lands on #f37e21.

Nearby colours

4682B4 steelblue 0000FF blue 708090 slategray 4169E1 royalblue 4B0082 indigo 663399 rebeccapurple

Frequently asked questions

What text colour should sit on 2196F3?
Black gives 6.72:1 and white gives 3.12:1, so black wins at 6.72:1. That clears the 4.5:1 AA threshold for normal text, but not the 7:1 AAA threshold.

Do the CMYK numbers match a print workflow?
They are the naive conversion from RGB, which assumes no ink limit, no colour profile and no black generation strategy. Real print work needs a profile-aware conversion; the values here are the ones the converter reports and are best used as a starting point for a designer rather than a press-ready separations file.

Convert any other colour, or test a pair against each other, in the ColrShift colour converter and contrast checker. The colour library groups every entry on this site by hue family.