Picking the right blue
Blue covers more ground than any other color family, so start with the job the color has to do:
- Backgrounds and large areas: the light blues and muted, grayish blues. They stay calm at large sizes.
- Links and buttons: mid blues around the lightness of
royalblue(#4169E1). Check the "Aa" figure on the swatch; white text needs 4.5:1 or more. - Text and dark themes: navy and midnight shades. Most of them pass AA with white text easily.
Warm and cool blues
Blues that lean toward green, like turquoise or cerulean, feel fresh and outdoorsy. Blues that lean toward purple, like ultramarine and periwinkle, feel richer and more formal. In a palette, keep blues from the same side, or deliberately pair one of each as light and dark partners.
The meaning question
Blue is the most common favorite color in surveys across many countries, which is one reason banks, hospitals and tech companies use it so much. The flip side is that a plain mid blue rarely stands out. A distinctive tint, or a warm accent such as orange, the complement of blue, gives a blue palette character.
Building from one blue
Pick a swatch and paste its HEX into the color shades generator to get a full light-to-dark ramp for an interface. For blue palettes with good partners, try the color palette generator, and see the cool colors page for blues alongside teals and purples.