shades of blue

A broad, dependable band from 201° to 250°, and the most commonly named favourite colour.

The shade ramp

Same hue and saturation, brightness falling from near-white to near-black. This is what most people mean by “shades of blue”.

#3666F5

#305BDC

#2B51C3

#2547AA

#203C91

#1A3278

#15285F

#0F1D46

#0A132D

#040814

Brightness ramp at hue 225°, saturation 78%.

The tint ramp

Same hue and brightness, saturation climbing from almost gray to full strength. Saturation is the channel players misjudge most often, because a washed-out blue and a vivid one carry the same name.

#D8DDEB

#C0CBEB

#A8B9EB

#90A7EB

#7895EB

#6083EB

#4871EB

#305FEB

#184DEB

#003BEB

Saturation ramp at hue 225°, brightness 92%.

Across the range

Everything the eye files under blue, sampled from 201° to 250°. Two colors at opposite ends of this strip still share one word.

#28A0E0

#288FE0

#287FE0

#286EE0

#285DE0

#284DE0

#283CE0

#282BE0

#3628E0

#4728E0

Hue sweep from 201° to 250°.

Named blues

Navy#000080
Royal blue#4169E1
Denim#1560BD
Cobalt#0047AB
Steel blue#4682B4

Why blue is hard to remember

Blue is remembered well as a category and poorly as a value. Because so many distinct things are called blue — navy, sky, denim, royal — the label carries no precision, and rebuilt blues cluster around a generic mid-blue regardless of what was shown.

Off Colors shows you a color for five seconds and asks you to rebuild it. It tells you which channel you missed and by how much.

Test your color memory

Other hue families

How the scoring works