Goluboy#009EFF, a cool vivid blue
Goluboy in RGB, HSL, OKLCH & more
Ready to ship: every line pastes straight into your codebase, and the whole file copies at once.
ART is Rhapsody's perceptual model. How ART works
Why is it called Goluboy?
Goluboy's meaning, origin, and pronunciation, with sources.
Anchor: A43 · one of the 72 anchor hues of ART
Origin: Russian
Meaning: Light blue, sky blue, literally "dove-colored"
Word: голубой (Russian)
guh-loo-BOY · /ɡəlʊˈboj/ — stress on the final syllable
Proto-Slavic *golǫbъ, "dove" → Old East Slavic → Russian голубой, "light blue" → this anchor's goluboy.
The color is named for the blue sheen on a dove's neck, and it comes from a word family that radiates tenderness: golubchik, "my dove," is a term of affection, and golubika is the blueberry.
Goluboy is one of Russian's two basic blues; siniy is the dark one. There is no general word sitting above the pair, so a Russian speaker has to choose between them. That choice runs deep. Russian speakers tell two blues apart measurably faster when the pair straddles the goluboy–siniy line, and the advantage disappears when their language is kept busy with something else (Winawer et al., 2007). It is why goluboy is the standing candidate for a twelfth basic color term.
The word carries a second history, told here with respect. In the Soviet era, when the law criminalized male homosexuality, goluboy became gay men's own protective code for themselves. A survival vocabulary, in the same family as Polari and "friend of Dorothy." Rhapsody's founder, a gay man, chose the name knowing both of its lives, as reclamation.
Wiktionary s.v. голубой; Winawer et al., PNAS 2007; Vasmer s.v. голубой; Essig, Queer in Russia (Duke, 1999); Healey, Homosexual Desire in Revolutionary Russia (Chicago, 2001). Dictionary + scholarly sources; no native-speaker review. Audio: The Shtooka Project, CC BY 2.0 fr.
Shades of Goluboy, lighter and darker
For hover states, washed backgrounds, and dark surfaces that still read as #009EFF. 13 steps, spaced evenly by eye, with the color itself sitting at its natural depth, goluboy-500.
Tints (light surfaces; dark text passes on every one)
Midtones (the color at full strength, for brand & accent work)
Shades (dark surfaces; light text passes on every one)
Most tools mix. Rhapsody measures.
Paste any color. The whole system comes back, contrast-checked before you see it.
The window on the right was generated from #009EFF, like this whole page.
Is Goluboy accessible? Contrast with white & black
Strong contrast makes your work readable by everyone, and meets the WCAG standard accessibility law points at. AA is the floor; AAA is the tier worth aiming for in body text. Black text on #009EFF clears WCAG AAA. Every strip below is one surface, and the marks are the steps that reach AAA on it.
Rows are text, columns are background · 66 of 210 pairings reach WCAG 2.2 AAA, shown here.
Ship the audit, not screenshots.
Run #009EFF against the colors you actually ship, every pairing and any target, and export it: exact ratios, the AA tier, APCA, in one file.
The audit on the right was calibrated from #009EFF, like this whole page.
Goluboy in CMYK: one value for files, one per press
This color shifts further than a press run can hold, so expect a visible difference. The pairs below show where each standard lands.
In CMYK, #009EFF is . That is the value design tools and file formats use when no press is involved.
On press (what each standard prints)
shifts ΔE00 6.0, 2.4× the 2.5 a run varies by
shifts ΔE00 5.6, 2.3× the 2.5 a run varies by
shifts ΔE00 6.0, 2.4× the 2.5 a run varies by
shifts ΔE00 4.9, 2.0× the 2.5 a run varies by
shifts ΔE00 5.1, 2.0× the 2.5 a run varies by
Press values computed through the ICC characterization data each standard proofs against. Each CMYK above is the closest that standard can get.
No surprises at the printer.
Run any color through the major press standards: FOGRA51, GRACoL, Japan Color, FOGRA39. It's coming soon. Create a free account and you'll get a note the moment it's live.
The strip shows this page's tints and shades on screen, then through a standard GRACoL 2013 conversion.
Colors similar to Goluboy
Light blue, sky blue, literally "dove-colored"
Here are other colors similar to Goluboy along with accessible text pairings and whether or not they're print-safe. Explore The Blues
| Borealis | Borealis | #0092FF | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Dodger Blue | Dodger Blue | #1E90FF | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Azure | Azure | #0087FF | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Azure Radiance | Azure Radiance | #007FFF | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Lightish Blue | Lightish Blue | #3D7AFD | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Cobalt | Cobalt | #007BFF | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Clear Blue | Clear Blue | #247AFD | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Deep Sky Blue | Deep Sky Blue | #0D75F8 | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Rhapsody | Rhapsody | #006FFF | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Cerulean Blue | Cerulean Blue | #056EEE | white text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Blue Ribbon | Blue Ribbon | #0066FF | white text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Bright Blue | Bright Blue | #0165FC | white text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Mariner | Mariner | #286ACD | white text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Sapphire | Sapphire | #0061FF | white text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Science Blue | Science Blue | #0066CC | white text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Azul | Azul | #1D5DEC | white text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Irtyu | Irtyu | #0053FF | white text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| International Klein Blue | International Klein Blue | #002FA7 | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Smalt | Smalt | #003399 | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Torea Bay | Torea Bay | #0F2D9E | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Resolution Blue | Resolution Blue | #002387 | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Catalina Blue | Catalina Blue | #062A78 | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Dark Royal Blue | Dark Royal Blue | #02066F | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
Colors that go with Goluboy
The complementary color, straight across the wheel, is a warm medium scarlet #E0714A. Rhapsody's pick is the split complement, just to one side of it, a livelier pair.
The accent is for the moments that need attention, the harmony for the ones that need calm; the neutral carries the text and surfaces in between.
Take Goluboy with you
The work on this page doesn't stay here. Save a card and the color arrives in your file, your deck or your board already decided.
Your system is already built.
Rhapsody built it before you even asked: the scale, the neutrals, the utilities, every pairing calibrated.
This page's whole theme is built from one color. Palette does the same for yours: every step calibrated, every pairing checked, press included.
Every color on this page was calibrated, not mixed.
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