Indigo#4100FF, a cool vivid indigo
Indigo 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 Indigo?
Indigo's meaning, origin, and pronunciation, with sources.
Anchor: A54 · one of the 72 anchor hues of ART
Origin: Greek: "the Indian [dye]," via Latin, Spanish, and Portuguese trade
Meaning: The dye from India; the only spectrum color named for a country
IN-dih-goh · /ˈɪndɪɡoʊ/
Sanskrit sindhu, "river" → Old Persian Hindu → Greek Indos, the Indus river → Greek indikon, "the Indian dye" → Latin indicum → Spanish and Portuguese indico → English indigo, by the 1550s.
When Newton drew indigo into the rainbow in 1704, it became the only color of the spectrum named after a country.
The dye's older Mediterranean name hides the better story. That name was anil, from Arabic an-nīl, from Persian nīla, from Sanskrit nīlī, "dark blue," and anil is where aniline got its name. Aniline is the coal-tar chemical behind the synthetic dyes that destroyed the natural indigo trade in a single generation. So the industry that killed indigo is named, through four languages, after indigo. The murder weapon carries the victim's name.
etymonline s.v. indigo, aniline; Wiktionary s.v. indigo; Merriam-Webster. Etymological dictionaries + scholarly sources. Audio: Speaker: Vealhurl Recorder: Vealhurl, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Shades of Indigo, lighter and darker
For hover states, washed backgrounds, and dark surfaces that still read as #4100FF. 13 steps, spaced evenly by eye, with the color itself sitting at its natural depth, indigo-700.
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 #4100FF, like this whole page.
Is Indigo 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. White text on #4100FF 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 · 70 of 210 pairings reach WCAG 2.2 AAA, shown here.
Ship the audit, not screenshots.
Run #4100FF 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 #4100FF, like this whole page.
Indigo 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, #4100FF is . That is the value design tools and file formats use when no press is involved.
On press (what each standard prints)
shifts ΔE00 26.5, 10.6× the 2.5 a run varies by
shifts ΔE00 21.2, 8.5× the 2.5 a run varies by
shifts ΔE00 16.1, 6.5× the 2.5 a run varies by
shifts ΔE00 16.0, 6.4× the 2.5 a run varies by
shifts ΔE00 16.0, 6.4× 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 Indigo
The dye from India; the only spectrum color named for a country
Here are other colors similar to Indigo along with accessible text pairings and whether or not they're print-safe. Explore The Indigos
| Nocturne | Nocturne | #2C00FF | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Light Royal Blue | Light Royal Blue | #3A2EFE | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Circe | Circe | #5300FF | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Vivid Blue | Vivid Blue | #152EFF | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Blue/Purple | Blue/Purple | #5A06EF | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Twilight | Twilight | #002EFF | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Rich Blue | Rich Blue | #021BF9 | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Vibrant Blue | Vibrant Blue | #0339F8 | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Strong Blue | Strong Blue | #0C06F7 | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Zreq | Zreq | #0207FF | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Primary Blue | Primary Blue | #0804F9 | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Purplish Blue | Purplish Blue | #601EF9 | white text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Charoite | Charoite | #6300FF | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Lapis | Lapis | #0043FF | white text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Purpley Blue | Purpley Blue | #5F34E7 | white text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Purple Blue | Purple Blue | #632DE9 | white text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Ultramarine Blue | Ultramarine Blue | #1805DB | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Pure Blue | Pure Blue | #0203E2 | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Electric Blue | Electric Blue | #0652FF | white text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Purpleish Blue | Purpleish Blue | #6140EF | white text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Blue Purple | Blue Purple | #5729CE | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Violet Blue | Violet Blue | #510AC9 | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Blurple | Blurple | #5539CC | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Blue Blue | Blue Blue | #2242C7 | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Blue With A Hint Of Purple | Blue With A Hint Of Purple | #533CC6 | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| True Blue | True Blue | #010FCC | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Medium Blue | Medium Blue | #0000CD | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Persian Blue | Persian Blue | #1C39BB | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Warm Blue | Warm Blue | #4B57DB | white text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Governor Bay | Governor Bay | #2F3CB3 | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Indigo Blue | Indigo Blue | #3A18B1 | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Ultramarine | Ultramarine | #2000B1 | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Royal Blue | Royal Blue | #4169E1 | white text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Dark Periwinkle | Dark Periwinkle | #665FD1 | white text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Cobalt Blue | Cobalt Blue | #030AA7 | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Jacksons Purple | Jacksons Purple | #20208D | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Royal | Royal | #0C1793 | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Cornflower | Cornflower | #6A79F7 | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Blue Gem | Blue Gem | #2C0E8C | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Dark Blue | Dark Blue | #00008B | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Persian Indigo | Persian Indigo | #32127A | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Deep Koamaru | Deep Koamaru | #1B127B | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Soft Blue | Soft Blue | #6488EA | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Navy | Navy | #000080 | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Deep Blue | Deep Blue | #040273 | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Paris M | Paris M | #26056A | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Arapawa | Arapawa | #110C6C | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Paua | Paua | #260368 | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Violent Violet | Violent Violet | #290C5E | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
Colors that go with Indigo
The complementary color, straight across the wheel, is a warm light lemon #EBDC71. 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 Indigo 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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