Sapphire#0061FF, a cool vivid blue
Sapphire 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 Sapphire?
Sapphire's meaning, origin, and pronunciation, with sources.
Anchor: A48 · one of the 72 anchor hues of ART
Origin: Greek, via Latin and Old French; the ultimate source is genuinely contested
Meaning: In antiquity, almost certainly lapis lazuli, not the gem we mean today
SAF-ire · /ˈsæfaɪər/
Greek sappheiros → Latin sapphirus → Old French saphir → English sapphire, by the mid-1200s.
Before Greek the trail forks, and the sources genuinely disagree. One account starts from Hebrew sappīr, possibly from Akkadian before that. Another starts from Sanskrit śanipriya, "dear to Saturn," and Indian astrology still treats the blue sapphire as Saturn's stone, which quietly flatters the Sanskrit theory.
The stone itself has a plot twist. In antiquity, sappheiros almost certainly meant lapis lazuli rather than the gem we mean today, so the "sapphire" of the Hebrew Bible, the pavement beneath God's throne in Exodus, was probably lapis.
And the mineralogy completes the wheel's neatest pair. Sapphire is corundum, and so is ruby: the same stone, divided by color into two unrelated words, red taking one road out of Latin and blue taking two roads out of Asia.
etymonline s.v. sapphire; Wiktionary s.v. sapphire; GIA sapphire history. Etymological dictionaries + scholarly sources.
Shades of Sapphire, lighter and darker
For hover states, washed backgrounds, and dark surfaces that still read as #0061FF. 13 steps, spaced evenly by eye, with the color itself sitting at its natural depth, sapphire-600.
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 #0061FF, like this whole page.
Is Sapphire 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 #0061FF passes AA. For AAA, use its scale. Every strip below is one surface, and the marks are the steps that reach AAA on it.
Rows are text, columns are background · 64 of 210 pairings reach WCAG 2.2 AAA, shown here.
Ship the audit, not screenshots.
Run #0061FF 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 #0061FF, like this whole page.
Sapphire 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, #0061FF is . That is the value design tools and file formats use when no press is involved.
On press (what each standard prints)
shifts ΔE00 13.7, 5.5× the 2.5 a run varies by
shifts ΔE00 10.1, 4.1× the 2.5 a run varies by
shifts ΔE00 11.1, 4.4× the 2.5 a run varies by
shifts ΔE00 10.1, 4.0× the 2.5 a run varies by
shifts ΔE00 10.2, 4.1× 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 Sapphire
In antiquity, almost certainly lapis lazuli, not the gem we mean today
Here are other colors similar to Sapphire along with accessible text pairings and whether or not they're print-safe. Explore The Blues
| Bright Blue | Bright Blue | #0165FC | white text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Blue Ribbon | Blue Ribbon | #0066FF | white text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Irtyu | Irtyu | #0053FF | white text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Azul | Azul | #1D5DEC | white 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 |
| Deep Sky Blue | Deep Sky Blue | #0D75F8 | 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 |
| Azure Radiance | Azure Radiance | #007FFF | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Lightish Blue | Lightish Blue | #3D7AFD | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Science Blue | Science Blue | #0066CC | white text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Mariner | Mariner | #286ACD | white text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Azure | Azure | #0087FF | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Dodger Blue | Dodger Blue | #1E90FF | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Borealis | Borealis | #0092FF | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Goluboy | Goluboy | #009EFF | black text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| International Klein Blue | International Klein Blue | #002FA7 | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Torea Bay | Torea Bay | #0F2D9E | white text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Smalt | Smalt | #003399 | 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 Sapphire
The complementary color, straight across the wheel, is a warm medium amber #E0A35A. 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 Sapphire 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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