Skylark#00BFFF, a cool brilliant blue

At a glanceSkylark is #00BFFF, oklch(75.5% 0.153 231.6), a cool brilliant blue, fully saturated at the sRGB gamut edge for its hue. Pair it with a warm medium orange #E99961 as an accent, a cool vivid blue #295ABD for harmony, and a cool faded blue #A1ACB2 as a neutral. Put it to work as a screen-first brand or accent color, and it takes black text at AA contrast. It shifts further on press than a run can hold, though, so Rhapsody would keep it off print-led brand work.
Color codes

Skylark in RGB, HSL, OKLCH & more

Ready to ship: every line pastes straight into your codebase, and the whole file copies at once.

00bfff.css
:root { /* how your code speaks it */ /* how your eyes measure it */ /* how the lab measures it, D65 2° */}/* tailwind v4 */

ART is Rhapsody's perceptual model. How ART works

The name

Why is it called Skylark?

Skylark's meaning, origin, and pronunciation, with sources.

Anchor: A40 · one of the 72 anchor hues of ART

Origin: Native English + a Norse loan. The Vikings gave English its word for sky

Meaning: The lark of the open sky

Old English lāwerce, "lark" + sky → English skylark. And sky is the borrowed half: it comes from Old Norse ský, "cloud," brought over by the Vikings. Before them, English made do with heofon.

The bird isn't named for its color but for its behavior. A skylark sings while climbing, and keeps climbing until it disappears from view. Shelley's "blithe Spirit," and the bird of Vaughan Williams's The Lark Ascending. Which makes this the wheel's loveliest paradox: a color named for a bird you hear rather than see, at the altitude where the bird vanishes and only the blue is left.

etymonline s.v. sky, lark, skylark; OED. Etymological dictionaries, cross-checked. Audio: Dvortygirl, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Tints & shades

Shades of Skylark, lighter and darker

For hover states, washed backgrounds, and dark surfaces that still read as #00BFFF. 13 steps, spaced evenly by eye, with the color itself sitting at its natural depth, skylark-400.

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)

Rhapsody Palette

Most tools mix. Rhapsody measures.

Paste any color. The whole system comes back, contrast-checked before you see it.

Build your palette free

The window on the right was generated from #00BFFF, like this whole page.

Accessibility

Is Skylark 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 #00BFFF 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.

Rhapsody Palette

Ship the audit, not screenshots.

Run #00BFFF against the colors you actually ship, every pairing and any target, and export it: exact ratios, the AA tier, APCA, in one file.

Get the full audit

The audit on the right was calibrated from #00BFFF, like this whole page.

Print

Skylark 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, #00BFFF is . That is the value design tools and file formats use when no press is involved.

On press (what each standard prints)

CGATS21 CRPC1 (coldset news) shifts on press
on screenon press

shifts ΔE00 4.3, 1.7× the 2.5 a run varies by

GRACoL 2013 Uncoated (CRPC3) shifts on press
on screenon press

shifts ΔE00 3.5, 1.4× the 2.5 a run varies by

GRACoL 2013 (CRPC6) shifts on press
on screenon press

shifts ΔE00 3.8, 1.5× the 2.5 a run varies by

PSO Coated v3 (FOGRA51) shifts on press
on screenon press

shifts ΔE00 3.4, 1.4× the 2.5 a run varies by

Coated FOGRA39 shifts on press
on screenon press

shifts ΔE00 3.1, 1.2× the 2.5 a run varies by

Japan Color 2011 Coated shifts on press
on screenon press

shifts ΔE00 2.8, 1.1× the 2.5 a run varies by

APTEC Flexo Coated shifts on press
on screenon press

shifts ΔE00 4.0, 1.6× the 2.5 a run varies by

CGATS21 CRPC7 (extended gamut) shifts on press
on screenon press

shifts ΔE00 3.9, 1.6× 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.

Rhapsody Converter · coming soon

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.

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The strip shows this page's tints and shades on screen, then through a standard GRACoL 2013 conversion.

The Skylarks

Colors similar to Skylark

The lark of the open sky

Here are other colors similar to Skylark along with accessible text pairings and whether or not they're print-safe. Explore The Blues

XanaduXanadu#00B4FFblack text · AAA✕ shifts on press
Picton BluePicton Blue#45B1E8black text · AAA! within tolerance
MinervaMinerva#00A9FFblack text · AAA✕ shifts on press
Carolina BlueCarolina Blue#8AB8FEblack text · AAA✕ shifts on press
Cornflower BlueCornflower Blue#6495EDblack text · AAA✕ shifts on press
Curious BlueCurious Blue#2596D1black text · AA! within tolerance
DanubeDanube#6093D1black text · AA! within tolerance
Havelock BlueHavelock Blue#5590D9black text · AA! within tolerance
Dark Sky BlueDark Sky Blue#448EE4black text · AA✕ shifts on press
Pairings

Colors that go with Skylark

The complementary color, straight across the wheel, is a warm bold red #CC4A46. 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.

Downloads

Take Skylark 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.

Skylark color codes: hex #00BFFF, RGB, HSL, CMYK, and OKLCH, from Rhapsody
Paste it anywhere without coming back for it.
The full tonal scale of Skylark, 13 steps from light to dark with every hex, from Rhapsody
Reach for the right depth instead of the one you have.
Skylark paired with a warm medium orange #E99961, a cool vivid blue #295ABD, a cool faded blue #A1ACB2: hex values and roles, from Rhapsody
Open a palette that already works together.
One free account

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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