Spindle#B6D1EA, a cool pastel blue
Spindle 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
What kind of blue is Spindle?
Every color has a place in the standard vocabulary. This is Spindle's, measured rather than asserted.
Spindle's Munsell numbers: hue 2.8PB, value 8.2 (how light), chroma 4.2 (how vivid). That places it in ISCC-NBS block very pale blue, one of 267 named ranges the standard sorts every color into. Chroma 4.2 is low. This is a greyed, muted blue, nearer neutral than vivid, which is why it reads as a surface rather than an accent.
There's still some room before it hits the edge of what your screen can show for this hue. It could go a little more saturated and stay in gamut.
Munsell coordinates and block from the ISCC-NBS system, computed by Rhapsody's own renotation inversion.
Shades of Spindle, lighter and darker
For hover states, washed backgrounds, and dark surfaces that still read as #B6D1EA. 13 steps, spaced evenly by eye, with the color itself sitting at its natural depth, spindle-300.
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 #B6D1EA, like this whole page.
Is Spindle 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 #B6D1EA 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 · 68 of 210 pairings reach WCAG 2.2 AAA, shown here.
Ship the audit, not screenshots.
Run #B6D1EA 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 #B6D1EA, like this whole page.
Spindle in CMYK: one value for files, one per press
Every held press standard prints this color exactly as it is.
In CMYK, #B6D1EA is . That is the value design tools and file formats use when no press is involved.
On press (what each standard prints)
shifts ΔE00 0.0, under the 2.5 a press run varies by
shifts ΔE00 0.6, under the 2.5 a press run varies by
Press values computed through the ICC characterization data each standard proofs against. Each CMYK held to prints the color exactly.
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 Spindle
Here are other colors similar to Spindle along with accessible text pairings and whether or not they're print-safe. Explore The Blues
| Light Blue Grey | Light Blue Grey | #B7C9E2 | black text · AAA | ✓ prints exactly |
| Jungle Mist | Jungle Mist | #B4CFD3 | black text · AAA | ✓ prints exactly |
| Ghost | Ghost | #C7C9D5 | black text · AAA | ✓ prints exactly |
| Ziggurat | Ziggurat | #BFDBE2 | black text · AAA | ✓ prints exactly |
| Light Steel Blue | Light Steel Blue | #B0C4DE | black text · AAA | ✓ prints exactly |
| Mischka | Mischka | #D1D2DD | black text · AAA | ✓ prints exactly |
| Tropical Blue | Tropical Blue | #C3DDF9 | black text · AAA | ! within tolerance |
| Sail | Sail | #B8E0F9 | black text · AAA | ! within tolerance |
| Botticelli | Botticelli | #C7DDE5 | black text · AAA | ✓ prints exactly |
| Cloudy Blue | Cloudy Blue | #ACC2D9 | black text · AAA | ✓ prints exactly |
| Casper | Casper | #ADBED1 | black text · AAA | ✓ prints exactly |
| Link Water | Link Water | #D9E4F5 | black text · AAA | ! within tolerance |
| Solitude | Solitude | #EAF6FF | black text · AAA | lighter than the paper |
| Zumthor | Zumthor | #EDF6FF | black text · AAA | lighter than the paper |
| Catskill White | Catskill White | #EEF6F7 | black text · AAA | lighter than the paper |
| Alice Blue | Alice Blue | #F0F8FF | black text · AAA | lighter than the paper |
| Black Squeeze | Black Squeeze | #F2FAFA | black text · AAA | lighter than the paper |
Colors that go with Spindle
The complementary color, straight across the wheel, is a warm muted scarlet #C07F6A. 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 vivid is the same color with the volume up, for when it has to shout.
Take Spindle 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.
One email, when there is something to say. We’ll send a link to confirm · Privacy