Shades of blue
Blue is more than just a color; it's a spectrum of emotions, natural phenomena, and cultural meanings. From the calm of the sky to the depths of the ocean, the way we define, classify, and even name its countless variations reveals fascinating insights into human perception and technological innovation. Join us as we explore the diverse and rich world of blue, far beyond what meets the eye. Our perception of 'blue' is scientifically broken down by hue, saturation, and lightness, forming the basis for countless unique shades. Different color systems, like RGB for screens or CMYK for printing, define their 'blue' uniquely to suit specific technological needs. Many iconic shades of blue carry rich histories, cultural significance, or are inspired by natural wonders, connecting color to the world around us.
AI Summary
Blue is more than just a color; it's a spectrum of emotions, natural phenomena, and cultural meanings. From the calm of the sky to the depths of the ocean, the way we define, classify, and even name its countless variations reveals fascinating insights into human perception and technological innovation. Join us as we explore the diverse and rich world of blue, far beyond what meets the eye.
- Our perception of 'blue' is scientifically broken down by hue, saturation, and lightness, forming the basis for countless unique shades.
- Different color systems, like RGB for screens or CMYK for printing, define their 'blue' uniquely to suit specific technological needs.
- Many iconic shades of blue carry rich histories, cultural significance, or are inspired by natural wonders, connecting color to the world around us.
The Spectrum of Blue
Blue is perhaps one of the most versatile and beloved colors, encompassing everything from tranquil pastels to intense, dark hues. But what truly makes one blue different from another? It boils down to three fundamental qualities: hue, chroma, and lightness.
Imagine the color wheel—hue is where blue sits on that wheel, its pure, unadulterated color. Chroma, also called saturation, measures its intensity or colorfulness; think of a vibrant sapphire versus a muted denim. Lightness, or value, simply tells us how bright or dark a blue is, ranging from nearly white to almost black.
Tints and Shades: Brightening and Deepening Blue
In color theory, we use specific terms to describe variations in lightness. A 'tint' is created when a blue is mixed with white, making it lighter and softer. Think of a baby blue or a sky blue.
Conversely, a 'shade' is what you get when you mix blue with black, resulting in a darker, deeper tone. Navy blue or midnight blue are classic examples of shades. These simple additions dramatically alter a color's mood and presence.
Defining Blue in Different Worlds
The word 'blue' might seem straightforward, but its precise definition changes depending on the context—especially in the digital, print, and artistic realms. Each industry has developed its own color system to standardize and reproduce blue accurately.
RGB Blue: The Digital Primary
When you look at a computer screen or television, you're seeing colors created by the RGB model: Red, Green, and Blue. The 'blue' defined here, often called X11 blue, is one of the three primary colors of light. It's designed to be the most vivid, or 'chromatic,' blue your screen can produce.
This digital blue sits at 240 degrees on the HSV/HSL color wheel, a position indicating its pure hue. Its complementary color, which creates white light when combined, is yellow—a striking contrast that demonstrates the power of additive color mixing.
CMYK Blue: For the Printer's Ink
In contrast to the additive RGB system, the CMYK model is subtractive, used for printing with ink. Here, 'blue' is often referred to as 'pigment blue' and is achieved by mixing equal parts of process cyan and process magenta.
The goal of CMYK is to achieve the widest possible range of colors on paper using just these three primary inks (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow) plus black (Key). However, the exact 'blue' can vary slightly depending on the specific printing inks used, making it an approximate representation.
Pantone Blue: The Global Standard
For designers and manufacturers who need absolute color consistency across different materials and processes, Pantone is the go-to system. A 'Pantone Blue' refers to a specific, standardized color from their extensive library, ensuring that a particular shade of blue looks identical everywhere, from fabric to branding.
NCS Blue: Psychological Primaries
The Natural Color System (NCS), popular in Scandinavia, defines 'blue' based on how humans perceive color. It considers four 'unique hues'—red, yellow, green, and blue—as psychological primaries that we don't perceive as mixed with other colors.
NCS blue is described as an azure-like color, positioned on the border of cyan. This system is rooted in the 'opponent process' theory of vision, which suggests our eyes perceive colors in opposing pairs, like blue versus yellow, or red versus green.
Munsell Blue: Uniform Perception
The Munsell color system aims for perceptual uniformity, meaning that equal steps in its color space should represent equal visual differences to the human eye. It uses five primary hues—red, yellow, green, blue, and purple—which are chosen to be equally spaced visually.
In the Munsell system, 'blue' falls under the 5B hue. Modern classifications place this Munsell blue as an intermediate shade, sitting somewhere between azure and cyan, demonstrating how even fundamental blues can be precisely positioned.
A Kaleidoscope of Blue Names
Beyond these technical definitions, our language is rich with evocative names for blues, often drawing inspiration from nature, history, or specific objects. These names don't just describe a color; they tell a story.
Blues with a Story
Take 'Smalt,' for example, an ancient blue pigment made from ground cobalt glass. It predates Thénard's Blue by centuries and was even known as 'Saxon Blue' due to its primary source in Saxony. Imagine the rich history within those shimmering particles!
'Savoy blue' or 'Savoy azure,' is a vibrant shade named after the House of Savoy, Italy's former ruling dynasty. After Italy's unification in 1861, it became a national color, inspiring the blue jerseys of Italian national sports teams and even a border on the Presidential Standard.
'International Klein Blue' (IKB) is a striking, deep ultramarine hue developed by French artist Yves Klein in the 1950s. Its intense visual impact comes from his unique mixture and often thick, textured application, making the color almost leap off the canvas.
And who could forget 'Navy blue'? This iconic dark blue gets its name from the uniforms of the British Royal Navy, first adopted in 1748. Originally called 'marine blue,' it became 'navy blue' around 1840 and soon spread to navies worldwide, symbolizing discipline and the vast ocean.
Other notable blues include 'Ultramarine,' a medieval pigment originally derived from the precious lapis lazuli stone; 'Egyptian blue,' an ancient pigment dating back millennia; and 'Robin Egg Blue,' a delicate blue-green named for the distinct color of American robin eggs, due to a pigment called biliverdin.
Shades of Azure: The Sky's Own Color
When we speak of 'azure,' we often envision the clear, bright sky on a perfect day. This particular variation of blue is distinctive enough to have its own family of shades. On the RGB color wheel, azure is precisely halfway between pure blue and cyan, achieved by adding a touch of green light to blue.
One of azure's most captivating variations is 'Deep sky blue,' also known as 'Capri.' This enchanting hue evokes the mesmerizing azure-cyan waters surrounding the Italian island of Capri, particularly the famed Blue Grotto, a true natural wonder.
'Cerulean,' a name first recorded in English in 1590, likely derives from the Latin word 'caeruleus,' meaning 'dark blue, blue, or blue-green,' itself hinting at 'caelum,' for 'heaven' or 'sky.' It perfectly captures that ethereal, boundless blue.
'Maya blue' is a fascinating pigment used extensively by the Mayan civilization. This unique, vibrant azure was renowned for its remarkable resistance to weathering, acids, and even biodeterioration—a true marvel of ancient chemistry.
From 'United Nations blue,' seen on the flag symbolizing global unity, to 'Cornflower blue,' named after the delicate flower, and 'Dodger blue,' gracing the uniforms of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team—each shade of azure adds another dimension to our understanding of blue's pervasive presence in our world.
Even specific institutions lend their names, such as 'Columbia blue' for Columbia University or 'Brandeis blue' for Brandeis University. Whether inspired by nature, history, or human ingenuity, the myriad shades of blue offer a rich tapestry of color that continues to captivate and inspire us.
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Shades of blue
Varieties of the color blue may differ in hue, chroma (also called saturation, intensity, or colorfulness), or lightness (or value, tone, or brightness), or in two or three of these qualities. Variations in value are also called tints and shades, a tint being a blue or other hue mixed with white, a shade being mixed with black. A large selection of these colors is shown below.
Definitions of blue
Blue (RGB) (X11 blue)
The colour defined as blue in the RGB color model, X11 blue, is the most chromatic (colourful) blue that can be reproduced on a computer screen, and is the colour named blue in X11. It is one of the three primary colors used in the RGB colour space, along with red and green. The three additive primaries in the RGB colour system are the three colours of light chosen such as to provide the maximum gamut of colours that are capable of being represented on a computer or television set.
This colour is also called color wheel blue. It is at 240 degrees on the HSV/HSL colour wheel, also known as the RGB colour wheel. It is a spectral colour which lies at, or near, the short-wavelength end of the traditional "blue" and possibly was classified as "indigo" by Newton. Its complementary colour is yellow.
Shades of blue labeled with HSL, RGB, and web color names.
Blue (CMYK) (pigment blue)
The color defined as blue in the CMYK color system used in printing, also known as pigment blue, is the tone of blue that is achieved by mixing process (printer's) cyan and process (printer's) magenta in equal proportions.
The purpose of the CMYK color system is to provide the maximum possible gamut of color reproducible in printing by the use of only three primaries.
The color indicated is only approximate as the colors of printing inks may vary.
Blue (Pantone)
Blue (Pantone) is the color that is called blue in Pantone.
The source of this color is the "Pantone Textile Paper eXtended (TPX)" color list, color # Blue C, EC, HC, M, PC, U, or UP—Blue.
Blue (NCS) (psychological primary blue)
The color defined as blue in the NCS or Natural Color System is an azure-like color. The Natural Color System is a color system based on the four unique hues or psychological primary colors red, yellow, green, and blue. The NCS is based on the opponent process theory of vision.
The "Natural Color System" is widely used in Scandinavia.
NCS Blue can only be displayed approximately on a computer screen, as these spectral colors have been adjusted to fit into the sRGB gamut. In the 21st century, this hue is classified as a variation of azure that is on the border of cyan.
Blue (Munsell)
The Munsell color system is a color space that specifies colors based on three color dimensions: hue, value (lightness), and chroma (colorfulness), spaced uniformly (in terms of human perception) in three dimensions in the Munsell color solid. In order for all the colors to be spaced uniformly, it was found necessary to use a color wheel with five, non-arbitrary, equally spaced primary colors: red, yellow, green, blue, and purple.
The color of the sample is the most chromatic (colorful) blue in the sRGB gamut that falls in the hue of 5B (primary blue) in the Munsell color space. In the 21st century, this blue is classified as an intermediate between azure and cyan.
Tints, shades, and variations of blue
Shades of blue
The term tint and shade is used in its technical sense as used in color theory.
In this section, the term 'tint' usually refers to a blueish color mixed with white or light gray. The term shade is used in its technical sense as used in color theory, meaning a blueish color mixed with black or dark gray.
The colors arranged in order of their value (brightness) (V in the HSV code), the brighter colors toward the top and the darker colors toward the bottom.
Argentinian blue
The web color Argentinian blue is a light azure color seen on the national flag of Argentina.
Baby blue
Baby blue is known as one of the pastel colors.
This color is associated with baby boys in Western culture.
The first recorded use of baby blue as a color name in English was in 1892.
B'dazzled blue
B'dazzled blue is a color in Crayola Metallic FX, a specialty set of Crayola crayons introduced in 2001.
Bleu de France
Bleu de France is a vivid blue color that has been associated in heraldry with the Kings of France since the 12th century.
Bluebonnet
Bluebonnet is a bright shade of blue with a slight violet tinge. It represents the color of bluebonnet flowers, which are part of the lupin family. The bluebonnet is the state flower of Texas.
Blue sapphire
The source of this color is the Pantone Textile Paper Extended (TPX) color list color #18-4231 "Blue Sapphire".
Carolina blue
Carolina blue (occasionally referred to as Tar Heel blue or Dialectic blue) is the shade of blue used as one of the official school colors of the University of North Carolina.
Celtic blue
Celtic blue is a shade of blue, also known as glas celtig in Welsh, or gorm ceilteach in both the Irish language and in Scottish Gaelic. Julius Caesar reported (in Commentarii de Bello Gallico) that the Britanni used to colour their bodies blue with vitrum, a word that means primarily "glass", but also the domestic name for the "woad" (Isatis tinctoria), besides the Gaulish loanword glastum (from Proto-Celtic glastos "green"). The connection seems to be that both glass and the woad are "water-like" (lat. vitrum is from Proto-Indo-European wed-ro- "water-like").
Cool black
Cool black is a dark shade of blue. It is one of the Pantone colors.
Dark blue
Dark blue is a shade of the standard (h = 240°) blue.
Delft blue
The name is derived from the Dutch pottery Delftware, also known simply as "Delft Blue".
Duke blue
Duke blue is a version of royal blue used by Duke University as one of its primary colors, especially for athletics.
Egyptian blue
Egyptian blue is a pigment that was used in Ancient Egypt.
Fluorescent blue
Fluorescent blue is a shade of blue that is radiant based on fluorescence. This is the main color on the Indian 50-rupee note.
Independence
The first recorded use of independence as a color name in English was in 1927.
International Klein Blue
International Klein Blue (IKB) is a deep blue hue first mixed by the French artist Yves Klein. IKB's visual impact comes from its heavy reliance on ultramarine, as well as Klein's often thick and textured application of paint to canvas. Klein never patented the color, only submitting a Soleau envelope without progressing to the patent stage.
King blue
Displayed as right is the color king blue, a variant of sapphire with a violet tone.
Liberty
The first recorded use of liberty as a color name in English was in 1918.
Light blue
The web color light blue is part of the X11 color system, with a hue code of 194. Variations of this color are known as sky blue, baby blue, or angel blue.
The first recorded use of "light blue" as a color term in English is in 1915.
Medium blue
The web color medium blue is a shade of the standard (h = 240°) blue.
Medium sapphire
Medium sapphire is the color called sapphire in Crayola Gem Tones, a specialty set of Crayola crayons introduced in 1994.
Midnight blue
Midnight blue is an X11 web color. This color was originally called midnight. The first recorded use of midnight as a color name in English was in 1915.
Moroccan blue
Moroccan blue (also Chefchaouen blue) is a vivid blue color.
Navy blue
Navy blue is a shade of the standard (h = 240°) blue. Navy blue got its name from the dark blue (contrasted with white) worn by sailors in the Royal Navy since 1748 (originally called marine blue before 1840) and subsequently adopted by other navies around the world.
The first recorded use of navy blue as a color name in English was in 1840.
Periwinkle
Periwinkle (also periwinkle blue or lavender blue) is a mixture of white, blue, and red. It is named after the Periwinkle flower and is also commonly referred to as a tone of light blue.
Picotee blue
Picotee blue represents the color of the picotee flower. It is a deep shade of indigo, almost resembling St. Patrick's blue.
Polynesian blue
Polynesian blue is a dark blue color, almost navy.
Powder blue
The first recorded use of powder blue as a color name in English was in 1774. It is a web color.
Process blue
Process blue is a Pantone-defined shade used by the football team the Carolina Panthers and is sometimes consequently called "Carolina blue" or "Panther blue".
Resolution blue
Resolution blue is a vivid blue color. The color name dates back to at least 2001, and came into wider use when the Resene Paints colors were used as one of the sources for the Xona Games Color List. Many of Resene's shades of blue and cyan are named after places in New Zealand's Marlborough Sounds, where Resolution Bay is located.
Robin Egg Blue
Robin Egg Blue is a pale shade of blue-green, whose name comes from the color of the eggs of the American robin, a bird native to North America whose egg pigment, called biliverdin, is responsible for this color.
Ruddy blue
Ruddy blue represents the coloring of the beak of the ruddy duck.
Sapphire
Sapphire is a saturated shade of blue, referring to the gemstone of the same name. Sapphire gems most commonly occur in a range of blue shades, although they can come in many different colors.
The first recorded use of sapphire as a color name in English was in 1430.
Medium sapphire is the color called sapphire in Crayola Gem Tones, a specialty set of Crayola crayons introduced in 1994. B'dazzled blue is a color in Crayola Metallic FX, a specialty set of Crayola crayons introduced in 2001. the Pantone Textile Paper Extended (TPX) color list color #18-4231 describes "Blue Sapphire". King blue is a variant of sapphire with a violet tone. Dark sapphire is a dark tone of sapphire.
Sapphire (Maerz and Paul)
Displayed at right is the color sapphire used in A Dictionary of Color by Maerz and Paul.
The first recorded use of sapphire as a color name in English was in 1430.
Savoy blue
Savoy blue, or savoy azure, is a shade of saturation blue between peacock blue and periwinkle, lighter than peacock blue. It owes its name to its being the color of the House of Savoy, a ruling dynasty in Italy from 1861 to 1946.
The Italy national football team at the 1982 FIFA World Cup
Having become a national color with the unification of Italy (1861), its use continued even after the birth of the Italian Republic (1946) with the name "Italian blue". An Italian-blue border was inserted on the edge of the Presidential Standard of Italy and the use of the blue scarf for the Italian Armed Forces' officers, for the presidents of the Italian provinces during the official ceremonies and of the blue jersey for Italian national sports teams it was also maintained in the Republican era.
Smalt
Smalt has also been known under other names such as azurblau, Bohemian Blue, Dutch Ultramarine, enamel blue, Isenburg Blue. It was also known by many as Saxon Blue since the primary sources of cobalt ore used to make it were located in Saxony.
Smalt predates Thénard's Blue by several to many hundreds of years, which turned up as a result of the French government's famed search for a synthetic version of Lapis Lazuli. The Napoleonic administration appointed Louis-Jacques Thénard to find a substitute for Lapis Lazuli, and instead he found Cobalt Blue.
Space cadet
Space cadet is one of the colors on the Resene Color List, a color list popular in Australia and New Zealand. The color "space cadet" was formulated in 2007.
Spanish blue
Spanish blue is the color that is called Azul (the Spanish word for "blue") in the Guía de coloraciones (Guide to colorations) by Rosa Gallego and Juan Carlos Sanz, a color dictionary published in 2005 that is widely popular in the Hispanophone realm.
Teal blue
Teal blue is a medium tone of teal with more blue.
The first recorded use of teal blue as a color name in English was in 1927.
Twin blue
Twin Blue is so named since its HEX color code spells out "BED" twice. The color is also recognized for bearing close semblance to the light pastel shade of cyan common on bed sheets.
Ultramarine
Lapis lazuli, the source of the ultramarine pigment
Ultramarine is a blue pigment in use since medieval times. It was originally derived from lapis lazuli, a bright blue mineral.
Uranian blue
Uranian blue is a light greenish blue, the color of the planet Uranus, which was named after Uranus, the primordial god of the sky and the heavens in Greek mythology.
Zaffer
Zaffer, a prescientific, or alchemical substance, is a deep blue color that is obtained by roasting cobalt ore, and is made of either an impure form of cobalt oxide or impure cobalt arsenate. During the Victorian Era, zaffer was used to prepare smalt and to stain glass blue.
The first recorded use of zaffer as a color name in English was sometime in the 1550s (exact year uncertain).
Shades of azure
Shades of blue
Azure pigment
Azure ( AZH-ər, AY-zhər, UK also AZ-ure, AY-zure) is a variation of blue that is often described as the color of the sky on a clear day.
On the RGB color wheel, "azure" (hexadecimal #0080FF) is defined as the color at 210 degrees, i.e., the hue halfway between blue and cyan. In the RGB color model, used to create all the colors on a television or computer screen, azure is created by adding a little green light to blue light. The complementary color of azure is orange.
Shades of azure labeled with HSL, RGB, and web color names.
Azure (web color)
In the X11 color system which became a standard for early web colors, azure is depicted as a pale cyan or whitish cyan rather than a shade of azure.
In an artistic context, this color could also be called azure mist or cyan mist.
Variations of azure
In this section, the term shade is used in its technical sense as used in color theory, meaning a blueish color mixed with black or dark gray. The colors arranged in order of their value (brightness) (V in the HSV code), the brighter colors toward the top and the darker colors toward the bottom.
Air Force blue
Air force blue, also known as RAF blue, is used by the Royal Air Force, the first air force to choose an "air force blue" color by which to identify itself, in 1920.
The color "air force blue" is a medium tone of azure since it has a hue code of 204 which is a hue code between 195 and 225, signifying a tone of azure.
Berkeley blue
Berkeley Blue is one of the official colors of the University of California, Berkeley, along with California Gold. Until 2007, the university had used Yale Blue in its place, given Berkeley's historical ties to Yale University, particularly in its founding. Berkeley's school colors are the originators for those of all the campuses in the University of California system, of which Berkeley is the oldest as its flagship.
Brandeis blue
Brandeis blue is the tone of azure used in association with Brandeis University.
The university administration defines Brandeis blue as corresponding to the Pantone color of 294 or the process color of 100c 86m 14y w24k.
Celestial blue
The first recorded use of celestial blue as a color name in English was in 1535.
The source of this color is the Plochere Color System, a color system formulated in 1948 that is widely used by interior designers.
Cerulean
The first recorded use of cerulean as a color name in English was in 1590.
The word is probably derived from the Latin word caeruleus, "dark blue, blue, or blue-green", which in turn probably derives from caelulum, diminutive of caelum, "heaven, sky".
Columbia blue
Columbia blue is a medium light tone of azure named after Columbia University. The typical Columbia blue is defined by Pantone Columbia Blue (PANTONE 290).
Cornflower blue
Cornflowers
Cornflower blue ice cream
Cornflower blue is a shade of medium-to-light blue containing relatively little green. Its name is a reference to the flower Centaurea cyanus.
Deep sky blue
Deep sky blue is an azure-cyan color associated with deep sky blue.
Deep sky blue (Capri) is a web color.
This color is on the color wheel (RGB/HSV color wheel) halfway between azure and cyan.
The first use of Capri as a color name in English was in 1920.
The color Capri in general is named for the azure-cyan color of the Mediterranean Sea around the island of Capri off Italy, the site of several villas belonging to the Roman Emperor Tiberius, including his imperial residence in his later years, the Villa Jovis. Specifically, the color Capri is named after the color of the Blue Grotto on the island of Capri as it appears on a bright sunny day. Today the island of Capri is a resort island popular with tourists.
The name deep sky blue for this color did not come into use until the promulgation of the X11 color list in 1987.
Blue Grotto waters showing their distinctive azure colour
The name Capri is still used for this color as well as the name deep sky blue. This color is used on the website Bluesky.
Dodger blue
Dodger blue is a rich bright tone of azure named for its use in the uniform of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
French blue
French blue is a deep azure color commonly used in quality men's dress shirts.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first use of French Blue in English was in The Times of 1802.
Havana blue
Havana blue is a very light tone of azure.
Honolulu blue
Honolulu blue is the tone of azure used in association with the Detroit Lions football team.
Lapis lazuli
Rough and polished Lapis lazuli.
Slab of polished lapis lazuli
Lapis Lazuli is a color that is a representation of the most common color of lapis lazuli.
Manganese blue
Manganese blue is a clear greenish azure blue colour.
Maya blue
Maya blue was a pigment widely used by the Mayan civilization.
Penn blue
Penn Blue is one of the official colors of the University of Pennsylvania, along with Penn Red. While the school colors were defined by 1910, university history points to earlier times when the colors may have been chosen, including a possible visit by George Washington to the university, where students used the color of his tunic to determine school colors or a track meet where Penn athletes declared that they would wear the colors "of the teams we beat," which would be those of both Harvard University and Yale University. Originally defined as the colors used on the American flag, the colors have since deviated.
Picton blue
The color name Picton blue dates back to at least 2001, and came into wider use when the Resene Paints colors were used as one of the sources for the Xona Games Color List. Many of Resene's shades of blue and cyan are named after places in New Zealand's Marlborough Sounds, where the town of Picton is located.
Puerto Rican blue
Flag of Puerto Rico
Puerto Rican blue is a bright, cool, saturated shade of blue matching the shade of color of the triangle on Puerto Rico's current national flag.
Royal blue (traditional)
The traditional color called royal blue is a dark shade of azure.
Silver Lake blue
The source of Silver Lake blue is the "Pantone Textile Paper eXtended (TPX)" color list, color #17-4030 TPX—Silver Lake Blue.
Sky blue
Bright blue sky with white clouds
The first recorded use of sky blue as a color name in English was in 1728 in the Cyclopædia of Ephraim Chambers. Prior to the Chambers reference, the color had first been used in 1585 in a book by Nicolas de Nicolay where he stated "the tulbant of the merchant must be skie coloured".
Steel blue
Steel blue is a grayish tone of azure that resembles the color blue steel, i.e., steel which has been subjected to bluing in order to protect it from rust.
The first recorded use of steel blue as a color name in English was in 1817.
Tang blue
Royal blue tang
The color tang blue is a deep tone of azure that is the color of royal blue tang fish.
True blue
The color true blue is a deep tone of azure that is the color of the uniforms of the sports teams of UCLA. It is also one of the shades of blue used by the Los Angeles Chargers though they use the name powder blue.
Tufts blue
Tufts blue is the tone of azure used in association with Tufts University.
U of T Blue
U of T Blue is the navy blue shade of colour used in association with and by the University of Toronto in Greater Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
The colour is significant to the history of Toronto, as its early use by the university's Varsity Blues influenced the official colours of professional sports teams such as the Toronto Maple Leafs and Marlies (hockey), Blue Jays (baseball), and Argonauts (football), and the city of Toronto's logo, flag, and coat of arms.
UNESCO blue
Logo of UNESCO
United Nations blue
Flag of the United Nations
The color United Nations blue resembles the shade of blue seen on the flag of the United Nations. Current branding guidelines (since 2020) use Pantone 2925. Previously, the flag used Pantone 279.
Vista blue
The source of vista blue is the "Pantone Textile Paper eXtended (TPX)" color list, color #15-3930 TPX—Vista Blue.
Yale Blue
Yale Blue is the dark azure color used in association with Yale University. The hue of Yale Blue is one of the two official colors of Indiana State University, the University of Mississippi, and Southern Methodist University. The official color "DCU Blue" of Dublin City University is very close to Yale Blue.
Yale Blue was also an official color of University of California, Berkeley and Duke University.