Best Navy Blue Hex Value?
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10-04-2024 06:22 AM - edited 10-04-2024 06:22 AM
With the unveiling of the new color palette, I am wondering which square is supposed to represent navy blue? Navy blue is difficult to get right from screen to print and often looks too purple for my taste. Does anyone have a navy blue hex value that they love and that prints as a good, true, navy?
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10-04-2024 06:34 AM - edited 10-04-2024 06:37 AM
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10-04-2024 07:38 AM
I agree with @idraw. That is the same hex code I get for Navy Blue on the site I use. You might find this site helpful, its called Color About
It is easy to search. I type in the color name I am looking for in the search bar and it pops up with the color plus multiple variants of lighter, darker, and similar shades all with hex codes. I really like it. Hope it helps anyone looking for an easy to use hex code tool.
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10-04-2024 09:19 AM - edited 10-04-2024 09:34 AM
Gotta tell you, I am SUPER confused on this topic. Seems like there are lots of different ideas out there about what color Navy Blue is! I agree with the OP about it often turning out too purple, but I'm not thoroughly convinced about the best color to use. Obviously, color names are quite subjective, so I don't think there is necessarily a "right" answer, but it sure is a tangled nest!
While I like the color that @idraw suggested, it seems awfully bright and light for what I think Navy should look like. In my mind that's verging on royal blue.
I had been using a very dark shade #040039 but I was contacted by Zazzle's Quality Control department who told me that it was too dark and that it was printing as black (which honestly didn't make any sense because I had never received a complaint and the photos sent in by customers through reviews all looked perfect to me - so I don't know if the print process changed or what)
Anyhow, the fellow I spoke with at quality control checked with the print team and told me that #1d194c was the darkest and most saturated blue that they could reliably reproduce. So I changed all of my products (hundreds and hundreds of them - thankfully I have the replace feature and the changes all got accepted quickly)
BUT... when the new palette came out, it suggests a more saturated color #0d004c
So who knows. I think I'm gonna stick with the color suggested by quality control, but it is a head scratcher for sure.
To add further confusion to the mix, whenever I ask AI (Dall-e3) to give me something that's "Navy Blue" it spits out an image that's closer to #1e4c70 - which doesn't even seem close to me!
So there you go! Clear as mud!
Cat @ ZB Designs
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10-04-2024 11:45 AM - edited 10-04-2024 11:46 AM
Just in case my last image created any confusion - I messed up the text in the image - the color is right but the hex is wrong - the color Dall-e spits out as Navy Blue is #1e4c70 - looks like a dark turquoise to me.
Cat @ ZB Designs
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10-07-2024 08:03 PM
That dark blue in the new color palette definitely looks too purple to me. If you look at the color picker box, the slider is pretty close to purple. I wish they picked something smack dab in the center of the blue section. And it's weird that it's so much more saturated than what they told you.
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10-04-2024 09:56 AM
Also keep in mind that your monitor color profile, and/or your Photoshop color profile can alter the RGB image you are saving into your Zazzle image folder. Adobe RGB 1998 is a reliable profile, and was mentioned by Scott in another discussion maybe 2 years ago.
Here’s more to consider:
https://www.picmonkey.com/colors/blue/navy-blue
Navy blue color codes
Nail the exact color navy blue in your design by using the code from any one of these systems for color identification.
Hex #000080
RGB r: 0, g: 0, b: 128
HSL h: 240°, s: 100%, l: 25%
HSV h: 240°, s: 100%, v: 50%
CMYK c: 100%, m: 100%, y: 0%, k: 50%
#1d194c hex color
If you're identifying color for pretty much anything digital, you're working in an RGB colorspace. If the project you're working on requires percentage representation, navy blue is made of 0% red, 0% green, and 50% blue.
============
What color is closest to navy blue?
Colors similar to navy blue
Dark Blue (#00008B)
Midnight Blue (#191970)
Indigo (#4B0082)
Charcoal (#36454F)
==========
ColorHexa
https://www.brandpalettes.colorhexa.com › 1d194c
The hexadecimal color #1d194c
has RGB values of R:29, G:25, B:76 and
CMYK values of C:0.62, M:0.67, Y:0, K:0.7. Its decimal value is 1907020.
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10-07-2024 08:11 PM
That "official" hex code 000080 for navy blue is awful, nothing close to the popular navy blue shades.
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10-04-2024 11:58 AM
You want to create a neutral blue. Not one that leans toward red (or violet) or yellow (or green). Looking at a simple color wheel, blue’s nearest neighbor primary colors are red and yellow. You want to use equal amounts of red and yellow with your blue to create a neutral blue. For darker blues, increase the blue value and decrease the red and yellow values—while keeping equal (but reduced) amounts of red and yellow.
In more complex color wheels, you’ll see the tertiary colors created by mixing the primary colors of red, blue, and green.
In those color wheels, blue’s nearest color neighbors are green and purple. So, if you’re using the RGB (red, green, blue) color model, you’ll want to use plenty of blue, plus equal amounts of red and green to create a neutral blue.
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10-07-2024 08:12 PM
I tend to go a little more toward the teal side; it feels more nautical to me. But I use the box with the slider on both Zazzle and Photoshop; I don't input the values manually.
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10-07-2024 09:42 PM
OK I just had an A-Ha moment. The "navy" in "navy blue" refers to ... the NAVY, as in nautical! I guess when you've lived most of your life in a land-locked state these things aren't as obvious as they should be! Not sure what that means in terms of the right hex code to use, but it just never dawned on me that we're trying to mimic the color of the ocean here! 🤔
Cat @ ZB Designs
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10-08-2024 04:54 AM - edited 10-08-2024 04:55 AM
A suggestion: buy a postcard with those variations of blue and choose the one that you like.
I did that to test some colors a few months ago.
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10-08-2024 06:46 AM
Thank you all for weighing in! Since the naming conventions of colors is subjective and on screen vs. on paper can change so much, I think printing a card with a variety of blue values is probably the best way to go. I'm of the mind that navy blue is on the darker end and not so much a cobalt or royal blue.

