Slate Color Palette – HEX, RGB & Design Inspiration
Color Details
HEX: #606060
RGB: 96, 96, 96
HEX: #687387
RGB: 104, 115, 135
HEX: #8B94A5
RGB: 139, 148, 165
HEX: #88ABB8
RGB: 136, 171, 184
HEX: #BECBD6
RGB: 190, 203, 214
Text on White/Black Backgrounds
Color Pair Combinations (10 total)
WCAG Contrast Standards:
- AAA (7:1): Enhanced contrast for maximum readability
- AA (4.5:1): Minimum for normal text (under 18pt)
- AA Large (3:1): Acceptable for large text (18pt+ or 14pt+ bold)
- Fail: Below WCAG standards, not recommended for text
Recommended Text Colors
Horizontal (Left to Right)
background: linear-gradient(to right, #606060 0%, #687387 25%, #8B94A5 50%, #88ABB8 75%, #BECBD6 100%);Vertical (Top to Bottom)
background: linear-gradient(to bottom, #606060 0%, #687387 25%, #8B94A5 50%, #88ABB8 75%, #BECBD6 100%);Diagonal (Top Left to Bottom Right)
background: linear-gradient(to bottom right, #606060 0%, #687387 25%, #8B94A5 50%, #88ABB8 75%, #BECBD6 100%);Usage Tips:
- Copy the CSS code and paste directly into your stylesheets
- Linear gradients work great for backgrounds and hero sections
- Radial gradients are perfect for spotlights and focus effects
- Conic gradients create eye-catching loading spinners and progress indicators
- Smooth transitions ensure seamless color blending
Normal Vision
No color vision deficiency
Color Swatches
#606060
#687387
#8B94A5
#88ABB8
#BECBD6
Full Palette View
How people with Normal Vision see it:
Overall Mood & Feel
Calm, professional, and trustworthy
Emotional Impact
Calming and contemplative, promoting feelings of trust, stability, and peace. The balanced lightness creates versatility across different contexts
Psychological Effect
This 5-color palette creates a calm, professional, and trustworthy. The combination works together to create memorable visual experiences that influence consumer perception, decision-making, and brand recall. The rich variety provides versatility while maintaining cohesive emotional messaging across touchpoints.
Brand Personality Traits
Perfect For These Industries
Target Audience
Business professionals and decision-makers seeking reliability and competence
Individual Color Psychology
#606060
Modern and professional
Emotions Evoked
Personality Traits
Brand Traits
Ideal Industries
Marketing Use
Provides balance and neutrality. Doesn't compete for attention. Professional and timeless. Can appear dull if not balanced with other colors.
Cultural Meanings
Color Harmony Analysis
Palette Mood
Temperature
This palette combines balanced and light & airy moods with neutral and cool tones, making it versatile for various design applications.
Professional Implementation Guide
This complementary slate palette features 5 carefully selected cool tones that create a calm and professional aesthetic. With medium contrast levels and muted saturation, this palette is optimized for corporate branding and business websites.
Web Design & Development
For web development, implement this palette with CSS variables for easy theme switching. Consider adding darker variants for better text readability.
- Apply the 60-30-10 rule for visual hierarchy
- Use accent colors for CTAs and hover states
- Maintain consistent color usage across all pages
- Test responsive behavior on multiple devices
Mobile App Interfaces
In mobile applications, these cool tones provide excellent battery efficiency on OLED screens. Use the subtle color variations to define clear touch targets.
- Design both light and dark mode variants
- Consider thumb-reach zones for color placement
- Test under direct sunlight and low light
- Use color to indicate interactive elements
Brand Identity Systems
Build a cohesive brand identity by designating specific colors for specific purposes. Establish your primary brand color from the most distinctive shade and create comprehensive brand guidelines specifying exact usage scenarios.
- Define primary, secondary, and accent colors
- Create usage rules for marketing materials
- Specify minimum sizes and clear space
- Document do's and don'ts for consistency
Frontend Development
Developers can integrate this palette efficiently using modern CSS techniques. Export as CSS variables for maximum flexibility, allowing theme switching and dynamic color updates without rewriting stylesheets.
- Use CSS custom properties for theming
- Implement semantic color naming conventions
- Create utility classes for rapid prototyping
- Consider CSS-in-JS for component-scoped colors
Print Design
For print materials, convert to CMYK using #606060 as the dominant color for headers and #BECBD6 for accents. These colors translate well to print with minimal adjustment.
- Add to your design software color library
- Create swatches for quick color access
- Use CMYK values for print production
- Request color proofs before final print
Marketing Campaigns
Marketing materials benefit from consistent color usage that reinforces brand recognition. Apply this palette across email campaigns, landing pages, advertisements, and social media for maximum impact and memorability.
- Maintain color consistency across channels
- A/B test color variations for conversion
- Consider cultural color associations
- Align colors with campaign messaging
Strategic Color Distribution
Professional designers follow the 60-30-10 rule for balanced color distribution. Here's how to apply this principle with the Slate:
Dominant Color
#606060Use #606060 as your primary color for backgrounds, main content areas. This gray tone should occupy about 60% of your design space.
Secondary Color
#8B94A5Apply #8B94A5 as your secondary color for subtle backgrounds and card components. Allocate approximately 30% of your layout to this color.
Accent Color
#BECBD6Reserve #BECBD6 for accent elements like buttons, links, and important highlights. This blue accent should be used sparingly (10% of design) to draw attention to key actions.
Professional Best Practices
✓ Smart Usage Tips
- •Add warm accent colors to create focal points and prevent designs from feeling too cold
- •Test your palette across different devices and lighting conditions before finalizing
✗ Common Mistakes to Avoid
- •Don't use all colors equally—establish clear visual hierarchy through color weight
- •Avoid low-contrast text combinations that strain readability
- •Don't rely solely on color to convey meaning (use icons, text, and patterns too)
- •Avoid inconsistent color usage across different pages or screens
- •Don't assume screen colors match print output—always request physical proofs
Palette Overview & Statistics
5
Total Colors
4
Associated Tags
6
Categories
3226
Community Likes
Color Analysis & Technical Guide
Detailed breakdown of each color's role, characteristics, and optimal applications. This complementary palette creates a calm and professional aesthetic perfect for corporate branding and business websites.
Individual Color Breakdown
Each color in this cool palette has been analyzed for its properties and ideal usage scenarios. The medium contrast and muted saturation ensure harmonious visual relationships.
#606060
GRAY
#606060 serves as the primary/dominant color in this palette. This medium gray (muted) brings neutrality and balance Use it for headers, navigation bars, and brand elements.
Dark toneH: 0°S: 0%L: 38%#687387
BLUE
#687387 serves as the secondary/supporting color in this palette. This medium blue (muted) brings professionalism and depth Use it for cards, borders, section dividers, and supporting UI components.
Dark toneH: 219°S: 13%L: 47%#8B94A5
BLUE
#8B94A5 serves as the secondary/supporting color in this palette. This medium blue (muted) brings trust and tranquility Use it for cards, borders, section dividers, and supporting UI components.
Light toneH: 219°S: 13%L: 60%#88ABB8
CYAN
#88ABB8 serves as the secondary/supporting color in this palette. This medium cyan (muted) brings clarity and innovation Use it for cards, borders, section dividers, and supporting UI components.
Light toneH: 196°S: 25%L: 63%#BECBD6
BLUE
#BECBD6 serves as the accent/highlight color in this palette. This light blue (muted) brings trust and tranquility Use it for call-to-action buttons, links, important notifications, and interactive elements.
Light toneH: 208°S: 23%L: 79%
Palette Characteristics
This palette exhibits distinct characteristics that make it particularly suitable for specific design applications and industries.
Cool tones convey professionalism, trust, and calmness. Ideal for corporate and tech applications.
Medium contrast provides visual interest while maintaining readability with proper text color choices.
Muted saturation offers sophistication and reduces visual fatigue, ideal for content-heavy applications.
Balanced brightness provides flexibility for both light and dark design elements.
💡 Pro Tips for This Palette
- Perfect for: corporate branding, business websites. The complementary color relationship creates natural visual flow.
- Mood & Psychology: This palette evokes a calm and professional feeling, making it ideal for brands seeking to convey those qualities.
- Accessibility: Test text combinations carefully with contrast checkers to ensure accessibility compliance.
- Extensions: Create tints (add white) and shades (add black) to expand this 5-color palette into a comprehensive design system.
- Cultural Context: Cool tones are generally perceived as professional worldwide but always research cultural color meanings.
Export Formats
Explore Slate Palette
The Slate color palette embodies a sense of serenity and tranquility, evoking the feeling of a gentle coastal breeze on a clear day. This carefully curated collection of hues is designed to promote a sense of calmness and professionalism, making it an ideal choice for designers seeking to create a soothing and trustworthy visual identity. At the heart of the Slate palette lies a range of blues and blues-green hues, including the deep, rich tone of 606060, which serves as a versatile foundation for the entire palette.
As we delve deeper into the Slate palette, we find a range of subtle yet distinct shades that work together in harmony. The 687387 hue adds a touch of sophistication and elegance, with its slightly darker and more muted tone creating a sense of balance and stability. In contrast, the 8B94A5 shade introduces a hint of warmth and softness, while the 88ABB8 hue brings a sense of freshness and vitality to the palette. Finally, the lightest shade, BECBD6, adds a sense of airiness and freedom, completing the palette's nuanced and multifaceted character. Each of these shades plays a unique role in the Slate palette, working together to create a visual language that is both calming and engaging.
The Slate palette is incredibly versatile, lending itself to a wide range of practical applications in design. From websites and apps to branding and marketing materials, this palette is well-suited to creating a professional and trustworthy visual identity. Designers can use the Slate palette to create a sense of continuity and cohesion across different platforms and media, from digital interfaces to print materials. The palette's calming and soothing qualities also make it an excellent choice for healthcare, wellness, and finance industries, where a sense of trust and stability is essential. Whether used in a subtle and understated way or as a bold and eye-catching statement, the Slate palette is sure to make a lasting impression on viewers.
The psychological impact of the Slate palette is profound, with its carefully chosen hues influencing viewer perception and behavior in subtle yet powerful ways. The palette's emphasis on blues and blues-green hues is particularly noteworthy, as these colors are often associated with feelings of trust, loyalty, and wisdom. The Slate palette's calming and soothing qualities can also help to reduce stress and anxiety, creating a sense of relaxation and calmness in viewers. By leveraging the psychological power of the Slate palette, designers can create visual experiences that are not only aesthetically pleasing but also emotionally resonant and engaging.
For designers seeking to get the most out of the Slate palette, there are several pro tips and pairing suggestions to keep in mind. To add a touch of warmth and contrast to the palette, consider pairing the 606060 or 687387 hues with a deep, rich coral or orange shade. Alternatively, the 88ABB8 and BECBD6 hues can be paired with a soft, muted green or yellow to create a sense of harmony and balance. When working with the Slate palette, it's also important to consider the principles of color hierarchy and visual flow, using the different shades to create a clear and intuitive visual structure. By following these guidelines and experimenting with different combinations and pairings, designers can unlock the full potential of the Slate palette and create visual experiences that are both beautiful and effective.
Palette Image
Below is the generated palette image showing all colors in a vertical layout. Perfect for sharing on social media or using as a reference.
Categories & Tags
Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you need to know about using and implementing the slate palette effectively in your projects.