Midnight blue

For other uses, see Midnight blue (disambiguation).

Crucifixion by Matthias Grünewald, c. 1515, showing a midnight blue sky.

Midnight blue is a dark shade of blue named for its resemblance to the identifiably blue color of a moonlit night sky on or near the night of a full moon. Midnight blue is the color of a vat full of indigo dye; therefore, midnight blue may also be considered a dark shade of indigo. Midnight blue is identifiably blue to the eye in sunlight or full-spectrum light, but can appear black under certain more limited spectra sometimes found in artificial lighting (especially early 20th century incandescent). It is similar to navy, which is also a dark blue.

Variations of midnight blue

X11

Midnight Blue
Color coordinates
Hex triplet	#191970
sRGBB  (r, g, b)	(25, 25, 112)
CMYKH   (c, m, y, k)	(97, 78, 39, 29)
HSV       (h, s, v)	(240°, 78%, 44%)
Source	X11
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte) H: Normalized to [0–100] (hundred)

There are two major shades of midnight blue—the X11 color and the Crayola color. This color was originally called midnight. The first recorded use of midnight as a color name in English was in 1915.

At right is displayed the color midnight blue.

This is the X11 web color midnight blue.

Dark midnight blue (Crayola)

Midnight Blue (Crayola)
Color coordinates
Hex triplet	#003366
sRGBB  (r, g, b)	(0, 51, 102)
CMYKH   (c, m, y, k)	(95, 80, 41, 31)
HSV       (h, s, v)	(210°, 100%, 40%)
Source	Crayola
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte) H: Normalized to [0–100] (hundred)

At right is displayed the dark shade of midnight blue that is called midnight blue in Crayola crayons.

Midnight blue became an official crayola color in 1958; before that, since having been formulated by Crayola in 1903, it was called Prussian blue.

Midnight blue in culture

Comic books

• There is a comic-book character called Midnight Blue.

Fashion

• Midnight blue is an alternative to black as a color for dinner jackets. Due to the deepness of the color, midnight blue formal clothes are often almost indistinguishable from black. The Duke of Windsor popularized the color in suits and tuxedos.

Military

• The dark blue of US Army and US Marine Corps dress blue uniform coats is called midnight blue.
• US Air Force Midnight Blue is the color used on ABU (Air Battle Uniform) nametapes and rank insignia. A thread color from the manufacturers American and Efird that is used by a major supplier of military nametapes is color number 51621. Madeira embroidery thread (100% Viscose) color 1244 is also a very dark midnight (almost black) blue thread.
• The Special Reconnaissance Regiment uses midnight blue on its stable belts, as a flat color all round.

Sports

• The University of Toledo Rockets use midnight blue and gold as their official team colors.

Music

• In 1979, the album, Discovery, released by British symphonic rock turned disco band Electric Light Orchestra, contained a song named "Midnight Blue."
• In 1987 rock vocalist Lou Gramm released a single entitled "Midnight Blue".

Television

• The British channel ITV3 uses this color for its current logo.

Car Culture

• The manga Wangan Midnight popularised this color on cars because of its main character's S30 sporting this particular shade of blue.

See also

• List of colors