Color Schemes Using Ice Blue: Backgrounds and Headings for a Refreshing Banner

Ice blue is a pale shade of blue associated with the look of ice. It can give banners for summer events or seasonal products a cool, airy feel, but a headline in white or very light blue may disappear into the background. The key is to create a clear difference in brightness between the background and the text while keeping photographs away from important lettering. Here are two approaches for a summer aquarium event banner.

Pair an ice blue background with a dark blue heading

There is no single HEX code for “ice blue” that all references use. For this example, we will use a bright, pale ice blue ■#D6F0FF. HEX is a way to specify screen colors using a hash sign followed by six hexadecimal digits.

A heading in deep blue-gray ■#234559 against this background has a contrast ratio of about 8.60:1. The contrast ratio measures the difference in relative brightness between two colors. Charcoal blue ■#314652 body text also contrasts at about 8.35:1 against ice blue ■#D6F0FF. Both colors belong to a similar family, yet they are dark enough to keep the lettering distinct.

White ■#FFFFFF lettering on ice blue ■#D6F0FF, by contrast, reaches only about 1.18:1. Rather than making the text pale to reinforce the cool feeling, start with a darker headline color.

Compare two backgrounds for a summer aquarium event banner

Imagine a wide banner for a “Summer Nights at the Aquarium” event. One layout puts the title and event dates on the left and an aquarium photograph on the right. Give each color a specific job instead of adding more colors for decoration.

• Light background as the main feature: Fill a broad left-hand panel with ice blue ■#D6F0FF. Set the event name in deep blue-gray ■#234559, and the short description in charcoal blue ■#314652. For the date label, combine a slightly stronger pale blue ■#BFE6FF with deep blue-gray ■#234559 lettering. The text and label have about 7.73:1 contrast. Keep the photograph on the right, without putting the important wording directly over it.
• Dark heading band as the main feature: Use a light off-white ■#F7FBFD across the layout, then give the top heading band a deep blue-gray ■#234559 fill. The band’s ice blue ■#D6F0FF lettering contrasts at about 8.60:1. Below it, use charcoal blue ■#314652 for the dates and venue description on the off-white ■#F7FBFD, creating about 9.48:1 contrast.

For the first layout, the ticket button can use a deep teal ■#145E73 fill with white ■#FFFFFF lettering. The button text contrasts with its fill at about 7.30:1, and the button itself contrasts with the surrounding ice blue ■#D6F0FF at about 6.17:1. This helps distinguish the main action from the photograph and event information.

Adjust subtle color boundaries and review the mobile layout

The original ice blue ■#D6F0FF and the stronger pale-blue date label ■#BFE6FF differ by only about 1.11:1. The contrast between the off-white ■#F7FBFD and the pale-blue label ■#BFE6FF is also low, at about 1.26:1. If a visible boundary is important, add a muted blue-gray ■#5C7889 outline. It contrasts at about 3.95:1 with ice blue, 3.55:1 with the slightly stronger pale blue, and 4.48:1 with off-white. Borders are not needed everywhere if spacing already makes the groups clear.

Under WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) 2.2 Level AA, normal text generally needs at least 4.5:1 contrast and large text needs at least 3:1. On mobile, consider placing the photograph above the text and keeping each headline on a solid-colored area. Very thin type and lettering on photographs should also be checked in the actual layout, not only with a calculated color ratio.

HueRoll can help you adjust colors with HEX codes and compare a selected color against white or black. It cannot directly compare arbitrary color pairs or automatically evaluate WCAG compliance. The ice-blue, text, button, and outline combinations above were calculated separately.