ColorXprez

#3B4E4E

Charcoal · dark neutral

About #3B4E4E

#3B4E4E is a near-neutral, dark shade in the teal family. On screen it is built from 23% red, 31% green and 31% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 24% cyan, 0% magenta, 0% yellow and 69% black. Being nearly neutral, it pairs easily with warm and cool tones alike.

Of the common colour names it is very close to Charcoal (ΔE 7.6); Graphite comes next. Its complementary colour, directly opposite on the colour wheel, is #4E3B3B — a graphite tone that gives the strongest contrast in hue.

Designers tend to use dark tones like #3B4E4E for headings, body text, footers and dark-mode backgrounds. White text reads best on it at 8.80:1 (a WCAG AAA pass). Used as a text colour on white, it is readable too (8.80:1).

Colour codes

HEX
RGB
HSL
HSV / HSB
CMYK
CIELAB
Decimal
CSS
Red59
Green78
Blue78

Closest named colours

Charcoal
#36454F · ΔE 7.6
Graphite
#383838 · ΔE 11.2
Gunmetal
#2A3439 · ΔE 11.8

ΔE measures visible difference: under 2 is barely noticeable, over 10 is clearly different.

Text on #3B4E4E

WCAG contrast for white and black text on this colour.

White heading text
Body copy set on charcoal #3B4E4E.
8.80:1AAA
Black heading text
Body copy set on charcoal #3B4E4E.
2.39:1Fail

Colour-blindness preview

How #3B4E4E appears to people with the three most common types of colour-vision deficiency.

Normal vision
#3B4E4E
Protanopia (no red cones)
#4B4C4E
Deuteranopia (no green cones)
#48494E
Tritanopia (no blue cones)
#354F4E

Shades, tints & matching colours

Tints and shades

Complementary

Analogous

Triadic

Split complementary

Tetradic

Similar colours

Frequently asked questions

›What colour is #3B4E4E?

#3B4E4E is a near-neutral, dark shade in the teal family. On screen it is built from 23% red, 31% green and 31% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 24% cyan, 0% magenta, 0% yellow and 69% black. Being nearly neutral, it pairs easily with warm and cool tones alike.

›What text colour should I use on #3B4E4E?

Use white text. White on #3B4E4E has a contrast ratio of 8.80:1 (AAA).

›What colours go with #3B4E4E?

Its complementary colour is #4E3B3B, and analogous partners are #3B4E45 and #3B454E.