ColorXprez

#3C3E4E

Charcoal · dark cool blue

About #3C3E4E

#3C3E4E is a muted, dark shade in the blue family. On screen it is built from 24% red, 24% green and 31% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 23% cyan, 21% magenta, 0% yellow and 69% black. Its overall feel is cool.

Of the common colour names it is very close to Charcoal (ΔE 7.0); Gunmetal comes next. Its complementary colour, directly opposite on the colour wheel, is #4E4C3C — a umber tone that gives the strongest contrast in hue.

Designers tend to use dark tones like #3C3E4E for headings, body text, footers and dark-mode backgrounds. White text reads best on it at 10.55:1 (a WCAG AAA pass). Used as a text colour on white, it is readable too (10.55:1).

Colour codes

HEX
RGB
HSL
HSV / HSB
CMYK
CIELAB
Decimal
CSS
Red60
Green62
Blue78

Closest named colours

Charcoal
#36454F · ΔE 7.0
Gunmetal
#2A3439 · ΔE 9.9
Graphite
#383838 · ΔE 10.9

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

Text on #3C3E4E

WCAG contrast for white and black text on this colour.

White heading text
Body copy set on charcoal #3C3E4E.
10.55:1AAA
Black heading text
Body copy set on charcoal #3C3E4E.
1.99:1Fail

Colour-blindness preview

How #3C3E4E appears to people with the three most common types of colour-vision deficiency.

Normal vision
#3C3E4E
Protanopia (no red cones)
#3A404F
Deuteranopia (no green cones)
#393E4E
Tritanopia (no blue cones)
#384143

Shades, tints & matching colours

Tints and shades

Complementary

Analogous

Triadic

Split complementary

Tetradic

Similar colours

Frequently asked questions

›What colour is #3C3E4E?

#3C3E4E is a muted, dark shade in the blue family. On screen it is built from 24% red, 24% green and 31% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 23% cyan, 21% magenta, 0% yellow and 69% black. Its overall feel is cool.

›What text colour should I use on #3C3E4E?

Use white text. White on #3C3E4E has a contrast ratio of 10.55:1 (AAA).

›What colours go with #3C3E4E?

Its complementary colour is #4E4C3C, and analogous partners are #3C474E and #433C4E.