ColorXprez

#3F4E4D

Charcoal · dark neutral

About #3F4E4D

#3F4E4D is a near-neutral, dark shade in the gray family. On screen it is built from 25% red, 31% green and 30% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 19% cyan, 0% magenta, 1% yellow and 69% black. It is close to neutral, so it sits comfortably next to both warm and cool colours.

Of the common colour names it is very close to Charcoal (ΔE 8.0); Graphite comes next. Its complementary colour, directly opposite on the colour wheel, is #4E3F40 — a graphite tone that gives the strongest contrast in hue.

Designers tend to use dark tones like #3F4E4D for headings, body text, footers and dark-mode backgrounds. Put white text on top of it — 8.72:1, a WCAG AAA pass. Used as a text colour on white, it is readable too (8.72:1).

Colour codes

HEX
RGB
HSL
HSV / HSB
CMYK
CIELAB
Decimal
CSS
Red63
Green78
Blue77

Closest named colours

Charcoal
#36454F · ΔE 8.0
Graphite
#383838 · ΔE 10.5
Gunmetal
#2A3439 · ΔE 11.8

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

Text on #3F4E4D

WCAG contrast for white and black text on this colour.

White heading text
Body copy set on charcoal #3F4E4D.
8.72:1AAA
Black heading text
Body copy set on charcoal #3F4E4D.
2.41:1Fail

Colour-blindness preview

How #3F4E4D appears to people with the three most common types of colour-vision deficiency.

Normal vision
#3F4E4D
Protanopia (no red cones)
#4C4C4D
Deuteranopia (no green cones)
#494A4D
Tritanopia (no blue cones)
#3B4F4E

Shades, tints & matching colours

Tints and shades

Complementary

Analogous

Triadic

Split complementary

Tetradic

Similar colours

Frequently asked questions

›What colour is #3F4E4D?

#3F4E4D is a near-neutral, dark shade in the gray family. On screen it is built from 25% red, 31% green and 30% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 19% cyan, 0% magenta, 1% yellow and 69% black. It is close to neutral, so it sits comfortably next to both warm and cool colours.

›What text colour should I use on #3F4E4D?

Use white text. White on #3F4E4D has a contrast ratio of 8.72:1 (AAA).

›What colours go with #3F4E4D?

Its complementary colour is #4E3F40, and analogous partners are #3F4E46 and #3F484E.