ColorXprez

#45474E

Charcoal · dark neutral

About #45474E

#45474E is a near-neutral, dark shade in the gray family. On screen it is built from 27% red, 28% green and 31% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 12% cyan, 9% 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 5.7); Graphite comes next. Its complementary colour, directly opposite on the colour wheel, is #4E4C45 — a umber tone that gives the strongest contrast in hue.

Designers tend to use dark tones like #45474E for headings, body text, footers and dark-mode backgrounds. White text reads best on it at 9.27:1 (a WCAG AAA pass). Used as a text colour on white, it is readable too (9.27:1).

Colour codes

HEX
RGB
HSL
HSV / HSB
CMYK
CIELAB
Decimal
CSS
Red69
Green71
Blue78

Closest named colours

Charcoal
#36454F · ΔE 5.7
Graphite
#383838 · ΔE 8.1
Gunmetal
#2A3439 · ΔE 9.9

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

Text on #45474E

WCAG contrast for white and black text on this colour.

White heading text
Body copy set on charcoal #45474E.
9.27:1AAA
Black heading text
Body copy set on charcoal #45474E.
2.26:1Fail

Colour-blindness preview

How #45474E appears to people with the three most common types of colour-vision deficiency.

Normal vision
#45474E
Protanopia (no red cones)
#45484E
Deuteranopia (no green cones)
#45474E
Tritanopia (no blue cones)
#434849

Shades, tints & matching colours

Tints and shades

Complementary

Analogous

Triadic

Split complementary

Tetradic

Similar colours

Frequently asked questions

›What colour is #45474E?

#45474E is a near-neutral, dark shade in the gray family. On screen it is built from 27% red, 28% green and 31% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 12% cyan, 9% 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 #45474E?

Use white text. White on #45474E has a contrast ratio of 9.27:1 (AAA).

›What colours go with #45474E?

Its complementary colour is #4E4C45, and analogous partners are #454C4E and #47454E.