ColorXprez

#454A4E

Charcoal · dark neutral

About #454A4E

#454A4E is a near-neutral, dark shade in the gray family. On screen it is built from 27% red, 29% green and 31% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 12% cyan, 5% 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 6.0); Graphite comes next. Its complementary colour, directly opposite on the colour wheel, is #4E4945 — a umber tone that gives the strongest contrast in hue.

Designers tend to use dark tones like #454A4E for headings, body text, footers and dark-mode backgrounds. White text reads best on it at 8.96:1 (a WCAG AAA pass). Used as a text colour on white, it is readable too (8.96:1).

Colour codes

HEX
RGB
HSL
HSV / HSB
CMYK
CIELAB
Decimal
CSS
Red69
Green74
Blue78

Closest named colours

Charcoal
#36454F · ΔE 6.0
Graphite
#383838 · ΔE 8.3
Gunmetal
#2A3439 · ΔE 10.4

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

Text on #454A4E

WCAG contrast for white and black text on this colour.

White heading text
Body copy set on charcoal #454A4E.
8.96:1AAA
Black heading text
Body copy set on charcoal #454A4E.
2.34:1Fail

Colour-blindness preview

How #454A4E appears to people with the three most common types of colour-vision deficiency.

Normal vision
#454A4E
Protanopia (no red cones)
#484A4E
Deuteranopia (no green cones)
#47494E
Tritanopia (no blue cones)
#434B4B

Shades, tints & matching colours

Tints and shades

Complementary

Analogous

Triadic

Split complementary

Tetradic

Similar colours

Frequently asked questions

›What colour is #454A4E?

#454A4E is a near-neutral, dark shade in the gray family. On screen it is built from 27% red, 29% green and 31% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 12% cyan, 5% 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 #454A4E?

Use white text. White on #454A4E has a contrast ratio of 8.96:1 (AAA).

›What colours go with #454A4E?

Its complementary colour is #4E4945, and analogous partners are #454E4E and #45464E.