ColorXprez

#4A545D

Charcoal · dark neutral

About #4A545D

#4A545D is a near-neutral, dark shade in the gray family. On screen it is built from 29% red, 33% green and 36% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 20% cyan, 10% magenta, 0% yellow and 64% 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 7.1); Graphite comes next. Its complementary colour, directly opposite on the colour wheel, is #5D534A — a umber tone that gives the strongest contrast in hue.

Designers tend to use dark tones like #4A545D for headings, body text, footers and dark-mode backgrounds. Put white text on top of it — 7.73:1, a WCAG AAA pass. Used as a text colour on white, it is readable too (7.73:1).

Colour codes

HEX
RGB
HSL
HSV / HSB
CMYK
CIELAB
Decimal
CSS
Red74
Green84
Blue93

Closest named colours

Charcoal
#36454F · ΔE 7.1
Graphite
#383838 · ΔE 13.5
Gunmetal
#2A3439 · ΔE 14.4

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

Text on #4A545D

WCAG contrast for white and black text on this colour.

White heading text
Body copy set on charcoal #4A545D.
7.73:1AAA
Black heading text
Body copy set on charcoal #4A545D.
2.72:1Fail

Colour-blindness preview

How #4A545D appears to people with the three most common types of colour-vision deficiency.

Normal vision
#4A545D
Protanopia (no red cones)
#51545D
Deuteranopia (no green cones)
#4E525D
Tritanopia (no blue cones)
#455657

Shades, tints & matching colours

Tints and shades

Complementary

Analogous

Triadic

Split complementary

Tetradic

Similar colours

Frequently asked questions

›What colour is #4A545D?

#4A545D is a near-neutral, dark shade in the gray family. On screen it is built from 29% red, 33% green and 36% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 20% cyan, 10% magenta, 0% yellow and 64% black. It is close to neutral, so it sits comfortably next to both warm and cool colours.

›What text colour should I use on #4A545D?

Use white text. White on #4A545D has a contrast ratio of 7.73:1 (AAA).

›What colours go with #4A545D?

Its complementary colour is #5D534A, and analogous partners are #4A5D5C and #4A4A5D.