ColorXprez

#4B4E59

Charcoal · dark neutral

About #4B4E59

#4B4E59 is a near-neutral, dark shade in the gray family. On screen it is built from 29% red, 31% green and 35% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 16% cyan, 12% magenta, 0% yellow and 65% 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 6.8); Graphite comes next. Its complementary colour, directly opposite on the colour wheel, is #59564B — a umber tone that gives the strongest contrast in hue.

Designers tend to use dark tones like #4B4E59 for headings, body text, footers and dark-mode backgrounds. Put white text on top of it — 8.29:1, a WCAG AAA pass. Used as a text colour on white, it is readable too (8.29:1).

Colour codes

HEX
RGB
HSL
HSV / HSB
CMYK
CIELAB
Decimal
CSS
Red75
Green78
Blue89

Closest named colours

Charcoal
#36454F · ΔE 6.8
Graphite
#383838 · ΔE 12.0
Gunmetal
#2A3439 · ΔE 13.2

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

Text on #4B4E59

WCAG contrast for white and black text on this colour.

White heading text
Body copy set on charcoal #4B4E59.
8.29:1AAA
Black heading text
Body copy set on charcoal #4B4E59.
2.53:1Fail

Colour-blindness preview

How #4B4E59 appears to people with the three most common types of colour-vision deficiency.

Normal vision
#4B4E59
Protanopia (no red cones)
#4B4F5A
Deuteranopia (no green cones)
#4A4E59
Tritanopia (no blue cones)
#485052

Shades, tints & matching colours

Tints and shades

Complementary

Analogous

Triadic

Split complementary

Tetradic

Similar colours

Frequently asked questions

›What colour is #4B4E59?

#4B4E59 is a near-neutral, dark shade in the gray family. On screen it is built from 29% red, 31% green and 35% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 16% cyan, 12% magenta, 0% yellow and 65% black. It is close to neutral, so it sits comfortably next to both warm and cool colours.

›What text colour should I use on #4B4E59?

Use white text. White on #4B4E59 has a contrast ratio of 8.29:1 (AAA).

›What colours go with #4B4E59?

Its complementary colour is #59564B, and analogous partners are #4B5559 and #4F4B59.