ColorXprez

#4D5259

Charcoal · dark neutral

About #4D5259

#4D5259 is a near-neutral, dark shade in the gray family. On screen it is built from 30% red, 32% green and 35% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 13% cyan, 8% 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 7.6); Graphite comes next. Its complementary colour, directly opposite on the colour wheel, is #59544D — a umber tone that gives the strongest contrast in hue.

Designers tend to use dark tones like #4D5259 for headings, body text, footers and dark-mode backgrounds. Put white text on top of it — 7.87:1, a WCAG AAA pass. Used as a text colour on white, it is readable too (7.87:1).

Colour codes

HEX
RGB
HSL
HSV / HSB
CMYK
CIELAB
Decimal
CSS
Red77
Green82
Blue89

Closest named colours

Charcoal
#36454F · ΔE 7.6
Graphite
#383838 · ΔE 12.1
Gunmetal
#2A3439 · ΔE 13.9

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

Text on #4D5259

WCAG contrast for white and black text on this colour.

White heading text
Body copy set on charcoal #4D5259.
7.87:1AAA
Black heading text
Body copy set on charcoal #4D5259.
2.67:1Fail

Colour-blindness preview

How #4D5259 appears to people with the three most common types of colour-vision deficiency.

Normal vision
#4D5259
Protanopia (no red cones)
#505259
Deuteranopia (no green cones)
#4E5159
Tritanopia (no blue cones)
#4A5354

Shades, tints & matching colours

Tints and shades

Complementary

Analogous

Triadic

Split complementary

Tetradic

Similar colours

Frequently asked questions

›What colour is #4D5259?

#4D5259 is a near-neutral, dark shade in the gray family. On screen it is built from 30% red, 32% green and 35% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 13% cyan, 8% 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 #4D5259?

Use white text. White on #4D5259 has a contrast ratio of 7.87:1 (AAA).

›What colours go with #4D5259?

Its complementary colour is #59544D, and analogous partners are #4D5859 and #4E4D59.