ColorXprez

#4E495B

Charcoal · dark cool gray

About #4E495B

#4E495B is a muted, dark shade in the gray family. On screen it is built from 31% red, 29% green and 36% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 14% cyan, 20% magenta, 0% yellow and 64% black. Its overall feel is cool.

Of the common colour names it is similar to Charcoal (ΔE 10.3); Eggplant comes next. Its complementary colour, directly opposite on the colour wheel, is #565B49 — a umber tone that gives the strongest contrast in hue.

Designers tend to use dark tones like #4E495B for headings, body text, footers and dark-mode backgrounds. Put white text on top of it — 8.65:1, a WCAG AAA pass. Used as a text colour on white, it is readable too (8.65:1).

Colour codes

HEX
RGB
HSL
HSV / HSB
CMYK
CIELAB
Decimal
CSS
Red78
Green73
Blue91

Closest named colours

Charcoal
#36454F · ΔE 10.3
Eggplant
#614051 · ΔE 12.4
Graphite
#383838 · ΔE 14.5

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

Text on #4E495B

WCAG contrast for white and black text on this colour.

White heading text
Body copy set on charcoal #4E495B.
8.65:1AAA
Black heading text
Body copy set on charcoal #4E495B.
2.43:1Fail

Colour-blindness preview

How #4E495B appears to people with the three most common types of colour-vision deficiency.

Normal vision
#4E495B
Protanopia (no red cones)
#454C5C
Deuteranopia (no green cones)
#464B5A
Tritanopia (no blue cones)
#4C4C4F

Shades, tints & matching colours

Tints and shades

Complementary

Analogous

Triadic

Split complementary

Tetradic

Similar colours

Frequently asked questions

›What colour is #4E495B?

#4E495B is a muted, dark shade in the gray family. On screen it is built from 31% red, 29% green and 36% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 14% cyan, 20% magenta, 0% yellow and 64% black. Its overall feel is cool.

›What text colour should I use on #4E495B?

Use white text. White on #4E495B has a contrast ratio of 8.65:1 (AAA).

›What colours go with #4E495B?

Its complementary colour is #565B49, and analogous partners are #494D5B and #57495B.