ColorXprez

#4E4A42

Umber · dark neutral

About #4E4A42

#4E4A42 is a near-neutral, dark shade in the gray family. On screen it is built from 31% red, 29% green and 26% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 0% cyan, 5% magenta, 15% 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 Umber (ΔE 7.9); Graphite comes next. Its complementary colour, directly opposite on the colour wheel, is #42464E — a charcoal tone that gives the strongest contrast in hue.

Designers tend to use dark tones like #4E4A42 for headings, body text, footers and dark-mode backgrounds. White text reads best on it at 8.82:1 (a WCAG AAA pass). Used as a text colour on white, it is readable too (8.82:1).

Colour codes

HEX
RGB
HSL
HSV / HSB
CMYK
CIELAB
Decimal
CSS
Red78
Green74
Blue66

Closest named colours

Umber
#635147 · ΔE 7.9
Graphite
#383838 · ΔE 9.7
Walnut
#5C4033 · ΔE 12.8

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

Text on #4E4A42

WCAG contrast for white and black text on this colour.

White heading text
Body copy set on umber #4E4A42.
8.82:1AAA
Black heading text
Body copy set on umber #4E4A42.
2.38:1Fail

Colour-blindness preview

How #4E4A42 appears to people with the three most common types of colour-vision deficiency.

Normal vision
#4E4A42
Protanopia (no red cones)
#4C4A42
Deuteranopia (no green cones)
#4D4B42
Tritanopia (no blue cones)
#504948

Shades, tints & matching colours

Tints and shades

Complementary

Analogous

Triadic

Split complementary

Tetradic

Similar colours

Frequently asked questions

›What colour is #4E4A42?

#4E4A42 is a near-neutral, dark shade in the gray family. On screen it is built from 31% red, 29% green and 26% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 0% cyan, 5% magenta, 15% yellow and 69% black. Being nearly neutral, it pairs easily with warm and cool tones alike.

›What text colour should I use on #4E4A42?

Use white text. White on #4E4A42 has a contrast ratio of 8.82:1 (AAA).

›What colours go with #4E4A42?

Its complementary colour is #42464E, and analogous partners are #4E4442 and #4C4E42.