ColorXprez

#4E4A54

Charcoal · dark neutral

About #4E4A54

#4E4A54 is a near-neutral, dark shade in the gray family. On screen it is built from 31% red, 29% green and 33% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 7% cyan, 12% magenta, 0% yellow and 67% black. Being nearly neutral, it pairs easily with warm and cool tones alike.

Of the common colour names it is similar to Charcoal (ΔE 8.5); Graphite comes next. Its complementary colour, directly opposite on the colour wheel, is #50544A — a umber tone that gives the strongest contrast in hue.

Designers tend to use dark tones like #4E4A54 for headings, body text, footers and dark-mode backgrounds. White text reads best on it at 8.64:1 (a WCAG AAA pass). Used as a text colour on white, it is readable too (8.64:1).

Colour codes

HEX
RGB
HSL
HSV / HSB
CMYK
CIELAB
Decimal
CSS
Red78
Green74
Blue84

Closest named colours

Charcoal
#36454F · ΔE 8.5
Graphite
#383838 · ΔE 10.9
Gunmetal
#2A3439 · ΔE 13.1

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

Text on #4E4A54

WCAG contrast for white and black text on this colour.

White heading text
Body copy set on charcoal #4E4A54.
8.64:1AAA
Black heading text
Body copy set on charcoal #4E4A54.
2.43:1Fail

Colour-blindness preview

How #4E4A54 appears to people with the three most common types of colour-vision deficiency.

Normal vision
#4E4A54
Protanopia (no red cones)
#484C54
Deuteranopia (no green cones)
#494C54
Tritanopia (no blue cones)
#4D4B4D

Shades, tints & matching colours

Tints and shades

Complementary

Analogous

Triadic

Split complementary

Tetradic

Similar colours

Frequently asked questions

›What colour is #4E4A54?

#4E4A54 is a near-neutral, dark shade in the gray family. On screen it is built from 31% red, 29% green and 33% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 7% cyan, 12% magenta, 0% yellow and 67% black. Being nearly neutral, it pairs easily with warm and cool tones alike.

›What text colour should I use on #4E4A54?

Use white text. White on #4E4A54 has a contrast ratio of 8.64:1 (AAA).

›What colours go with #4E4A54?

Its complementary colour is #50544A, and analogous partners are #4A4B54 and #534A54.