ColorXprez

#4E4C4F

Charcoal · dark neutral

About #4E4C4F

#4E4C4F is a near-neutral, dark shade in the gray family. On screen it is built from 31% red, 30% green and 31% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 1% cyan, 4% magenta, 0% yellow and 69% black. It is close to neutral, so it sits comfortably next to both warm and cool colours.

Of the common colour names it is similar to Charcoal (ΔE 9.0); Graphite comes next. Its complementary colour, directly opposite on the colour wheel, is #4D4F4C — a graphite tone that gives the strongest contrast in hue.

Designers tend to use dark tones like #4E4C4F for headings, body text, footers and dark-mode backgrounds. Put white text on top of it — 8.50:1, a WCAG AAA pass. Used as a text colour on white, it is readable too (8.50:1).

Colour codes

HEX
RGB
HSL
HSV / HSB
CMYK
CIELAB
Decimal
CSS
Red78
Green76
Blue79

Closest named colours

Charcoal
#36454F · ΔE 9.0
Graphite
#383838 · ΔE 9.3
Umber
#635147 · ΔE 11.5

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

Text on #4E4C4F

WCAG contrast for white and black text on this colour.

White heading text
Body copy set on charcoal #4E4C4F.
8.50:1AAA
Black heading text
Body copy set on charcoal #4E4C4F.
2.47:1Fail

Colour-blindness preview

How #4E4C4F appears to people with the three most common types of colour-vision deficiency.

Normal vision
#4E4C4F
Protanopia (no red cones)
#4C4D4F
Deuteranopia (no green cones)
#4C4D4F
Tritanopia (no blue cones)
#4E4C4D

Shades, tints & matching colours

Tints and shades

Complementary

Analogous

Triadic

Split complementary

Tetradic

Similar colours

Frequently asked questions

›What colour is #4E4C4F?

#4E4C4F is a near-neutral, dark shade in the gray family. On screen it is built from 31% red, 30% green and 31% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 1% cyan, 4% magenta, 0% yellow and 69% black. It is close to neutral, so it sits comfortably next to both warm and cool colours.

›What text colour should I use on #4E4C4F?

Use white text. White on #4E4C4F has a contrast ratio of 8.50:1 (AAA).

›What colours go with #4E4C4F?

Its complementary colour is #4D4F4C, and analogous partners are #4D4C4F and #4F4C4F.