ColorXprez

#4E4D57

Charcoal · dark neutral

About #4E4D57

#4E4D57 is a near-neutral, dark shade in the gray family. On screen it is built from 31% red, 30% green and 34% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 10% cyan, 11% magenta, 0% yellow and 66% 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 7.9); Graphite comes next. Its complementary colour, directly opposite on the colour wheel, is #56574D — a umber tone that gives the strongest contrast in hue.

Designers tend to use dark tones like #4E4D57 for headings, body text, footers and dark-mode backgrounds. Put white text on top of it — 8.32:1, a WCAG AAA pass. Used as a text colour on white, it is readable too (8.32:1).

Colour codes

HEX
RGB
HSL
HSV / HSB
CMYK
CIELAB
Decimal
CSS
Red78
Green77
Blue87

Closest named colours

Charcoal
#36454F · ΔE 7.9
Graphite
#383838 · ΔE 11.5
Gunmetal
#2A3439 · ΔE 13.4

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

Text on #4E4D57

WCAG contrast for white and black text on this colour.

White heading text
Body copy set on charcoal #4E4D57.
8.32:1AAA
Black heading text
Body copy set on charcoal #4E4D57.
2.52:1Fail

Colour-blindness preview

How #4E4D57 appears to people with the three most common types of colour-vision deficiency.

Normal vision
#4E4D57
Protanopia (no red cones)
#4B4E57
Deuteranopia (no green cones)
#4B4E57
Tritanopia (no blue cones)
#4C4E50

Shades, tints & matching colours

Tints and shades

Complementary

Analogous

Triadic

Split complementary

Tetradic

Similar colours

Frequently asked questions

›What colour is #4E4D57?

#4E4D57 is a near-neutral, dark shade in the gray family. On screen it is built from 31% red, 30% green and 34% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 10% cyan, 11% magenta, 0% yellow and 66% black. It is close to neutral, so it sits comfortably next to both warm and cool colours.

›What text colour should I use on #4E4D57?

Use white text. White on #4E4D57 has a contrast ratio of 8.32:1 (AAA).

›What colours go with #4E4D57?

Its complementary colour is #56574D, and analogous partners are #4D5157 and #534D57.