ColorXprez

#4E516E

Charcoal · dark cool blue

About #4E516E

#4E516E is a muted, dark shade in the blue family. On screen it is built from 31% red, 32% green and 43% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 29% cyan, 26% magenta, 0% yellow and 57% black. Its overall feel is cool.

Of the common colour names it is similar to Charcoal (ΔE 14.7); Eggplant comes next. Its complementary colour, directly opposite on the colour wheel, is #6E6B4E — a umber tone that gives the strongest contrast in hue.

Designers tend to use dark tones like #4E516E for headings, body text, footers and dark-mode backgrounds. White text reads best on it at 7.70:1 (a WCAG AAA pass). Used as a text colour on white, it is readable too (7.70:1).

Colour codes

HEX
RGB
HSL
HSV / HSB
CMYK
CIELAB
Decimal
CSS
Red78
Green81
Blue110

Closest named colours

Charcoal
#36454F · ΔE 14.7
Eggplant
#614051 · ΔE 17.3
Prussian Blue
#003153 · ΔE 18.9

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

Text on #4E516E

WCAG contrast for white and black text on this colour.

White heading text
Body copy set on charcoal #4E516E.
7.70:1AAA
Black heading text
Body copy set on charcoal #4E516E.
2.73:1Fail

Colour-blindness preview

How #4E516E appears to people with the three most common types of colour-vision deficiency.

Normal vision
#4E516E
Protanopia (no red cones)
#49546F
Deuteranopia (no green cones)
#47526D
Tritanopia (no blue cones)
#46565B

Shades, tints & matching colours

Tints and shades

Complementary

Analogous

Triadic

Split complementary

Tetradic

Similar colours

Frequently asked questions

›What colour is #4E516E?

#4E516E is a muted, dark shade in the blue family. On screen it is built from 31% red, 32% green and 43% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 29% cyan, 26% magenta, 0% yellow and 57% black. Its overall feel is cool.

›What text colour should I use on #4E516E?

Use white text. White on #4E516E has a contrast ratio of 7.70:1 (AAA).

›What colours go with #4E516E?

Its complementary colour is #6E6B4E, and analogous partners are #4E616E and #5B4E6E.