ColorXprez

#4E594E

Umber · dark cool gray

About #4E594E

#4E594E is a muted, dark shade in the gray family. On screen it is built from 31% red, 35% green and 31% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 12% cyan, 0% magenta, 12% yellow and 65% black. Its overall feel is cool.

Of the common colour names it is similar to Umber (ΔE 13.1); Graphite comes next. Its complementary colour, directly opposite on the colour wheel, is #594E59 — a eggplant tone that gives the strongest contrast in hue.

Designers tend to use dark tones like #4E594E for headings, body text, footers and dark-mode backgrounds. White text reads best on it at 7.34:1 (a WCAG AAA pass). Used as a text colour on white, it is readable too (7.34:1).

Colour codes

HEX
RGB
HSL
HSV / HSB
CMYK
CIELAB
Decimal
CSS
Red78
Green89
Blue78

Closest named colours

Umber
#635147 · ΔE 13.1
Graphite
#383838 · ΔE 15.5
Charcoal
#36454F · ΔE 15.7

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

Text on #4E594E

WCAG contrast for white and black text on this colour.

White heading text
Body copy set on umber #4E594E.
7.34:1AAA
Black heading text
Body copy set on umber #4E594E.
2.86:1Fail

Colour-blindness preview

How #4E594E appears to people with the three most common types of colour-vision deficiency.

Normal vision
#4E594E
Protanopia (no red cones)
#5A574D
Deuteranopia (no green cones)
#58564F
Tritanopia (no blue cones)
#4D5856

Shades, tints & matching colours

Tints and shades

Complementary

Analogous

Triadic

Split complementary

Tetradic

Similar colours

Frequently asked questions

›What colour is #4E594E?

#4E594E is a muted, dark shade in the gray family. On screen it is built from 31% red, 35% green and 31% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 12% cyan, 0% magenta, 12% yellow and 65% black. Its overall feel is cool.

›What text colour should I use on #4E594E?

Use white text. White on #4E594E has a contrast ratio of 7.34:1 (AAA).

›What colours go with #4E594E?

Its complementary colour is #594E59, and analogous partners are #53594E and #4E5953.