ColorXprez

#4E595D

Charcoal · dark neutral

About #4E595D

#4E595D is a near-neutral, dark shade in the gray family. On screen it is built from 31% red, 35% green and 36% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 16% cyan, 4% magenta, 0% yellow and 64% 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 9.6); Graphite comes next. Its complementary colour, directly opposite on the colour wheel, is #5D524E — a umber tone that gives the strongest contrast in hue.

Designers tend to use dark tones like #4E595D for headings, body text, footers and dark-mode backgrounds. Put white text on top of it — 7.21:1, a WCAG AAA pass. Used as a text colour on white, it is readable too (7.21:1).

Colour codes

HEX
RGB
HSL
HSV / HSB
CMYK
CIELAB
Decimal
CSS
Red78
Green89
Blue93

Closest named colours

Charcoal
#36454F · ΔE 9.6
Graphite
#383838 · ΔE 14.4
Umber
#635147 · ΔE 15.5

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

Text on #4E595D

WCAG contrast for white and black text on this colour.

White heading text
Body copy set on charcoal #4E595D.
7.21:1AAA
Black heading text
Body copy set on charcoal #4E595D.
2.91:1Fail

Colour-blindness preview

How #4E595D appears to people with the three most common types of colour-vision deficiency.

Normal vision
#4E595D
Protanopia (no red cones)
#57585D
Deuteranopia (no green cones)
#54565D
Tritanopia (no blue cones)
#4A5A5A

Shades, tints & matching colours

Tints and shades

Complementary

Analogous

Triadic

Split complementary

Tetradic

Similar colours

Frequently asked questions

›What colour is #4E595D?

#4E595D is a near-neutral, dark shade in the gray family. On screen it is built from 31% red, 35% green and 36% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 16% cyan, 4% magenta, 0% yellow and 64% black. It is close to neutral, so it sits comfortably next to both warm and cool colours.

›What text colour should I use on #4E595D?

Use white text. White on #4E595D has a contrast ratio of 7.21:1 (AAA).

›What colours go with #4E595D?

Its complementary colour is #5D524E, and analogous partners are #4E5D5A and #4E525D.