ColorXprez

#4E5960

Charcoal · dark neutral

About #4E5960

#4E5960 is a near-neutral, dark shade in the gray family. On screen it is built from 31% red, 35% green and 38% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 19% cyan, 7% magenta, 0% yellow and 62% black. Being nearly neutral, it pairs easily with warm and cool tones alike.

Of the common colour names it is similar to Charcoal (ΔE 9.1); Graphite comes next. Its complementary colour, directly opposite on the colour wheel, is #60554E — a umber tone that gives the strongest contrast in hue.

Designers tend to use dark tones like #4E5960 for headings, body text, footers and dark-mode backgrounds. White text reads best on it at 7.19:1 (a WCAG AAA pass). Used as a text colour on white, it is readable too (7.19:1).

Colour codes

HEX
RGB
HSL
HSV / HSB
CMYK
CIELAB
Decimal
CSS
Red78
Green89
Blue96

Closest named colours

Charcoal
#36454F · ΔE 9.1
Graphite
#383838 · ΔE 14.9
Gunmetal
#2A3439 · ΔE 16.2

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

Text on #4E5960

WCAG contrast for white and black text on this colour.

White heading text
Body copy set on charcoal #4E5960.
7.19:1AAA
Black heading text
Body copy set on charcoal #4E5960.
2.92:1Fail

Colour-blindness preview

How #4E5960 appears to people with the three most common types of colour-vision deficiency.

Normal vision
#4E5960
Protanopia (no red cones)
#565960
Deuteranopia (no green cones)
#535660
Tritanopia (no blue cones)
#495B5B

Shades, tints & matching colours

Tints and shades

Complementary

Analogous

Triadic

Split complementary

Tetradic

Similar colours

Frequently asked questions

›What colour is #4E5960?

#4E5960 is a near-neutral, dark shade in the gray family. On screen it is built from 31% red, 35% green and 38% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 19% cyan, 7% magenta, 0% yellow and 62% black. Being nearly neutral, it pairs easily with warm and cool tones alike.

›What text colour should I use on #4E5960?

Use white text. White on #4E5960 has a contrast ratio of 7.19:1 (AAA).

›What colours go with #4E5960?

Its complementary colour is #60554E, and analogous partners are #4E605E and #4E5060.