ColorXprez

#515561

Charcoal · dark neutral

About #515561

#515561 is a near-neutral, dark shade in the gray family. On screen it is built from 32% red, 33% green and 38% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 16% cyan, 12% magenta, 0% yellow and 62% 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 9.0); Graphite comes next. Its complementary colour, directly opposite on the colour wheel, is #615D51 — a umber tone that gives the strongest contrast in hue.

Designers tend to use dark tones like #515561 for headings, body text, footers and dark-mode backgrounds. Put white text on top of it — 7.44:1, a WCAG AAA pass. Used as a text colour on white, it is readable too (7.44:1).

Colour codes

HEX
RGB
HSL
HSV / HSB
CMYK
CIELAB
Decimal
CSS
Red81
Green85
Blue97

Closest named colours

Charcoal
#36454F · ΔE 9.0
Graphite
#383838 · ΔE 14.8
Gunmetal
#2A3439 · ΔE 16.0

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

Text on #515561

WCAG contrast for white and black text on this colour.

White heading text
Body copy set on charcoal #515561.
7.44:1AAA
Black heading text
Body copy set on charcoal #515561.
2.82:1Fail

Colour-blindness preview

How #515561 appears to people with the three most common types of colour-vision deficiency.

Normal vision
#515561
Protanopia (no red cones)
#525662
Deuteranopia (no green cones)
#505561
Tritanopia (no blue cones)
#4D5759

Shades, tints & matching colours

Tints and shades

Complementary

Analogous

Triadic

Split complementary

Tetradic

Similar colours

Frequently asked questions

›What colour is #515561?

#515561 is a near-neutral, dark shade in the gray family. On screen it is built from 32% red, 33% green and 38% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 16% cyan, 12% magenta, 0% yellow and 62% black. It is close to neutral, so it sits comfortably next to both warm and cool colours.

›What text colour should I use on #515561?

Use white text. White on #515561 has a contrast ratio of 7.44:1 (AAA).

›What colours go with #515561?

Its complementary colour is #615D51, and analogous partners are #515D61 and #555161.