ColorXprez

#554E57

Charcoal · dark neutral

About #554E57

#554E57 is a dark, near-neutral gray colour. Digitally that works out to 33% red, 31% green and 34% blue. In CMYK print terms it is 2% cyan, 10% magenta, 0% yellow and 66% black. It is close to neutral, so it sits comfortably next to both warm and cool colours.

Visually it is similar to Charcoal (ΔE 10.6), with Graphite the next nearest named colour. Across the colour wheel sits #50574E (umber), its complementary partner.

Because it is dark, it is most useful for headings, body text, footers and dark-mode backgrounds. Put white text on top of it — 8.03:1, a WCAG AAA pass. Used as a text colour on white, it is readable too (8.03:1).

Colour codes

HEX
RGB
HSL
HSV / HSB
CMYK
CIELAB
Decimal
CSS
Red85
Green78
Blue87

Closest named colours

Charcoal
#36454F · ΔE 10.6
Graphite
#383838 · ΔE 12.4
Eggplant
#614051 · ΔE 12.8

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

Text on #554E57

WCAG contrast for white and black text on this colour.

White heading text
Body copy set on charcoal #554E57.
8.03:1AAA
Black heading text
Body copy set on charcoal #554E57.
2.61:1Fail

Colour-blindness preview

How #554E57 appears to people with the three most common types of colour-vision deficiency.

Normal vision
#554E57
Protanopia (no red cones)
#4D5057
Deuteranopia (no green cones)
#4F5057
Tritanopia (no blue cones)
#554F51

Shades, tints & matching colours

Tints and shades

Complementary

Analogous

Triadic

Split complementary

Tetradic

Similar colours

Frequently asked questions

›What colour is #554E57?

#554E57 is a dark, near-neutral gray colour. Digitally that works out to 33% red, 31% green and 34% blue. In CMYK print terms it is 2% cyan, 10% magenta, 0% yellow and 66% black. It is close to neutral, so it sits comfortably next to both warm and cool colours.

›What text colour should I use on #554E57?

Use white text. White on #554E57 has a contrast ratio of 8.03:1 (AAA).

›What colours go with #554E57?

Its complementary colour is #50574E, and analogous partners are #504E57 and #574E55.