ColorXprez

#5D596C

Charcoal · dark cool gray

About #5D596C

#5D596C is a muted, dark shade in the gray family. On screen it is built from 36% red, 35% green and 42% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 14% cyan, 18% magenta, 0% yellow and 58% black. Its overall feel is cool.

Of the common colour names it is similar to Charcoal (ΔE 14.0); Eggplant comes next. Its complementary colour, directly opposite on the colour wheel, is #686C59 — a umber tone that gives the strongest contrast in hue.

Designers tend to use dark tones like #5D596C for headings, body text, footers and dark-mode backgrounds. White text reads best on it at 6.75:1 (a WCAG AA pass). Used as a text colour on white, it is readable too (6.75:1).

Colour codes

HEX
RGB
HSL
HSV / HSB
CMYK
CIELAB
Decimal
CSS
Red93
Green89
Blue108

Closest named colours

Charcoal
#36454F · ΔE 14.0
Eggplant
#614051 · ΔE 14.9
Slate Gray
#708090 · ΔE 16.1

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

Text on #5D596C

WCAG contrast for white and black text on this colour.

White heading text
Body copy set on charcoal #5D596C.
6.75:1AA
Black heading text
Body copy set on charcoal #5D596C.
3.11:1AA Large

Colour-blindness preview

How #5D596C appears to people with the three most common types of colour-vision deficiency.

Normal vision
#5D596C
Protanopia (no red cones)
#555C6D
Deuteranopia (no green cones)
#565B6B
Tritanopia (no blue cones)
#5A5C5F

Shades, tints & matching colours

Tints and shades

Complementary

Analogous

Triadic

Split complementary

Tetradic

Similar colours

Frequently asked questions

›What colour is #5D596C?

#5D596C is a muted, dark shade in the gray family. On screen it is built from 36% red, 35% green and 42% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 14% cyan, 18% magenta, 0% yellow and 58% black. Its overall feel is cool.

›What text colour should I use on #5D596C?

Use white text. White on #5D596C has a contrast ratio of 6.75:1 (AA).

›What colours go with #5D596C?

Its complementary colour is #686C59, and analogous partners are #595E6C and #67596C.