ColorXprez

#656A6E

Gray · medium neutral

About #656A6E

#656A6E is a near-neutral, medium shade in the gray family. On screen it is built from 40% red, 42% green and 43% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 8% cyan, 4% magenta, 0% yellow and 57% black. Being nearly neutral, it pairs easily with warm and cool tones alike.

Of the common colour names it is similar to Gray (ΔE 9.6); Slate Gray comes next. Its complementary colour, directly opposite on the colour wheel, is #6E6965 — a gray tone that gives the strongest contrast in hue.

Designers tend to use medium tones like #656A6E for illustrations, icons and secondary elements. White text reads best on it at 5.47:1 (a WCAG AA pass). Used as a text colour on white, it is readable too (5.47:1).

Colour codes

HEX
RGB
HSL
HSV / HSB
CMYK
CIELAB
Decimal
CSS
Red101
Green106
Blue110

Closest named colours

Gray
#808080 · ΔE 9.6
Slate Gray
#708090 · ΔE 11.4
Taupe
#8B8589 · ΔE 12.4

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

Text on #656A6E

WCAG contrast for white and black text on this colour.

White heading text
Body copy set on gray #656A6E.
5.47:1AA
Black heading text
Body copy set on gray #656A6E.
3.84:1AA Large

Colour-blindness preview

How #656A6E appears to people with the three most common types of colour-vision deficiency.

Normal vision
#656A6E
Protanopia (no red cones)
#686A6E
Deuteranopia (no green cones)
#67696E
Tritanopia (no blue cones)
#636B6B

Shades, tints & matching colours

Tints and shades

Complementary

Analogous

Triadic

Split complementary

Tetradic

Similar colours

Frequently asked questions

›What colour is #656A6E?

#656A6E is a near-neutral, medium shade in the gray family. On screen it is built from 40% red, 42% green and 43% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 8% cyan, 4% magenta, 0% yellow and 57% black. Being nearly neutral, it pairs easily with warm and cool tones alike.

›What text colour should I use on #656A6E?

Use white text. White on #656A6E has a contrast ratio of 5.47:1 (AA).

›What colours go with #656A6E?

Its complementary colour is #6E6965, and analogous partners are #656E6E and #65666E.