ColorXprez

#685B59

Umber · dark neutral

About #685B59

#685B59 is a near-neutral, dark shade in the gray family. On screen it is built from 41% red, 36% green and 35% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 0% cyan, 12% magenta, 14% yellow and 59% black. It is close to neutral, so it sits comfortably next to both warm and cool colours.

Of the common colour names it is very close to Umber (ΔE 6.9); Gray comes next. Its complementary colour, directly opposite on the colour wheel, is #596668 — a gray tone that gives the strongest contrast in hue.

Designers tend to use dark tones like #685B59 for headings, body text, footers and dark-mode backgrounds. Put white text on top of it — 6.50:1, a WCAG AA pass. Used as a text colour on white, it is readable too (6.50:1).

Colour codes

HEX
RGB
HSL
HSV / HSB
CMYK
CIELAB
Decimal
CSS
Red104
Green91
Blue89

Closest named colours

Umber
#635147 · ΔE 6.9
Gray
#808080 · ΔE 14.9
Walnut
#5C4033 · ΔE 14.9

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

Text on #685B59

WCAG contrast for white and black text on this colour.

White heading text
Body copy set on umber #685B59.
6.50:1AA
Black heading text
Body copy set on umber #685B59.
3.23:1AA Large

Colour-blindness preview

How #685B59 appears to people with the three most common types of colour-vision deficiency.

Normal vision
#685B59
Protanopia (no red cones)
#5E5C59
Deuteranopia (no green cones)
#605F59
Tritanopia (no blue cones)
#6B5A5A

Shades, tints & matching colours

Tints and shades

Complementary

Analogous

Triadic

Split complementary

Tetradic

Similar colours

Frequently asked questions

›What colour is #685B59?

#685B59 is a near-neutral, dark shade in the gray family. On screen it is built from 41% red, 36% green and 35% blue; for print, its CMYK mix is 0% cyan, 12% magenta, 14% yellow and 59% black. It is close to neutral, so it sits comfortably next to both warm and cool colours.

›What text colour should I use on #685B59?

Use white text. White on #685B59 has a contrast ratio of 6.50:1 (AA).

›What colours go with #685B59?

Its complementary colour is #596668, and analogous partners are #68595E and #686259.