Black Olive Color Codes
Black Olive is a dark neutral grey with the hex code #3B3C36, RGB values of 59, 60, 54 and an HSL value of hsl(70, 5%, 22%).
| HEX | #3B3C36 |
|---|---|
| RGB | 59, 60, 54 |
| HSL | hsl(70, 5%, 22%) |
| HSV | 70°, 10%, 24% |
| CMYK | 2%, 0%, 10%, 76% |
| LAB | 25.04, -1.74, 3.56 |
| CIELCHuv | 25.04, 4.05, 93.21° |
- Nearest Pantone
- PMS 447 C ΔE 1.6 · approximate
- Nearest CSS name
-
darkslategrayΔE 13.8
Source Wikipedia, List of colors (cites RAL)
Black Olive Color Hex Code
The Black Olive color hex code is #3B3C36. Those six digits are three pairs, 3B for red, 3C for green and 36 for blue, which is the same triplet a browser reads from the CSS value below.
#3B3C36
Black Olive Color RGB Code
The Black Olive RGB code is rgb(59, 60, 54). Green carries the most light at 60 of 255, which is what puts this color where it sits on the wheel.
rgb(59, 60, 54)
Black Olive Color HSV Code
The Black Olive HSV code is 70°, 10%, 24%. Read it as a hue of 70 degrees, 10% saturation and 24% value, which is the form most color pickers use because moving one number changes one thing.
70°, 10%, 24%
Black Olive Color CIELChuv Code
The Black Olive CIELCHuv code is 25.04, 4.05, 93.21°. Unlike hex or RGB this one is perceptual: lightness 25 means dark to the eye rather than to the screen, and chroma 4 is how far it sits from grey.
25.04, 4.05, 93.21°
Tonal scale
What are Black Olive Color Palettes?
A shade mixes toward black, a tint toward white, a tone toward grey. Every step keeps the hue and is copy-ready.
Shades, toward black
Tints, toward white
Tones, toward grey
Palettes
What are Black Olive Color Palette Codes?
Each of these is a hue rotation from #3B3C36. They are generated, not curated, so they are exact.
Complementary
Directly opposite sits #37363C, a very dark neutral grey. No other pairing separates two hues further, so this is the one to reach for when a single element has to win attention. Neither is especially saturated, so this pairing stays calm enough for large areas of both.
Analogous
#3C3A36 and #383C36 sit 30 degrees either side. All three share most of their hue, so the set reads as one family instead of three separate decisions. Good for backgrounds and for state variations that should not announce themselves.
Triadic
#363B3C and #3C363B complete an even 120 degree split. Three fully independent hues, so one has to lead: keep this base dominant and let the other two appear in small quantities.
Split-complementary
Instead of the direct complement, this takes the two hues either side of it: #36383C and #3A363C. Almost the same contrast, without the edge shimmer a true complementary pair produces at high saturation.
Tetradic
Two complementary pairs forming a rectangle: this base with #37363C, and #363C3A with #3C3638. The richest of the five and the hardest to balance, so treat this base as the lead and hold the other three well back.
Accessibility
Contrast checker: is Black Olive accessible?
Measured against white and against black, with a separate verdict for each element type. Small text, large text and UI components have different thresholds, so one pass or fail for the whole color would be wrong roughly a third of the time.
White background
11.14:111.14
contrast ratio on white background
| Element | AA | AAA |
|---|---|---|
| Small text needs 4.5:1 / 7:1 | Passes | Passes |
| Large text needs 3:1 / 4.5:1 | Passes | Passes |
| UI component needs 3:1 | Passes | n/a |
Black background
1.89:11.89
contrast ratio on black background
| Element | AA | AAA |
|---|---|---|
| Small text needs 4.5:1 / 7:1 | Fails | Fails |
| Large text needs 3:1 / 4.5:1 | Fails | Fails |
| UI component needs 3:1 | Fails | n/a |
Black Olive clears WCAG AA against white at 11.14:1, so it is safe for body copy as well as headings. Text placed on it should be white, which gives 11.14:1. With very little saturation it behaves as a neutral, which makes it a good background or a supporting tone alongside a stronger accent.
Color vision
How Black Olive looks with color blindness
Around 300 million people see color differently from the way it is specified. Each card shows the actual color beside how it appears, and how common that form of vision is.
Protanopia
About 1% of men#3B3B38
Black Olive holds up almost unchanged here. ΔE 2.0
No working red cones. Reds darken sharply and drift toward the same muddy olive as green.
Deuteranopia
About 1% of men#3B3B38
Black Olive holds up almost unchanged here. ΔE 2.0
No working green cones. With the milder deuteranomaly at nearer 6% of men, this is by far the most common form, and the one worth designing around.
Tritanopia
About 1 in 10,000#3B3939
Black Olive shifts slightly here. ΔE 4.3
No working blue cones. Blues shift toward green and yellows toward pink. Rare, and unlike the others it is not sex-linked, so it affects men and women equally.
Achromatopsia
About 1 in 30,000#3B3B3B
Black Olive shifts slightly here. ΔE 4.0
No color vision at all. Also a fair proxy for how the color survives a greyscale print or a failing screen.
Black Olive is stable under the common forms of color blindness: to a deuteranope it reads as #3B3B38, a shift of only ΔE 2.0, which is close to imperceptible. The widest shift is under tritanopia, at ΔE 4.3. The rule this leads to needs no simulator: never let color be the only thing carrying a message. Add a label, an icon, or a clear difference in lightness, and the problem disappears for everyone.
Snippets
Using Black Olive in code
:root {
--black-olive: #3B3C36;
}
.example {
color: var(--black-olive);
}// tailwind.config.js
theme: {
extend: {
colors: {
'black-olive': '#3B3C36',
},
},
}// SwiftUI takes 0–1 components, not 0–255.
let blackOlive = Color(
red: 0.231,
green: 0.235,
blue: 0.212
)<!-- res/values/colors.xml -->
<color name="black_olive">#3B3C36</color>// Flutter wants ARGB: FF for full opacity, then the hex.
const blackOlive = Color(0xFF3B3C36);