Charcoal Color Codes
Charcoal is a dark, desaturated azure blue with the hex code #36454F, RGB values of 54, 69, 79 and an HSL value of hsl(204, 19%, 26%).
| HEX | #36454F |
|---|---|
| RGB | 54, 69, 79 |
| HSL | hsl(204, 19%, 26%) |
| HSV | 204°, 32%, 31% |
| CMYK | 32%, 13%, 0%, 69% |
| LAB | 28.39, -3.25, -7.96 |
| CIELCHuv | 28.39, 11.78, 231.38° |
- Nearest Pantone
- PMS 532 C ΔE 6.7 · approximate
- Nearest CSS name
-
darkslategrayΔE 9.9
Source Wikipedia, List of colors (cites ISCC-NBS)
Charcoal Color Hex Code
The Charcoal color hex code is #36454F. Those six digits are three pairs, 36 for red, 45 for green and 4F for blue, which is the same triplet a browser reads from the CSS value below.
#36454F
Charcoal Color RGB Code
The Charcoal RGB code is rgb(54, 69, 79). Blue carries the most light at 79 of 255, which is what puts this color where it sits on the wheel.
rgb(54, 69, 79)
Charcoal Color HSV Code
The Charcoal HSV code is 204°, 32%, 31%. Read it as a hue of 204 degrees, 32% saturation and 31% value, which is the form most color pickers use because moving one number changes one thing.
204°, 32%, 31%
Charcoal Color CIELChuv Code
The Charcoal CIELCHuv code is 28.39, 11.78, 231.38°. Unlike hex or RGB this one is perceptual: lightness 28 means dark to the eye rather than to the screen, and chroma 12 is how far it sits from grey.
28.39, 11.78, 231.38°
Tonal scale
What are Charcoal 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 Charcoal Color Palette Codes?
Each of these is a hue rotation from #36454F. They are generated, not curated, so they are exact.
Complementary
The opposite hue is #4F4036, a dark, desaturated orange. Complements carry the strongest contrast of any two-color scheme, so this pair suits a call to action better than a background. Neither is especially saturated, so this pairing stays calm enough for large areas of both.
Analogous
Its two neighbours are #364F4D and #36394F. Because they overlap heavily in hue, nothing in the group competes, and the eye reads the whole set as a single color with variation.
Triadic
#4F3645 and #454F36 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: #4F3639 and #4F4D36. 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 #4F4036, and #4D364F with #394F36. 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 Charcoal 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
9.90:19.90
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
2.12:12.12
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 |
Charcoal clears WCAG AA against white at 9.90:1, so it is safe for body copy as well as headings. Text placed on it should be white, which gives 9.90:1.
Color vision
How Charcoal 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#3D3D4D
Charcoal shifts slightly here. ΔE 7.7
No working red cones. Reds darken sharply and drift toward the same muddy olive as green.
Deuteranopia
About 1% of men#3C3B4C
Charcoal shifts slightly here. ΔE 8.7
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#374B4A
Charcoal shifts slightly here. ΔE 7.9
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#434343
Charcoal shifts slightly here. ΔE 8.6
No color vision at all. Also a fair proxy for how the color survives a greyscale print or a failing screen.
To a deuteranope, the most common form, Charcoal reads as #3C3B4C. That is a shift of ΔE 8.7, so it is a different color to roughly one man in sixteen. The widest shift is under deuteranopia, at ΔE 8.7. 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 Charcoal in code
:root {
--charcoal: #36454F;
}
.example {
color: var(--charcoal);
}// tailwind.config.js
theme: {
extend: {
colors: {
'charcoal': '#36454F',
},
},
}// SwiftUI takes 0–1 components, not 0–255.
let charcoal = Color(
red: 0.212,
green: 0.271,
blue: 0.310
)<!-- res/values/colors.xml -->
<color name="charcoal">#36454F</color>// Flutter wants ARGB: FF for full opacity, then the hex.
const charcoal = Color(0xFF36454F);