Ebony Color Codes

Ebony is a dark neutral grey with the hex code #555D50, RGB values of 85, 93, 80 and an HSL value of hsl(97, 8%, 34%).

HEX	#555D50
RGB	85, 93, 80
HSL	hsl(97, 8%, 34%)
HSV	97°, 14%, 36%
CMYK	9%, 0%, 14%, 64%
LAB	38.44, -5.87, 6.42
CIELCHuv	38.44, 9.56, 113.38°

Nearest Pantone: PMS 418 C ΔE 4.7 · approximate
Nearest CSS name: dimgray ΔE 10.5

Source Wikipedia, List of colors (cites Maerz and Paul)

Ebony Color Hex Code

The Ebony color hex code is #555D50. Those six digits are three pairs, 55 for red, 5D for green and 50 for blue, which is the same triplet a browser reads from the CSS value below.

#555D50

Ebony Color RGB Code

The Ebony RGB code is rgb(85, 93, 80). Green carries the most light at 93 of 255, which is what puts this color where it sits on the wheel.

rgb(85, 93, 80)

Ebony Color HSV Code

The Ebony HSV code is 97°, 14%, 36%. Read it as a hue of 97 degrees, 14% saturation and 36% value, which is the form most color pickers use because moving one number changes one thing.

97°, 14%, 36%

Ebony Color CIELChuv Code

The Ebony CIELCHuv code is 38.44, 9.56, 113.38°. Unlike hex or RGB this one is perceptual: lightness 38 means mid-toned to the eye rather than to the screen, and chroma 10 is how far it sits from grey.

38.44, 9.56, 113.38°

Tonal scale

What are Ebony 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

Open in the shades & tints generator →

Palettes

What are Ebony Color Palette Codes?

Each of these is a hue rotation from #555D50. They are generated, not curated, so they are exact.

Complementary

Rotate a half turn and you land on #58505D, a dark neutral grey. Maximum hue distance, which is what makes a complement read as emphasis rather than decoration. Neither is especially saturated, so this pairing stays calm enough for large areas of both.

Analogous

Step 30 degrees in each direction and you get #5C5D50 and #505D52. Neighbouring hues hold together without effort, which is what makes analogous sets the safe choice for large areas.

Triadic

#50555D and #5D5055 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: #52505D and #5D505C. 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 #58505D, and #505C5D with #5D5250. The richest of the five and the hardest to balance, so treat this base as the lead and hold the other three well back.

See these on the color wheel →

Accessibility

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

6.85:1

6.85

contrast ratio on white background

Element	AA	AAA
Small text needs 4.5:1 / 7:1	Passes	Fails
Large text needs 3:1 / 4.5:1	Passes	Passes
UI component needs 3:1	Passes	n/a

Black background

3.07:1

3.07

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	Passes	Fails
UI component needs 3:1	Passes	n/a

Ebony clears WCAG AA against white at 6.85:1, so it is safe for body copy as well as headings. Text placed on it should be white, which gives 6.85:1. With very little saturation it behaves as a neutral, which makes it a good background or a supporting tone alongside a stronger accent.

Check Ebony against another color →

Color vision

How Ebony 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

actual

#595953

Ebony shifts slightly here. ΔE 5.5

No working red cones. Reds darken sharply and drift toward the same muddy olive as green.

Deuteranopia

About 1% of men

actual

#585754

Ebony shifts slightly here. ΔE 7.4

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

actual

#555656

Ebony shifts slightly here. ΔE 8.8

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

actual

#5A5A5A

Ebony shifts slightly here. ΔE 8.7

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, Ebony reads as #585754. That is a shift of ΔE 7.4, so it is a different color to roughly one man in sixteen. The widest shift is under tritanopia, at ΔE 8.8. 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.

Simulate a whole palette →

Snippets

Using Ebony in code

:root {
  --ebony: #555D50;
}

.example {
  color: var(--ebony);
}

// tailwind.config.js
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      'ebony': '#555D50',
    },
  },
}

// SwiftUI takes 0–1 components, not 0–255.
let ebony = Color(
    red: 0.333,
    green: 0.365,
    blue: 0.314
)

<!-- res/values/colors.xml -->
<color name="ebony">#555D50</color>

// Flutter wants ARGB: FF for full opacity, then the hex.
const ebony = Color(0xFF555D50);

Meaning

What is the Meaning of Ebony Color?

Ebony reads as formality. It is muted enough to work as a background rather than a signal, and at 8% saturation with a perceptual lightness of 38 it behaves as a neutral color, which is the practical reason it turns up where it does.

What are Other Names of Ebony Color?

The closest CSS keyword is DimGray (#696969), though it is not a match: Delta-E 10.5 means the difference is visible side by side. For print the nearest Pantone is PMS 418 C at #605E4F. The name Ebony is the one carried by Wikipedia's list of colors.

How is Ebony Color Made?

On a screen Ebony is made by additive light: 85 red, 93 green and 80 blue out of 255, with green leading and 80 as the floor. In print it is subtractive instead, mixed as 9%, 0%, 14%, 64%. Starting from the pure hue at 97 degrees, Ebony is a tone, so it is that hue knocked back with grey.