Licorice Color Codes

Licorice is a very dark, desaturated red with the hex code #1A1110, RGB values of 26, 17, 16 and an HSL value of hsl(6, 24%, 8%).

HEX	#1A1110
RGB	26, 17, 16
HSL	hsl(6, 24%, 8%)
HSV	6°, 38%, 10%
CMYK	0%, 35%, 38%, 90%
LAB	5.94, 3.88, 1.96
CIELCHuv	5.94, 2.92, 18.60°

Nearest Pantone: PMS 419 C ΔE 11.7 · approximate
Nearest CSS name: black ΔE 7.4

Source Wikipedia, Shades of black

Licorice Color Hex Code

The Licorice color hex code is #1A1110. Those six digits are three pairs, 1A for red, 11 for green and 10 for blue, which is the same triplet a browser reads from the CSS value below.

#1A1110

Licorice Color RGB Code

The Licorice RGB code is rgb(26, 17, 16). Red carries the most light at 26 of 255, which is what puts this color where it sits on the wheel.

rgb(26, 17, 16)

Licorice Color HSV Code

The Licorice HSV code is 6°, 38%, 10%. Read it as a hue of 6 degrees, 38% saturation and 10% value, which is the form most color pickers use because moving one number changes one thing.

6°, 38%, 10%

Licorice Color CIELChuv Code

The Licorice CIELCHuv code is 5.94, 2.92, 18.60°. Unlike hex or RGB this one is perceptual: lightness 6 means dark to the eye rather than to the screen, and chroma 3 is how far it sits from grey.

5.94, 2.92, 18.60°

Tonal scale

What are Licorice 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 Licorice Color Palette Codes?

Each of these is a hue rotation from #1A1110. They are generated, not curated, so they are exact.

Complementary

Directly opposite sits #10191A, a very dark, desaturated teal. 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

#1A1014 and #1A1610 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

#101A11 and #11101A 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: #101A16 and #10141A. 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 #10191A, and #141A10 with #16101A. 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

18.56:1

18.56

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

1.13:1

1.13

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

Licorice clears WCAG AA against white at 18.56:1, so it is safe for body copy as well as headings. Text placed on it should be white, which gives 18.56:1.

Check Licorice against another color →

Color vision

How Licorice 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

#161610

Licorice 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

#171810

Licorice shifts slightly here. ΔE 7.0

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

actual

#1A1010

Licorice holds up almost unchanged here. ΔE 0.7

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

#131313

Licorice shifts slightly here. ΔE 4.3

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, Licorice reads as #171810. That is a shift of ΔE 7.0, so it is a different color to roughly one man in sixteen. It sits in the red end of the spectrum, which is exactly where red-green deficiency does its damage. Never pair it with a green of similar lightness to signal a difference in meaning: to a large minority the two become one color. The widest shift is under deuteranopia, at ΔE 7.0. 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 Licorice in code

:root {
  --licorice: #1A1110;
}

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

// tailwind.config.js
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      'licorice': '#1A1110',
    },
  },
}

// SwiftUI takes 0–1 components, not 0–255.
let licorice = Color(
    red: 0.102,
    green: 0.067,
    blue: 0.063
)

<!-- res/values/colors.xml -->
<color name="licorice">#1A1110</color>

// Flutter wants ARGB: FF for full opacity, then the hex.
const licorice = Color(0xFF1A1110);

Meaning

What is the Meaning of Licorice Color?

Licorice reads as formality. It is dark enough to hold white type without help, and at 24% saturation with a perceptual lightness of 6 it behaves as a warm color, which is the practical reason it turns up where it does.

What are Other Names of Licorice Color?

The closest CSS keyword is Black (#000000), though it is not a match: Delta-E 7.4 means the difference is visible side by side. For print the nearest Pantone is PMS 419 C at #282821. The name Licorice comes from the community color-name index rather than a standards body, so you will meet it under other names elsewhere.

How is Licorice Color Made?

On a screen Licorice is made by additive light: 26 red, 17 green and 16 blue out of 255, with red leading and 16 as the floor. In print it is subtractive instead, mixed as 0%, 35%, 38%, 90%. Starting from the pure hue at 6 degrees, Licorice is a shade, so it is that hue with black added.