Matte Black Color Codes
Matte Black is a very dark neutral grey with the hex code #28282B, RGB values of 40, 40, 43 and an HSL value of hsl(240, 4%, 16%).
| HEX | #28282B |
|---|---|
| RGB | 40, 40, 43 |
| HSL | hsl(240, 4%, 16%) |
| HSV | 240°, 7%, 17% |
| CMYK | 7%, 7%, 0%, 83% |
| LAB | 16.22, 0.74, -1.96 |
| CIELCHuv | 16.22, 1.89, 265.87° |
- Nearest Pantone
- PMS 426 C ΔE 4.3 · approximate
- Nearest CSS name
-
blackΔE 16.4
Community source Common web usage
Matte Black Color Hex Code
The Matte Black color hex code is #28282B. Those six digits are three pairs, 28 for red, 28 for green and 2B for blue, which is the same triplet a browser reads from the CSS value below.
#28282B
Matte Black Color RGB Code
The Matte Black RGB code is rgb(40, 40, 43). Blue carries the most light at 43 of 255, which is what puts this color where it sits on the wheel.
rgb(40, 40, 43)
Matte Black Color HSV Code
The Matte Black HSV code is 240°, 7%, 17%. Read it as a hue of 240 degrees, 7% saturation and 17% value, which is the form most color pickers use because moving one number changes one thing.
240°, 7%, 17%
Matte Black Color CIELChuv Code
The Matte Black CIELCHuv code is 16.22, 1.89, 265.87°. Unlike hex or RGB this one is perceptual: lightness 16 means dark to the eye rather than to the screen, and chroma 2 is how far it sits from grey.
16.22, 1.89, 265.87°
Tonal scale
What are Matte Black 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 Matte Black Color Palette Codes?
Each of these is a hue rotation from #28282B. They are generated, not curated, so they are exact.
Complementary
The opposite hue is #2B2B28, a very dark neutral grey. 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 #282A2B and #2A282B. 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
#2B2828 and #282B28 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: #2B2A28 and #2A2B28. 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 #2B2B28, and #2B282A with #282B2A. 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 Matte Black 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
14.70:114.70
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
1.43:11.43
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 |
Matte Black clears WCAG AA against white at 14.70:1, so it is safe for body copy as well as headings. Text placed on it should be white, which gives 14.70:1. 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 Matte Black 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#28282A
Matte Black holds up almost unchanged here. ΔE 0.7
No working red cones. Reds darken sharply and drift toward the same muddy olive as green.
Deuteranopia
About 1% of men#28282A
Matte Black holds up almost unchanged here. ΔE 0.7
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#282A2A
Matte Black holds up almost unchanged here. ΔE 2.4
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#282828
Matte Black holds up almost unchanged here. ΔE 2.1
No color vision at all. Also a fair proxy for how the color survives a greyscale print or a failing screen.
Matte Black is stable under the common forms of color blindness: to a deuteranope it reads as #28282A, a shift of only ΔE 0.7, which is close to imperceptible. The widest shift is under tritanopia, at ΔE 2.4. 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 Matte Black in code
:root {
--matte-black: #28282B;
}
.example {
color: var(--matte-black);
}// tailwind.config.js
theme: {
extend: {
colors: {
'matte-black': '#28282B',
},
},
}// SwiftUI takes 0–1 components, not 0–255.
let matteBlack = Color(
red: 0.157,
green: 0.157,
blue: 0.169
)<!-- res/values/colors.xml -->
<color name="matte_black">#28282B</color>// Flutter wants ARGB: FF for full opacity, then the hex.
const matteBlack = Color(0xFF28282B);