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Onyx Color Codes

Onyx is a very dark neutral grey with the hex code #353839, RGB values of 53, 56, 57 and an HSL value of hsl(195, 4%, 22%).

HEX#353839
RGB53, 56, 57
HSLhsl(195, 4%, 22%)
HSV195°, 7%, 22%
CMYK7%, 2%, 0%, 78%
LAB23.27, -1.04, -1.07
CIELCHuv23.27, 1.83, 213.88°
Nearest Pantone
PMS 433 C ΔE 2.3 · approximate
Nearest CSS name
darkslategray ΔE 13.6

Source Wikipedia, List of colors

Onyx Color Hex Code

The Onyx color hex code is #353839. Those six digits are three pairs, 35 for red, 38 for green and 39 for blue, which is the same triplet a browser reads from the CSS value below.

#353839

Onyx Color RGB Code

The Onyx RGB code is rgb(53, 56, 57). Blue carries the most light at 57 of 255, which is what puts this color where it sits on the wheel.

rgb(53, 56, 57)

Onyx Color HSV Code

The Onyx HSV code is 195°, 7%, 22%. Read it as a hue of 195 degrees, 7% saturation and 22% value, which is the form most color pickers use because moving one number changes one thing.

195°, 7%, 22%

Onyx Color CIELChuv Code

The Onyx CIELCHuv code is 23.27, 1.83, 213.88°. Unlike hex or RGB this one is perceptual: lightness 23 means dark to the eye rather than to the screen, and chroma 2 is how far it sits from grey.

23.27, 1.83, 213.88°

Tonal scale

What are Onyx 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 Onyx Color Palette Codes?

Each of these is a hue rotation from #353839. They are generated, not curated, so they are exact.

Complementary

The opposite hue is #393635, 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 #353938 and #353639. 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

#393538 and #383935 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: #393536 and #393835. 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 #393635, and #383539 with #363935. 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

Contrast checker: is Onyx 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

11.82:1

11.82

contrast ratio on white background

ElementAAAAA
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

1.78:1

1.78

contrast ratio on black background

ElementAAAAA
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

Onyx clears WCAG AA against white at 11.82:1, so it is safe for body copy as well as headings. Text placed on it should be white, which gives 11.82:1. With very little saturation it behaves as a neutral, which makes it a good background or a supporting tone alongside a stronger accent.

Check Onyx against another color →

Color vision

How Onyx 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

#363639

Onyx 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
actual

#363639

Onyx 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
actual

#353939

Onyx holds up almost unchanged here. ΔE 0.9

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
actual

#373737

Onyx holds up almost unchanged here. ΔE 1.5

No color vision at all. Also a fair proxy for how the color survives a greyscale print or a failing screen.

Onyx is stable under the common forms of color blindness: to a deuteranope it reads as #363639, a shift of only ΔE 2.0, which is close to imperceptible. The widest shift is under protanopia, at ΔE 2.0. 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 Onyx in code

:root {
  --onyx: #353839;
}

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