Platinum Color Codes
Platinum is a very light neutral grey with the hex code #E5E4E2, RGB values of 229, 228, 226 and an HSL value of hsl(40, 5%, 89%).
| HEX | #E5E4E2 |
|---|---|
| RGB | 229, 228, 226 |
| HSL | hsl(40, 5%, 89%) |
| HSV | 40°, 1%, 90% |
| CMYK | 0%, 0%, 1%, 10% |
| LAB | 90.61, -0.02, 1.09 |
| CIELCHuv | 90.61, 1.80, 67.92° |
- Nearest Pantone
- PMS 5455 C ΔE 4.9 · approximate
- Nearest CSS name
-
gainsboroΔE 3.1
Source Wikipedia, List of colors
Platinum Color Hex Code
The Platinum color hex code is #E5E4E2. Those six digits are three pairs, E5 for red, E4 for green and E2 for blue, which is the same triplet a browser reads from the CSS value below.
#E5E4E2
Platinum Color RGB Code
The Platinum RGB code is rgb(229, 228, 226). Red carries the most light at 229 of 255, which is what puts this color where it sits on the wheel.
rgb(229, 228, 226)
Platinum Color HSV Code
The Platinum HSV code is 40°, 1%, 90%. Read it as a hue of 40 degrees, 1% saturation and 90% value, which is the form most color pickers use because moving one number changes one thing.
40°, 1%, 90%
Platinum Color CIELChuv Code
The Platinum CIELCHuv code is 90.61, 1.80, 67.92°. Unlike hex or RGB this one is perceptual: lightness 91 means light to the eye rather than to the screen, and chroma 2 is how far it sits from grey.
90.61, 1.80, 67.92°
Tonal scale
What are Platinum 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 Platinum Color Palette Codes?
Each of these is a hue rotation from #E5E4E2. They are generated, not curated, so they are exact.
Complementary
Directly opposite sits #E2E3E5, a very light neutral grey. 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
#E5E3E2 and #E5E5E2 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
#E2E5E4 and #E4E2E5 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: #E2E5E5 and #E3E2E5. 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 #E2E3E5, and #E2E5E3 with #E5E2E5. The richest of the five and the hardest to balance, so treat the darkest of the four as the lead and hold the other three well back.
Accessibility
Contrast checker: is Platinum 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
1.27:11.27
contrast ratio on white 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 |
Black background
16.53:116.53
contrast ratio on black 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 |
At 1.27:1 against white, Platinum is a fill color rather than a text color. Use it for surfaces, borders and large display type, and set the copy in ink. Text placed on it should be black, which gives 16.53:1. 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 Platinum 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#E5E5E2
Platinum 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#E5E5E3
Platinum holds up almost unchanged here. ΔE 0.5
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#E5E3E3
Platinum holds up almost unchanged here. ΔE 1.1
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#E4E4E4
Platinum holds up almost unchanged here. ΔE 1.1
No color vision at all. Also a fair proxy for how the color survives a greyscale print or a failing screen.
Platinum is stable under the common forms of color blindness: to a deuteranope it reads as #E5E5E3, a shift of only ΔE 0.5, which is close to imperceptible. The widest shift is under tritanopia, at ΔE 1.1. 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 Platinum in code
:root {
--platinum: #E5E4E2;
}
.example {
color: var(--platinum);
}
// tailwind.config.js
theme: {
extend: {
colors: {
'platinum': '#E5E4E2',
},
},
}
// SwiftUI takes 0–1 components, not 0–255.
let platinum = Color(
red: 0.898,
green: 0.894,
blue: 0.886
)
<!-- res/values/colors.xml -->
<color name="platinum">#E5E4E2</color>
// Flutter wants ARGB: FF for full opacity, then the hex.
const platinum = Color(0xFFE5E4E2);