Slate Gray Color Codes

Slate Gray is a mid-tone, desaturated azure blue with the hex code #708090, RGB values of 112, 128, 144 and an HSL value of hsl(210, 13%, 50%).

HEX	#708090
RGB	112, 128, 144
HSL	hsl(210, 13%, 50%)
HSV	210°, 22%, 56%
CMYK	22%, 11%, 0%, 44%
LAB	52.84, -2.14, -10.57
CIELCHuv	52.84, 17.44, 238.63°

Nearest Pantone: PMS 5415 C ΔE 4.7 · approximate
Nearest CSS name: slategray ΔE 0.0

Source CSS Color Module Level 4 keyword 'SlateGray'

Slate Gray Color Hex Code

The Slate Gray color hex code is #708090. Those six digits are three pairs, 70 for red, 80 for green and 90 for blue, which is the same triplet a browser reads from the CSS value below.

#708090

Slate Gray Color RGB Code

The Slate Gray RGB code is rgb(112, 128, 144). Blue carries the most light at 144 of 255, which is what puts this color where it sits on the wheel.

rgb(112, 128, 144)

Slate Gray Color HSV Code

The Slate Gray HSV code is 210°, 22%, 56%. Read it as a hue of 210 degrees, 22% saturation and 56% value, which is the form most color pickers use because moving one number changes one thing.

210°, 22%, 56%

Slate Gray Color CIELChuv Code

The Slate Gray CIELCHuv code is 52.84, 17.44, 238.63°. Unlike hex or RGB this one is perceptual: lightness 53 means mid-toned to the eye rather than to the screen, and chroma 17 is how far it sits from grey.

52.84, 17.44, 238.63°

Tonal scale

What are Slate Gray 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 Slate Gray Color Palette Codes?

Each of these is a hue rotation from #708090. They are generated, not curated, so they are exact.

Complementary

The opposite hue is #908070, a mid-tone, desaturated orange. 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 #709090 and #707090. 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

#907080 and #809070 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: #907070 and #909070. 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 #908070, and #907090 with #709070. 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

4.05:1

4.05

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

Black background

5.18:1

5.18

contrast ratio on black 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

Against white Slate Gray reaches 4.05:1, enough for large text and UI borders, but short of the 4.5:1 that body copy needs. Darken it for anything set small. Text placed on it should be black, which gives 5.18:1. With very little saturation it behaves as a neutral, which makes it a good background or a supporting tone alongside a stronger accent.

Check Slate Gray against another color →

Color vision

How Slate Gray 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

#77778C

Slate Gray shifts slightly here. ΔE 7.1

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

Deuteranopia

About 1% of men

actual

#76758B

Slate Gray shifts slightly here. ΔE 7.9

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

#718989

Slate Gray shifts noticeably here. ΔE 10.3

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

#7E7E7E

Slate Gray shifts noticeably here. ΔE 10.8

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, Slate Gray reads as #76758B. That is a shift of ΔE 7.9, so it is a different color to roughly one man in sixteen. The widest shift is under tritanopia, at ΔE 10.3. 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 Slate Gray in code

:root {
  --slate-gray: #708090;
}

.example {
  color: var(--slate-gray);
}

// tailwind.config.js
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      'slate-gray': '#708090',
    },
  },
}

// SwiftUI takes 0–1 components, not 0–255.
let slateGray = Color(
    red: 0.439,
    green: 0.502,
    blue: 0.565
)

<!-- res/values/colors.xml -->
<color name="slate_gray">#708090</color>

// Flutter wants ARGB: FF for full opacity, then the hex.
const slateGray = Color(0xFF708090);

Meaning

What is the Meaning of Slate Gray Color?

Slate Gray reads as quiet. It is muted enough to work as a background rather than a signal, and at 13% saturation with a perceptual lightness of 53 it behaves as a cool color, which is the practical reason it turns up where it does.

What are Other Names of Slate Gray Color?

In CSS you can write SlateGray instead of the hex and get the same color: the two are 0.0 apart, which no eye resolves. For print the nearest Pantone is PMS 5415 C at #607C8C. The name Slate Gray comes from the community color-name index rather than a standards body, so you will meet it under other names elsewhere.

How is Slate Gray Color Made?

On a screen Slate Gray is made by additive light: 112 red, 128 green and 144 blue out of 255, with blue leading and 112 as the floor. In print it is subtractive instead, mixed as 22%, 11%, 0%, 44%. Starting from the pure hue at 210 degrees, Slate Gray is a tone, so it is that hue knocked back with grey.