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Dark Gray

Hex #A9A9A9, rgb(169 169 169). A gray or black CSS named color.

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Dark Gray color codes

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HEX
RGB
HSL
HSV
HWB
CMYK
OKLCH
OKLab
Lab
LCH
CSS keyword

About Dark Gray

Dark Gray is a light neutral gray with the hex code #A9A9A9. In RGB it is made of 169 red, 169 green and 169 blue; in HSL its hue is 0°, with 0% saturation and 66% lightness. Its perceptual lightness (OKLCH L) is 73.5%.

It is a CSS named color, so you can write "darkgray" or "darkgrey" anywhere CSS accepts a color. Against white it has a contrast ratio of 2.35:1 and against black 8.94:1, so black text reads better on it and passes WCAG AA for normal text.

Also written as Dark Grey: CSS treats both spellings as the same color.

Tints, shades and tones

Dark Gray mixed step by step with white, black and middle gray (#808080).

Tints (with white)

Shades (with black)

Tones (with gray)

Dark Gray 50-950 scale

A Tailwind-style scale built in OKLCH; the original color sits on the step with the closest lightness.

Colors that go with Dark Gray

Color harmonies rotate the hue in OKLCH and keep the lightness and chroma. Each color links to its closest named color.

Complementary

Analogous

Triadic

Split complementary

Tetradic

Square

Monochromatic

Contrast and readability

WCAG 2 contrast of Dark Gray with white and black. The readable text color on Dark Gray is black.

Dark Gray textSmall text on white

On white2.35:1

  • AA fail
  • AA Large fail
  • AAA fail
  • UI 3:1 fail

APCA Lc 46

Dark Gray textSmall text on black

On black8.94:1

  • AA pass
  • AA Large pass
  • AAA pass
  • UI 3:1 pass

APCA Lc -56

Black text on Dark Gray (#000000)

Test any pair in the contrast checker.

Color blindness preview

How Dark Gray appears with each type of color vision deficiency (simulated with the Machado model).

  • Protanopia#A9A9A9
  • Deuteranopia#A9A9A9
  • Tritanopia#A9A9A9
  • Protanomaly#A9A9A9
  • Deuteranomaly#A9A9A9
  • Tritanomaly#A9A9A9
  • Achromatopsia#A9A9A9

Colors similar to Dark Gray

The closest named colors by perceptual difference (OKLab).

Use Dark Gray in CSS and Tailwind

CSS
.dark-gray {
  color: darkgray; /* #A9A9A9 */
  background-color: rgb(169 169 169);
  border-color: oklch(73.5% 0 0);
}
Tailwind CSS
/* Tailwind CSS v4: bg-dark-gray-500, text-dark-gray-700... */
@theme {
  --color-dark-gray-50: #FAFAFA;
  --color-dark-gray-100: #EFEFEF;
  --color-dark-gray-200: #DFDFDF;
  --color-dark-gray-300: #C8C8C8;
  --color-dark-gray-400: #A9A9A9;
  --color-dark-gray-500: #909090;
  --color-dark-gray-600: #7B7B7B;
  --color-dark-gray-700: #626262;
  --color-dark-gray-800: #4E4E4E;
  --color-dark-gray-900: #3E3E3E;
  --color-dark-gray-950: #161616;
}

<!-- or the exact color, no config -->
<div class="bg-[#A9A9A9] text-[#000000]">…</div>