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Gray

Hex #808080, rgb(128 128 128). A gray or black CSS named color.

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Gray color codes

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

About Gray

Gray is a medium neutral gray with the hex code #808080. In RGB it is made of 128 red, 128 green and 128 blue; in HSL its hue is 0°, with 0% saturation and 50% lightness. Its perceptual lightness (OKLCH L) is 60.0%.

It is a CSS named color, so you can write "gray" or "grey" anywhere CSS accepts a color. Against white it has a contrast ratio of 3.95:1 and against black 5.32:1, so black text reads better on it and passes WCAG AA for normal text.

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

Tints, shades and tones

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

Tints (with white)

Shades (with black)

Tones (with gray)

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 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 Gray with white and black. The readable text color on Gray is black.

Gray textSmall text on white

On white3.95:1

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

APCA Lc 67

Gray textSmall text on black

On black5.32:1

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

APCA Lc -35

Black text on Gray (#000000)

Test any pair in the contrast checker.

Color blindness preview

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

  • Protanopia#808080
  • Deuteranopia#808080
  • Tritanopia#808080
  • Protanomaly#808080
  • Deuteranomaly#808080
  • Tritanomaly#808080
  • Achromatopsia#808080

Colors similar to Gray

The closest named colors by perceptual difference (OKLab).

Use Gray in CSS and Tailwind

CSS
.gray {
  color: gray; /* #808080 */
  background-color: rgb(128 128 128);
  border-color: oklch(60% 0 0);
}
Tailwind CSS
/* Tailwind CSS v4: bg-gray-500, text-gray-700... */
@theme {
  --color-gray-50: #FAFAFA;
  --color-gray-100: #EFEFEF;
  --color-gray-200: #DEDEDE;
  --color-gray-300: #C6C6C6;
  --color-gray-400: #A6A6A6;
  --color-gray-500: #929292;
  --color-gray-600: #808080;
  --color-gray-700: #666666;
  --color-gray-800: #515151;
  --color-gray-900: #404040;
  --color-gray-950: #161616;
}

<!-- or the exact color, no config -->
<div class="bg-[#808080] text-[#000000]">…</div>