Dark Gray #A9A9A9

About this color

#A9A9A9 is a medium-light close to neutral grey. In OKLCH its lightness is 73%, its chroma 0.000. It has too little chroma to lean warm or cool. It is the named color Dark Gray. Black text reads best on it, at 8.93:1.

Colors that go with Dark Gray

Matches found by rotating Dark Gray around the OKLCH hue wheel, each labelled with the closest name in our list.

Dark Gray is close to neutral, so it has no hue to rotate. It pairs with almost any color; try the palettes below.

Color palettes with Dark Gray

Curated color palettes that contain a color within ΔE 0.06 (OKLab) of Dark Gray, closest first.

• Cairn Pass
• Tarn and Scree
• Cashmere Gallery
• Ash Study
• Marble and Pewter
• Marble Studio
• Marble Edit
• Granite Archive

Similar named colors

The eight named colors closest to Dark Gray, with their ΔE distance.

• Cool Steel #97A7B3 ΔE 0.029
• Pewter #96A8A1 ΔE 0.030
• Cool Grey #95A3A6 ΔE 0.034
• Cement #A5A391 ΔE 0.034
• French Gray #ADB5BD ΔE 0.037
• Bland #AFA88B ΔE 0.041
• Stone #ADA587 ΔE 0.045
• Pinkish Grey #C8ACA9 ΔE 0.047

More about Dark Gray

• Shades of gray
• What gray means

How to make Dark Gray

A starting recipe from common paint colors, found with a spectral paint model (the color mixer’s paint mode). Real pigments vary, so mix a small test batch and adjust.

• 2 parts white
• 1 part green
• 1 part purple

Recipe result: #A5AAB0, a difference of ΔE 0.010 from Dark Gray. That is very close: most people will not see the difference.

What colors make gray? | Color mixing chart

Codes for Dark Gray in every format

Contrast

WCAG 2 contrast ratios are the conformance target: AA needs 4.5:1 for body text and 3:1 for large text, AAA needs 7:1. APCA Lc values are supplementary guidance from the WCAG 3 drafts.

Shades and tints of Dark Gray

A 50–950 scale built in OKLCH: the hue is held, lightness follows a Tailwind v4-like curve, and every step is kept inside the sRGB gamut. This color sits at step 400.

1. Step 50

   50

   #F5F5F5

   oklch(97% 0 0)

2. Step 100

   100

   #EAEAEA

   oklch(93.7% 0 0)

3. Step 200

   200

   #D9D9D9

   oklch(88.5% 0 0)

4. Step 300

   300

   #C0C0C0

   oklch(80.8% 0 0)

5. Step 400

   400 (this color)

   #A9A9A9

   oklch(73.5% 0 0)

6. Step 500

   500

   #898989

   oklch(63% 0 0)

7. Step 600

   600

   #737373

   oklch(55.6% 0 0)

8. Step 700

   700

   #616161

   oklch(49.3% 0 0)

9. Step 800

   800

   #4F4F4F

   oklch(42.8% 0 0)

10. Step 900

    900

    #414141

    oklch(37.5% 0 0)

11. Step 950

    950

    #262626

    oklch(26.9% 0 0)

Export this scale for Tailwind in the Tailwind colors tool

Dark Gray with color blindness

Simulated with the Machado et al. (2009) model. ΔE is how far the color moves: below about 0.02 you would not notice a change.