French Gray #ADB5BD

About this color

#ADB5BD is a medium-light close to neutral grey. In OKLCH its lightness is 77%, its chroma 0.015. It has too little chroma to lean warm or cool. It is the named color French Gray. Black text reads best on it, at 10.12:1.

Colors that go with French Gray

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

French 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 French Gray

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

• Office and Cabinet
• Overcast Sky
• Overcast and Rainy
• Deep Watch
• Granite Range
• Cairn Trail
• Macaron Cloud
• Duckling Storybook

Similar named colors

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

• Light Grey Blue #9DBCD4 ΔE 0.035
• Dark Gray #A9A9A9 ΔE 0.037
• Silver #C0C0C0 ΔE 0.041
• Cloudy Blue #ACC2D9 ΔE 0.044
• Pinkish Grey #C8ACA9 ΔE 0.045
• Light Cornflower Blue #98C1D9 ΔE 0.046
• Cool Steel #97A7B3 ΔE 0.051
• Light Steel Blue #B0C4DE ΔE 0.053

More about French Gray

• Shades of gray
• What gray means

How to make French 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.

• 3 parts white
• 3 parts gray
• 1 part blue

Recipe result: #A6B9BF, a difference of ΔE 0.012 from French Gray. That is very close: most people will not see the difference.

What colors make gray? | Color mixing chart

Codes for French 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 French 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 300.

1. Step 50

   50

   #F4F5F7

   oklch(97% 0.003 264.5)

2. Step 100

   100

   #E8EAEC

   oklch(93.6% 0.003 247.9)

3. Step 200

   200

   #D5DADE

   oklch(88.6% 0.008 241.7)

4. Step 300

   300 (this color)

   #ADB5BD

   oklch(76.9% 0.015 248)

5. Step 400

   400

   #96A2AF

   oklch(70.7% 0.023 250.3)

6. Step 500

   500

   #7C8B9B

   oklch(63% 0.03 250)

7. Step 600

   600

   #657586

   oklch(55.5% 0.033 250)

8. Step 700

   700

   #546371

   oklch(49.2% 0.029 246.6)

9. Step 800

   800

   #44505C

   oklch(42.5% 0.025 248.4)

10. Step 900

    900

    #3A434C

    oklch(37.8% 0.019 248.3)

11. Step 950

    950

    #22272C

    oklch(27% 0.012 248.3)

Export this scale for Tailwind in the Tailwind colors tool

French 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.