13 Shades of Black with Hex Codes

Named Black Colors and Their Hex Codes

Ordered darkest to lightest. Names marked CSS are color keywords you can write directly in a stylesheet; the rest are common design and print names. Select any swatch for its full breakdown.

BlackColor Chart: Hex, RGB, HSL & CMYK

Every black above in all four common formats. CMYK is a mathematical approximation for planning; confirm production print colors with your printer and ICC profile.

Black Scale from Light to Dark

A 12-step lightness scale built from the core black hue, holding hue and saturation constant. This is the shape of a design-system color ramp. Select any swatch for the full breakdown of that color.

Need a perceptually even ramp with semantic roles and contrast evidence? Generate black design tokens.

What Black Communicates

Pure #000000 against pure white is the highest contrast sRGB can produce (21:1) and it is usually too harsh for body text on a bright screen. Most design systems ship an "off-black" somewhere between #111111 and #1A1A1A, often with a few degrees of blue, because that reads as black while reducing halation. On OLED, true black genuinely turns pixels off, which is why dark themes designed for phones do use #000000.

Where black works well

• Text, where a slightly lifted off-black is easier to read than #000000
• OLED dark themes, where true black saves power and deepens contrast
• Luxury and fashion brands, usually with generous whitespace
• Overlays and scrims using black at partial opacity

Colors that pair with black

Copy the Black Palette as CSS

Every shade on this page as CSS custom properties, ready to paste into a stylesheet.

:root {
  --black-black: #000000;
  --black-rich-black: #010B13;
  --black-jet-black: #0A0A0A;
  --black-soft-black: #131313;
  --black-licorice: #1A1110;
  --black-off-black: #1A1A1A;
  --black-eerie-black: #1B1B1B;
  --black-raisin-black: #242124;
  --black-charcoal-black: #232B2B;
  --black-onyx: #353839;
  --black-darkslategray: #2F4F4F;
  --black-ebony: #555D50;
  --black-dimgray: #696969;
}

Black Color Questions