Skip to content
blue · cool

#3e4353

a dark, muted blue · cool · closest name: Dark Slate Blue

Token name suggestion: Slate Sapphire

RGB
62, 67, 83
HSL
226°, 15%, 28%
CMYK
25, 19, 0, 68
Luminance
0.0566

#3e4353 is a dark muted blue, 226° on the wheel and 67/100 on the cool side. Put white text on it (9.85:1). As text it scores 9.85:1 on white — safe at any size. Nearest name is Dark Slate Blue, nearest Tailwind family is gray.

hsl(226 15% 28%)rgb(62 67 83)Base step 800AAA inkCool

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #3e4353 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#3e4353
Hue
226°
blue
Saturation
15%
muted
Lightness
28%
dark
Brightness
33%
HSV value
Perceived
27%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.0566
WCAG relative
Temperature
Cool
67/100 cool
Color family
Blue
Tone
Muted
Best ink
White
9.85:1
Closest name
Dark Slate Blue
ΔE2000 14.4
Chroma
10.5
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.385
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
gray
500 · ΔE 16.8
Web-safe
#333366
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue226° of 360°
Saturation15%
Lightness28%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #3e4353.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool67% cool

Reads cool. Warm and cool siblings keep the same lightness, so you can swap one in without redoing your contrast maths.

Luminance by channel
Red18%
Green71%
Blue11%

Green carries most of what the eye calls brightness — that is why WCAG weights it 0.7152.

Every format

HEX#3e4353
HEX (8-digit)#3e4353ff
RGBrgb(62, 67, 83)
RGBArgba(62, 67, 83, 1)
HSLhsl(226, 15%, 28%)
HSV / HSBhsv(226, 25%, 33%)
HWBhwb(226 24% 67%)
CMYKcmyk(25%, 19%, 0%, 68%)
LABlab(28.6 2.0 -10.3)
LCHlch(28.6 10.5 281.2)
OKLCHoklch(0.385 0.028 271.4)
XYZ (D65)xyz(5.55, 5.66, 8.98)
Decimal4080467
Display P3color(display-p3 0.243 0.263 0.325)
Web-safe#333366

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #3e4353;
background-color: #3e4353;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #3e4353;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#3e4353] bg-[#3e4353]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #3e4353;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.243, green: 0.263, blue: 0.325)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.243, green: 0.263, blue: 0.325, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#3E4353</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFF3E4353)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFF3E4353)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(83, 67, 62)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(62, 67, 83)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(62, 67, 83)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 62, 67, 83)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.2431f, 0.2627f, 0.3255f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{62,67,83}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #3e4353 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #3e4353 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#373B49, #DCDEE5);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #3e4353 h s calc(l - 7));

Design tokens

The same ramp in the four formats a team actually needs. Paste one and the whole palette lands with it.

css custom propertiesclick to select
:root {
  --brand-50: #F6F7F8;
  --brand-100: #EEEFF1;
  --brand-200: #DADCE2;
  --brand-300: #BFC3CF;
  --brand-400: #9FA4B7;
  --brand-500: #7F869F;
  --brand-600: #69718C;
  --brand-700: #575E75;
  --brand-800: #3e4353;
  --brand-900: #353945;
  --brand-950: #21242B;
  --brand: #3e4353;
  --brand-ink: #ffffff;
  --brand-surface: #F6F7F8;
  --brand-border: #D0D3DC;
  --brand-hover: #2F323E;
  --brand-pressed: #1F222A;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #181A20;
    --brand-ink: #DCDEE5;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F6F7F8',
        100: '#EEEFF1',
        200: '#DADCE2',
        300: '#BFC3CF',
        400: '#9FA4B7',
        500: '#7F869F',
        600: '#69718C',
        700: '#575E75',
        800: '#3e4353',
        900: '#353945',
        950: '#21242B',
        DEFAULT: '#3e4353',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F6F7F8,
  '100': #EEEFF1,
  '200': #DADCE2,
  '300': #BFC3CF,
  '400': #9FA4B7,
  '500': #7F869F,
  '600': #69718C,
  '700': #575E75,
  '800': #3e4353,
  '900': #353945,
  '950': #21242B,
);
$brand-base: #3e4353;
$brand-ink: #ffffff;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F6F7F8", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#EEEFF1", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#DADCE2", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#BFC3CF", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#9FA4B7", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#7F869F", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#69718C", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#575E75", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#3e4353", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#353945", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#21242B", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$value": "#ffffff", "$type": "color" }
  }
}

Best text color

Only one of black and white can be right. This is the one, with the number that proves it.

Readable at a glance#ffffff on #3e4353 · 9.85:1
Use #ffffffAAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 9.85:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Aa
Black text · 2.13:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Reading the other direction: #3e4353 as text scores 9.85:1 on white and 2.13:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #F0F1F4 at 8.72:1.

Make it accessible

A contrast checker tells you that you failed. This tells you what to ship instead — same hue, same saturation, lightness moved only as far as WCAG demands.

The quick fox
#3e4353 · 9.85:1
AA on whitealready passes
#3e4353
The quick fox
#3e4353 · 9.85:1
AAA on whitealready passes
#3e4353
The quick fox
#6C7490 · 4.54:1
AA on black+21% L
#6C7490
The quick fox
#8E95AB · 7.04:1
AAA on black+33% L
#8E95AB

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #3E4353 is enough for headings on white. Non-text elements such as icons, chart strokes and focus rings also sit at 3:1 under WCAG 2.2 (1.4.11).

Accessibility — WCAG contrast

Aa
#3e4353 on white: 9.85:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#3e4353 on black: 2.13:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #3e4353 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #3e4353.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White9.85:1AaAa
Slate 509.41:1AaAa
Slate 1008.99:1AaAa
Slate 2007.99:1AaAa
Slate 3006.63:1AaAa
Slate 4003.84:1AaAa
Slate 5002.07:1AaAa
Slate 6001.30:1AaAa
Slate 7001.05:1AaAa
Slate 8001.49:1AaAa
Slate 9001.81:1AaAa
Black2.13:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #3E4454
deuteranopia · #3D4353
tritanopia · #394648

Roughly one man in twelve has some form of colour vision deficiency. If any of the three panels above is hard to tell apart from a neighbouring colour in your palette, add a shape, an icon or a label so the meaning does not rest on hue alone.

Color scale — 50 to 950

A Tailwind-shaped ramp built around this exact hex. #3e4353 is pinned to step 800; the rest hold its hue and let saturation ease off at the extremes so the pale end never turns neon.

#F6F7F8
#EEEFF1
#DADCE2
#BFC3CF
#9FA4B7
#7F869F
#69718C
#575E75
#3e4353
#353945
#21242B
Base = 800Lightest = 50 · #F6F7F8Darkest = 950 · #21242BText step on white = 600
Perceptual ramp — OKLCH

The same eleven steps expressed in OKLCH, where equal lightness numbers actually look equally spaced. HSL ramps go muddy in the yellows and washed out in the blues; this one does not. Modern browsers render it natively — the hex ramp above is the fallback.

50100200300400500600700800900950
oklch tokensclick to select
:root {
  --brand-50: oklch(0.97 0.007 271.4);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.011 271.4);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.017 271.4);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.022 271.4);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.026 271.4);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.028 271.4);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.028 271.4);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.026 271.4);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.024 271.4);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.020 271.4);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.015 271.4);
}

Colors that work with #3e4353

Not a palette — a role sheet. Each swatch answers one question you will hit while building the component.

Text on it#ffffff
White wins here
Surface#F6F7F8
Tinted page background
Border#D0D3DC
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#626A83
Captions on the surface
Accent#56493B
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#373B49
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#F0F1F4
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#181A20
Dark-mode background
Hover#2F323E
One step down in lightness
Pressed#1F222A
Two steps down
Disabled#6E7793
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#3E4867
Offset from the fill so it reads
Light mode
Everything in its place

Surface, border, heading and body all derive from this one hue, so the screen stays coherent without a second palette.

Primary actionSecondaryBadge
Dark mode
Same hue, inverted

Lightness flips, hue holds. The accent stays the anchor in both themes.

Primary actionSecondaryAccent

In real components

The same eight roles, wired into the interface patterns you will actually build with them. Every state below is a computed value, not a mock-up.

Buttons and states
Save changesHoverPressedDisabled
OutlineSubtleLinkFocused
Form field
you@company.com

Focus ring uses the light variant so the field still reads as one shape.

Send me product updates
Notice
Your export is ready

The file stays available for seven days. Download it before it expires.

NewBetaDraft
Data
Storage used68%
Acme LtdActive
NorthwindTrial
GlobexActive

How to use #3e4353

Derived from its contrast, chroma and lightness — not from taste.

Works well for
  • Body text and links on white
  • Borders, dividers and quiet backgrounds
  • Long-form reading surfaces
  • Headers, footers and dark-mode surfaces
  • Brand accents, badges and data highlights
Use with care
  • Text on black or near-black surfaces
  • Black text placed on it
  • Pairing with a same-lightness hue — edges vibrate
Minimum size as text on white
Any size
Safe as a fill behind white type
Yes
Safe as a 1px border on white
Yes

Meaning and mood

What a colour in this family tends to signal, and how this particular chroma and lightness change the reading.

trustedcalmcompetentcorporate

The default of institutions for a reason: blue is read as stable and safe across nearly every culture that has been surveyed.

With almost no chroma left, the family association is barely present; treat it as a neutral that happens to lean this way. The low lightness adds weight and formality.

Worth knowing

It is also the most crowded hue on the web. Distinctiveness has to come from your other choices.

Reads as
  • FormalityHigh
  • EnergyLow
  • Weight72/100
  • TemperatureCool
  • ApproachabilityReserved

Colour associations are cultural and vary by market. Treat these as a starting point for a conversation with your audience, not a finding about them.

Similar colors

One move away from this hex in each direction. Every swatch is its own page.

Color relationships

The wheel positions with their names attached, so you can grab the one you actually need.

Complementary#534E3E
Analogous left#3E4D53
Analogous right#433E53
Split-complement 1#53433E
Split-complement 2#4D533E
Triadic 1#533E43
Triadic 2#43533E
Tetradic#533E4D
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°226°

#3e4353 sits at 226°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red24.3%
Green26.3%
Blue32.5%
R · 0–255
62
0x3e
G · 0–255
67
0x43
B · 0–255
83
0x53

CMYK percentages

Cyan25.3%
Magenta19.3%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)67.5%

Total ink coverage is 112%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#3e4353 text on a black background

contrast 2.13:1

Card sample

#3e4353 text on a white background

contrast 9.85:1

Card sample

#3e4353 on grey

8.99:1

#3e4353 on its own surface

9.18:1

#3e4353 on its dark surface

1.77:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #3e4353;
Background color
Panel with #3e4353 background
background-color: #3e4353;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #3e4353;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(62, 67, 83, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(62, 67, 83, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #3e4353;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #3e4353, #473E53);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #3e4353, #4C3E53);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #3e4353;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #3e4353;
caret-color: #3e4353;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #3e4353;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #F0F1F4;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #3e4353;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#3e4353 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #3e4353 over white; the bottom row is the same alpha over a checkerboard, so you can see what survives on a photo or a video.

Bottom row of hexes is the flattened result over white — use those when a design tool refuses transparency, or when you need a solid fallback.

alpha in every syntaxclick to select
rgba(62, 67, 83, 0.5)
rgb(62 67 83 / 50%)
#3e435380
hsl(226 15% 28% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #3e4353 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#3e43531a#ECECEE
20%#3e435333#D8D9DD
40%#3e435366#B2B4BA
60%#3e435399#8B8E98
80%#3e4353cc#656975

Gradients from #3e4353

Six recipes, each built from this hex and shown with the exact CSS that produced it.

Elevation
Same hue, three lightnesses — safe anywhere
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #585F76, #3e4353 45%, #373B49);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #3e4353, #393141);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #3e4353, #534E3E);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #656D87 0%, #3e4353 45%, #373B49 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F6F7F8, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #546B70 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #544B64 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #373B49 0%, transparent 65%), #3e4353;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #3e4353

Shades — darker

Tints — lighter

Tones — desaturated

Color harmonies

Nearest named colors

Ranked with CIEDE2000 across all 139 CSS keywords. Under ΔE 2 the eye stops telling them apart; over ΔE 10 they are plainly different colors.

#3e4353 in the real world

Where a color in this family tends to land, and the interface roles it is usually asked to play.

Industries
TechnologyFinanceHealthcareEnterprise SaaS
Common UI roles
BackgroundsBordersBody textDividers
Print note

Converts to four-color process without much drama. Proof it anyway.

On screens

Holds up across typical panel gamma. Still worth checking on an uncalibrated laptop, where mid-tones shift most.

In dark mode

Too dim on dark surfaces at 2.13:1 — lift it to #6C7490 for body text, or reserve it for fills.

Explore nearby colors

Small, deliberate steps away from this hex — useful when you are hunting for the version of a colour that finally feels right.

#3e4353, answered

What color is #3e4353?

#3e4353 is a dark muted blue, closest to Dark Slate Blue (ΔE2000 14.4). It sits at 226° on the hue wheel with 15% saturation and 28% lightness, which reads as cool.

What is the RGB value of #3e4353?

rgb(62, 67, 83) — 62 red, 67 green and 83 blue out of 255, or 24.3% / 26.3% / 32.5% by channel.

What is #3e4353 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(226, 15%, 28%) and hsv(226, 25%, 33%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #3e4353 a light or a dark color?

It is a dark color. Relative luminance is 0.0566 and perceived brightness is 27%, so white text on it reaches 9.85:1.

Should I use black or white text on #3e4353?

White. It scores 9.85:1 against #3e4353, versus 2.13:1 for black — AAA at any size.

Is #3e4353 accessible on a white background?

#3e4353 on white scores 9.85:1, which clears AAA at every size.

What is the complementary color of #3e4353?

#534E3E sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #53433E and #4D533E, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #3e4353?

For interface work: #F6F7F8 as the surface, #D0D3DC for borders, #626A83 for secondary text, #56493B as an accent and #373B49 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #3E4D53 and #433E53 stays calm, while #534E3E is the loudest partner.

What is #3e4353 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(25%, 19%, 0%, 68%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #3e4353 warm or cool?

Cool — it scores 67 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #413E53; nudged cooler, #3C4754.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #3e4353?

The gray family — its 500 step is #6b7280, ΔE2000 16.8 away. That is a visible difference, so define #3e4353 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #3e4353 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#3e4353] or text-[#3e4353], or register the whole ramp under theme.extend.colors.brand so you get bg-brand-500 and friends. The generated 50–950 scale on this page is ready to paste into your config.

What is #3e4353 with 50% opacity?

rgba(62, 67, 83, 0.5), or #3e435380 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #9FA1A9; over black, #1F222A.

Is #3e4353 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #333366, ΔE2000 12 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #3e4353 mean?

As a blue, it reads trusted, calm, competent. The default of institutions for a reason: blue is read as stable and safe across nearly every culture that has been surveyed. At this low chroma the association is faint; it behaves more like a neutral.

What gradient works with #3e4353?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #585F76, #3e4353 45%, #373B49). For more colour, a short hue run to #393141 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #3e4353 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #3e4353 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.