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gray · neutral

#ada3af

a light, muted gray · neutral · closest name: Dark Gray

Token name suggestion: Meadow Ash

RGB
173, 163, 175
HSL
290°, 7%, 66%
CMYK
1, 7, 0, 31
Luminance
0.3817

#ada3af is a light muted gray, 290° on the wheel and 51/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (8.63:1). As text it scores 2.43:1 on white — use #7E7081 instead. Nearest name is Dark Gray, nearest Tailwind family is zinc.

hsl(290 7% 66%)rgb(173 163 175)Base step 400AAA inkNeutral

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #ada3af is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#ada3af
Hue
290°
gray
Saturation
7%
muted
Lightness
66%
light
Brightness
69%
HSV value
Perceived
66%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.3817
WCAG relative
Temperature
Neutral
51/100 cool
Color family
Gray
Tone
Muted
Best ink
Black
8.63:1
Closest name
Dark Gray
ΔE2000 8.2
Chroma
7.6
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.728
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
zinc
500 · ΔE 18.9
Web-safe
#999999
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue290° of 360°
Saturation7%
Lightness66%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #ada3af.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool51% cool

Near-neutral, so temperature is a whisper rather than a statement — the tinted siblings below show which way it can lean.

Luminance by channel
Red23%
Green69%
Blue8%

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

Every format

HEX#ada3af
HEX (8-digit)#ada3afff
RGBrgb(173, 163, 175)
RGBArgba(173, 163, 175, 1)
HSLhsl(290, 7%, 66%)
HSV / HSBhsv(290, 7%, 69%)
HWBhwb(290 64% 31%)
CMYKcmyk(1%, 7%, 0%, 31%)
LABlab(68.2 5.8 -4.9)
LCHlch(68.2 7.6 320.1)
OKLCHoklch(0.728 0.021 320.6)
XYZ (D65)xyz(38.07, 38.17, 45.91)
Decimal11379631
Display P3color(display-p3 0.678 0.639 0.686)
Web-safe#999999

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #ada3af;
background-color: #ada3af;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #ada3af;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#ada3af] bg-[#ada3af]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #ada3af;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.678, green: 0.639, blue: 0.686)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.678, green: 0.639, blue: 0.686, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#ADA3AF</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFADA3AF)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFADA3AF)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(175, 163, 173)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(173, 163, 175)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(173, 163, 175)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 173, 163, 175)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.6784f, 0.6392f, 0.6863f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{173,163,175}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #ada3af 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #ada3af 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#433B44, #E2DEE3);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #ada3af 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: #F8F7F8;
  --brand-100: #F0EFF1;
  --brand-200: #DFDCE0;
  --brand-300: #CAC3CB;
  --brand-400: #ada3af;
  --brand-500: #948797;
  --brand-600: #807283;
  --brand-700: #6B5F6D;
  --brand-800: #554C57;
  --brand-900: #403941;
  --brand-950: #282429;
  --brand: #ada3af;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F8F7F8;
  --brand-border: #D8D3D9;
  --brand-hover: #9C909E;
  --brand-pressed: #8B7D8E;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #1D1A1E;
    --brand-ink: #E2DEE3;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F8F7F8',
        100: '#F0EFF1',
        200: '#DFDCE0',
        300: '#CAC3CB',
        400: '#ada3af',
        500: '#948797',
        600: '#807283',
        700: '#6B5F6D',
        800: '#554C57',
        900: '#403941',
        950: '#282429',
        DEFAULT: '#ada3af',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F8F7F8,
  '100': #F0EFF1,
  '200': #DFDCE0,
  '300': #CAC3CB,
  '400': #ada3af,
  '500': #948797,
  '600': #807283,
  '700': #6B5F6D,
  '800': #554C57,
  '900': #403941,
  '950': #282429,
);
$brand-base: #ada3af;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F8F7F8", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#F0EFF1", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#DFDCE0", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#CAC3CB", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#ada3af", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#948797", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#807283", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#6B5F6D", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#554C57", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#403941", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#282429", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$value": "#000000", "$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#000000 on #ada3af · 8.63:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 2.43:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 8.63:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #ada3af as text scores 2.43:1 on white and 8.63:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #433B44 at 4.43:1.

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
#7E7081 · 4.64:1
AA on white−19% L
#7E7081
The quick fox
#5E5460 · 7.21:1
AAA on white−31% L
#5E5460
The quick fox
#ada3af · 8.63:1
AA on blackalready passes
#ada3af
The quick fox
#ada3af · 8.63:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#ada3af

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #9C909E 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
#ada3af on white: 2.43:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#ada3af on black: 8.63:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #ada3af as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #ada3af.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White2.43:1AaAa
Slate 502.32:1AaAa
Slate 1002.22:1AaAa
Slate 2001.97:1AaAa
Slate 3001.64:1AaAa
Slate 4001.05:1AaAa
Slate 5001.96:1AaAa
Slate 6003.12:1AaAa
Slate 7004.26:1AaAa
Slate 8006.02:1AaAa
Slate 9007.34:1AaAa
Black8.63:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #A2A5B0
deuteranopia · #A4A6AF
tritanopia · #ADA4A7

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. #ada3af is pinned to step 400; the rest hold its hue and let saturation ease off at the extremes so the pale end never turns neon.

#F8F7F8
#F0EFF1
#DFDCE0
#CAC3CB
#ada3af
#948797
#807283
#6B5F6D
#554C57
#403941
#282429
Base = 400Lightest = 50 · #F8F7F8Darkest = 950 · #282429Text 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 0.005 320.6);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.008 320.6);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.012 320.6);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.016 320.6);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.019 320.6);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.021 320.6);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.021 320.6);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.019 320.6);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.017 320.6);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.014 320.6);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.011 320.6);
}

Colors that work with #ada3af

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

Text on it#000000
Black wins here
Surface#F8F7F8
Tinted page background
Border#D8D3D9
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#786B7B
Captions on the surface
Accent#63715B
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#433B44
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#F3F1F3
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#1D1A1E
Dark-mode background
Hover#9C909E
One step down in lightness
Pressed#8B7D8E
Two steps down
Disabled#E3DFE3
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#BCA6C0
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 #ada3af

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

Works well for
  • Text and icons on dark surfaces
  • Borders, dividers and quiet backgrounds
  • Long-form reading surfaces
  • Card and section backgrounds
  • Neutral UI chrome and typography
Use with care
  • Text of any size on white — fails WCAG AA
  • White text placed on it
  • Pairing with a same-lightness hue — edges vibrate
Minimum size as text on white
Not as text
Safe as a fill behind white type
No — use #433B44
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #9C909E

Meaning and mood

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

neutralquieteditorialengineered

Grey is the material the rest of the interface is built from: type, rules, surfaces, disabled states.

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

Worth knowing

Mid-greys are where accessibility quietly fails — check every step of your ladder, not just the ends.

Reads as
  • FormalityMedium
  • EnergyLow
  • Weight34/100
  • TemperatureNeutral
  • ApproachabilityBalanced

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#A5AFA3
Analogous left#A7A3AF
Analogous right#AFA3AB
Split-complement 1#ABAFA3
Split-complement 2#A3AFA7
Triadic 1#AFADA3
Triadic 2#A3AFAD
Tetradic#AFA7A3
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°290°

#ada3af sits at 290°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red67.8%
Green63.9%
Blue68.6%
R · 0–255
173
0xad
G · 0–255
163
0xa3
B · 0–255
175
0xaf

CMYK percentages

Cyan1.1%
Magenta6.9%
Yellow0.0%
Key (black)31.4%

Total ink coverage is 39%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#ada3af text on a black background

contrast 8.63:1

Card sample

#ada3af text on a white background

contrast 2.43:1

Card sample

#ada3af on grey

2.22:1

#ada3af on its own surface

2.28:1

#ada3af on its dark surface

7.08:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #ada3af;
Background color
Panel with #ada3af background
background-color: #ada3af;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #ada3af;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(173, 163, 175, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(173, 163, 175, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #ada3af;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #ada3af, #AFA3A9);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #ada3af, #AFA3A6);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #ada3af;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #ada3af;
caret-color: #ada3af;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #ada3af;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #F3F1F3;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #ada3af;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#ada3af 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #ada3af 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(173, 163, 175, 0.5)
rgb(173 163 175 / 50%)
#ada3af80
hsl(290 7% 66% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #ada3af 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#ada3af1a#F7F6F7
20%#ada3af33#EFEDEF
40%#ada3af66#DEDADF
60%#ada3af99#CEC8CF
80%#ada3afcc#BDB5BF

Gradients from #ada3af

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, #CAC4CC, #ada3af 45%, #433B44);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #ada3af, #A19399);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #ada3af, #A5AFA3);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #D9D4DA 0%, #ada3af 45%, #433B44 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F8F7F8, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #C0BEC7 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #BDB3B9 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #433B44 0%, transparent 65%), #ada3af;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #ada3af

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.

#ada3af in the real world

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

Industries
EditorialArchitectureEnterpriseLuxury goods
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

Usable as-is on a dark surface at 8.63:1.

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.

#ada3af, answered

What color is #ada3af?

#ada3af is a light muted gray, closest to Dark Gray (ΔE2000 8.2). It sits at 290° on the hue wheel with 7% saturation and 66% lightness, which reads as neutral.

What is the RGB value of #ada3af?

rgb(173, 163, 175) — 173 red, 163 green and 175 blue out of 255, or 67.8% / 63.9% / 68.6% by channel.

What is #ada3af in HSL and HSV?

hsl(290, 7%, 66%) and hsv(290, 7%, 69%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #ada3af a light or a dark color?

It is a mid-tone. Relative luminance is 0.3817 and perceived brightness is 66%, so black text on it reaches 8.63:1.

Should I use black or white text on #ada3af?

Black. It scores 8.63:1 against #ada3af, versus 2.43:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #ada3af accessible on a white background?

#ada3af on white scores 2.43:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #7E7081 to reach 4.5:1, or #5E5460 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #ada3af?

#A5AFA3 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #ABAFA3 and #A3AFA7, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #ada3af?

For interface work: #F8F7F8 as the surface, #D8D3D9 for borders, #786B7B for secondary text, #63715B as an accent and #433B44 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #A7A3AF and #AFA3AB stays calm, while #A5AFA3 is the loudest partner.

What is #ada3af in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(1%, 7%, 0%, 31%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #ada3af warm or cool?

Neutral — it scores 51 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #B9ADA3; nudged cooler, #97A4B1.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #ada3af?

The zinc family — its 500 step is #71717a, ΔE2000 18.9 away. That is a visible difference, so define #ada3af as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #ada3af in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#ada3af] or text-[#ada3af], 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 #ada3af with 50% opacity?

rgba(173, 163, 175, 0.5), or #ada3af80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #D6D1D7; over black, #575258.

Is #ada3af a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #999999, ΔE2000 9.1 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #ada3af mean?

As a gray, it reads neutral, quiet, editorial. Grey is the material the rest of the interface is built from: type, rules, surfaces, disabled states. At this low chroma the association is faint; it behaves more like a neutral.

What gradient works with #ada3af?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #CAC4CC, #ada3af 45%, #433B44). For more colour, a short hue run to #A19399 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #ada3af in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #ada3af at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.