Photo in the color Dark gray
Pictured: Dark gray
rgb(169, 169, 169)
#A9A9A9

Dark Medium Gray #A9A9A9 RGB Color Code

Also known as Dark Gray

CSS keyword darkgray.

Dark Medium Gray (#A9A9A9) is a light neutral gray. In RGB it is made of 66% red, 66% green and 66% blue (R 169, G 169, B 169). The red channel is the strongest. In HSL it has a hue of 0°, 0% saturation and 66% lightness. Its relative luminance is 0.397, so black text is easier to read on top of it. For print, a rough CMYK match is 0% cyan, 0% magenta, 0% yellow and 34% black. Check it against your printer's ICC profile before you print. Its saturation is very low, so it works as a neutral. It goes well with almost any accent color.

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ConverterPalette generatorContrast checkerGradient builderUI previewSimilar names

Dark Medium Gray color codes

#A9A9A9 in every common color format. Click a value to copy it.

FormatValueNotesCopy
HEX #A9A9A9 Valid CSS
CSS name darkgray Valid CSS
RGB rgb(169, 169, 169) Valid CSS
HSL hsl(0, 0%, 66%) Valid CSS
HSV / HSB hsv(0, 0%, 66%) Not a CSS format
HWB hwb(0 66% 34%) Valid CSS
CMYK cmyk(0%, 0%, 0%, 34%) Approximate (no ICC profile)
OKLCH oklch(73.48% 0 0) Valid CSS
OKLab oklab(73.48% 0 0) Valid CSS
CIELAB lab(69.24% 0 0) D50, as in CSS
CIELCH lch(69.24% 0 0) Valid CSS
Display P3 color(display-p3 0.6627 0.6627 0.6627) Valid CSS
XYZ (D65) color(xyz-d65 0.3771 0.3968 0.4321) Valid CSS
Decimal 11119017 Integer (0xRRGGBB)

CMYK here is a rough screen match without an ICC profile. See CMYK and print. Relative luminance: 0.3968. Nearest web-safe color: #999999.

Mix Dark Medium Gray with other colors

See what #A9A9A9 makes with red paint, under a green light, printed with cyan ink and in a digital blend with blue. Click a picture to change the colors and amounts in the color mixer.

PaintDark Medium Gray and red paintOpen in the color mixer
LightDark Medium Gray and green lightOpen in the color mixer
PrintDark Medium Gray and cyan inkOpen in the color mixer
DigitalDark Medium Gray blended with blueOpen in the color mixer

Use Dark Medium Gray in your code

Ready to paste into CSS, Sass, Tailwind, iOS, Android and Flutter. Click the icon to copy a line.

WhereCodeCopy
CSS variable--dark-medium-gray: #A9A9A9;
Sass variable$dark-medium-gray: #A9A9A9;
Tailwind CSS v4@theme { --color-dark-medium-gray: #A9A9A9; }
Tailwind CSS v3 configcolors: { 'dark-medium-gray': '#A9A9A9' }
SwiftUIColor(red: 0.663, green: 0.663, blue: 0.663)
UIKitUIColor(red: 0.663, green: 0.663, blue: 0.663, alpha: 1)
Android XML<color name="dark_medium_gray">#FFA9A9A9</color>
Flutter and Jetpack ComposeColor(0xFFA9A9A9)

Accessibility and contrast

Black text works best on #A9A9A9 (8.94:1, AAA). Here is how #A9A9A9 does as a text color:

Large heading text
Body text at 16px. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
2.35:1 on white
APCA Lc 46
Fails AATry #777777
Large heading text
Body text at 16px. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
8.94:1 on black
APCA Lc -56
AAA

Check this color against any background in the contrast checker. WCAG ratios and APCA Lc values measure different things, so one can't stand in for the other. Learn more.

How people with color blindness see Dark Medium Gray

#A9A9A9 next to its complement and its two triadic colors, as seen with each type of color blindness.

  • Normal visionhow most people see it
  • Protanopiano red cones, about 1% of men
  • Deuteranopiano green cones, the most common type
  • Tritanopiano blue cones, very rare
  • Achromatopsiano color at all, very rare

#A9A9A9 has almost no hue, so it looks much the same with every type of color blindness. Only its lightness counts. Try your own colors in the color blindness simulator.

About the color Dark Medium Gray

Another name for CSS dark gray

Dark medium gray is the same color as the CSS keyword darkgray, #A9A9A9. Each of its red, green and blue values is 169, so it sits about 66% of the way from black to white. A 2015 version of the Wikipedia list of colors showed this code twice, once as dark medium gray and once as dark gray (X11). We found no older source for the name dark medium gray.

A better fit than the keyword

CSS gray is #808080, so the keyword darkgray is in fact the lighter of the two. The word medium in this name is closer to the truth. Black text on this gray reaches a contrast of 8.94 to 1, while white text gets only 2.35 to 1. The same code also has a dark gray page, and more neutral tones are in the shades of gray.

Dark Medium Gray in a user interface

A sample app screen with #A9A9A9 as the main color, on a light and a dark theme.

Light theme

Dark theme

Buttons and bars use #A9A9A9 as it is. On the light theme, #A9A9A9 is too hard to read as text (2.35:1), so links, the badge and outline text use #777777 there (4.48:1). Build a full color scheme around it in the UI color preview.

Color harmonies for Dark Medium Gray

These schemes turn the hue of #A9A9A9 around the color wheel. Each swatch links to its own page.

Complementary

Two colors on opposite sides of the wheel. This gives the most contrast.

Open palette
this#A9A9A9this#A9A9A9

Analogous

Hues that sit next to each other and look good together.

Open palette
this#A9A9A9this#A9A9A9this#A9A9A9

Triadic

Three hues spaced evenly around the wheel. Bold, but still balanced.

Open palette
this#A9A9A9this#A9A9A9this#A9A9A9

Split complementary

A base color plus the two hues on each side of its opposite. Strong contrast that clashes less.

Open palette
this#A9A9A9this#A9A9A9this#A9A9A9

Tetradic (rectangle)

Two pairs of opposite colors. Let one color lead and use the others less.

Open palette
this#A9A9A9this#A9A9A9this#A9A9A9this#A9A9A9

Square

Four hues 90° apart, spread evenly around the wheel.

Open palette
this#A9A9A9this#A9A9A9this#A9A9A9this#A9A9A9

Monochromatic

One hue at different levels of lightness and saturation.

Open palette
#333333#5C5C5C#868686#AFAFAF#D9D9D9

Gradients with Dark Medium Gray

Four CSS gradients made from #A9A9A9. Copy the code, or open one in the gradient generator to change it.

Soft tint

From a pale tint to the full color.

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #EDEDED, #A9A9A9);

Edit in the gradient generator

Deep shade

The color fading into a dark shade.

background: linear-gradient(180deg, #A9A9A9, #2C2C2C);

Edit in the gradient generator

Analogous

Its two neighbors on the color wheel.

background: linear-gradient(135deg, #A9A9A9, #A9A9A9, #A9A9A9);

Edit in the gradient generator

Triadic

A bold blend with a triadic color, through a clean middle.

background: linear-gradient(135deg, #A9A9A9, #A9A9A9, #A9A9A9);

Edit in the gradient generator

Shades, tints and tones of Dark Medium Gray

Shades are darker, tints are lighter and tones are grayer. We make them in OKLCH so the steps look even. Hover a step to see its code, or click it to open it.

Design system scale (50 to 950)

Dark Medium Gray sits at step 400. Export the full scale as CSS variables or Tailwind tokens from the picker.

  1. 50
    F7F7F7
  2. 100
    EDEDED
  3. 200
    DBDBDB
  4. 300
    C1C1C1
  5. 400
    A9A9A9
  6. 500
    868686
  7. 600
    6C6C6C
  8. 700
    555555
  9. 800
    424242
  10. 900
    303030
  11. 950
    1D1D1D

Closest RAL, Tailwind and CSS colors

The nearest match to #A9A9A9 in three color systems that designers and builders use.

RAL ClassicRAL 9006 White aluminium#A5A8A6, nearly the same (ΔE 0.8)Tailwind CSSneutral-400 #A3A3A3, nearly the same (ΔE 1.9)CSS color namesdarkgray #A9A9A9, exact match (ΔE 0.0)

ΔE is the distance in OKLab: under 2 is hard to see, over 10 is a clearly different color. Browse all RAL colors, the Tailwind palette or the 148 CSS color names. RAL values on screens are only a guide, so check a real color chart before you order paint.

The named colors that look closest to this one (ΔE in OKLab). Browse all shades of gray or search the color library.