Shades of black
33 named shades of black with HEX and RGB codes, sorted from light to dark: 4 classic names and 29 community names. Click a swatch to add it to your palette, or open a name to see all its details.
Shade map
Every shade as a dot: light ones at the top, strong ones on the right. Hover to see a name and click to jump to its card.
No shade matches that search and filter.
About shades of black
Pure black is #000000. Many designers use a very dark gray or a black with a hint of color instead, because it looks softer on screens. Rich blacks with a touch of blue or brown add depth to text and backgrounds.
Rich black and near black
In print, black ink on its own is called pure K, or 100% K. It works well for small text. But a large area printed with black ink alone can look flat and a little gray. Printers fix this with rich black, which puts some of the other inks under the black. A common mix is 60% cyan, 40% magenta, 40% yellow and 100% black. The extra ink makes big shapes look deeper and darker.
Use rich black only for large areas, such as backgrounds and big headlines. Keep small text and thin lines in pure K. If the four inks do not line up perfectly on the press, small letters get blurry colored edges. Too much ink can also smear or dry slowly, so many print shops ask you to keep the total ink under about 300%.
Screens work the other way. They make black by turning pixels off, so #000000 is already as dark as a screen can get. Pure black text on a pure white page has very strong contrast, and some people find it harsh on a bright screen. That is why many websites use a near black such as #111 or #1A1A1A for body text. It still passes contrast checks with room to spare, but it looks a little softer.
Near black also helps in dark mode. On a background of #121212 or #1A1A1A you can still see shadows and layered cards, which disappear on #000000. Pure black is still a good choice for OLED screens when you want to save battery, and for a logo that has to match a black print version.
How to use this page
There are only a few classic black color names, so the cards also show the newer community names, all sorted from light to dark. Use the filters to keep only light, medium or dark shades, or only muted or vivid ones. Click a swatch to add it to your palette at the bottom of the screen, and click a name to open its color page with all codes and matching colors.
To test a shade as text on a background, open the contrast checker. To make a full 50 to 950 scale from one shade, try the Tailwind scale maker. If you want to make a shade with paint, the color mixer can suggest a recipe.