#000000

CSS color · black

#000000 is black. A screen makes it by setting red, green and blue to the same value (0 out of 255). With 0% saturation it has no hue on the color wheel. HSL lightness is 0.0% on a scale from black (0%) to white (100%). Of black and white lettering, white has the clearer light-to-dark separation on this background (21.00:1), which helps the shapes of letters stand out.

Color conversions

sRGB (8-bit): 0, 0, 0
HSL: undefined, 0.00%, 0.00%
HSV / HSB: undefined, 0.00%, 0.00%
CMYK (approx.): 0.00%, 0.00%, 0.00%, 100.00%
CIE XYZ (D65, Y = 100 for white): 0.000, 0.000, 0.000
CIELAB (D65, 2° observer): 0.000, 0.000, 0.000
WCAG relative luminance: 0.00000
24-bit decimal: 0

CMYK uses a profile-free approximation. Printed output depends on the press, ink and paper. Lab uses a D65 white point.

Text contrast

Contrast tells you how clearly lettering separates from #000000 in light and dark. The ratio compares relative luminance, a measure of light weighted for human vision. Identical colors give 1:1 and black against white gives 21:1. A ratio of 2.99:1 falls just below the 3:1 AA minimum for large text. Body text needs at least 4.5:1 because its finer strokes are harder to distinguish.

Black text · 1.00:1

Normal text: Fail
Large text: Fail

White text · 21.00:1

Normal text: AAA
Large text: AAA

AA and AAA are WCAG accessibility levels. AAA sets a higher bar: 7:1 for normal text and 4.5:1 for large text. Large text begins at 18 pt regular or 14 pt bold. Ratings use the unrounded ratio. WCAG text contrast guidance

Palettes & scales

Harmonies rotate the hue. Scales mix the starting color with white, black or middle gray in 20% steps in encoded sRGB.

This neutral color has no hue to rotate.

Tints

Mixing #000000 with white in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #333333, keeps 80% of the original. By #CCCCCC, the mixture is 80% white.

#000000 #333333 #666666 #999999 #CCCCCC #FFFFFF

Shades

The starting color is already black, so all six mixing steps give the same #000000 swatch.

#000000 #000000 #000000 #000000 #000000 #000000

Tones

Mixing #000000 with middle gray in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #1A1A1A, keeps 80% of the original. By #666666, the mixture is 80% middle gray.

#000000 #1A1A1A #333333 #4D4D4D #666666 #808080

Copy color codes

Hex, RGB and HSL are three ways to write this screen color. Paste any of them into a CSS color property.

Hex

#000000

RGB

rgb(0 0 0)

HSL

hsl(0.000 0.000% 0.000%)

CSS example

.color-sample {
  background-color: #000000;
  color: #FFFFFF;
}

Channel breakdown

RGB

#000000 uses 0 red, 0 green and 0 blue. Each bar shows how much of that channel’s 0–255 range the screen uses.

Red 0.0%

Green 0.0%

Blue 0.0%

CMYK

A simple CMYK estimate for #000000 is 0.0% cyan, 0.0% magenta, 0.0% yellow and 100.0% black. These are ink amounts; a printer profile is needed to predict the result on paper.

Cyan 0.0%

Magenta 0.0%

Yellow 0.0%

Black 100.0%

Nearby colors

The nearest shorthand match is #000000. Its matching digit pairs let you write it as #000 in CSS. For a modern design, keep #000000 when you want an exact match. Use its web-safe neighbor, #000000, when matching a legacy palette of 216 colors.

Nearest shorthand · #000000 Nearest web-safe · #000000

Color vision previews

Compare how #000000 appears in each simulation. When two chart lines or status indicators become hard to tell apart, a label, shape or line pattern gives readers another way to distinguish them. Individual perception varies.

Protanopia

A red–green color vision deficiency. Without a distinct response from long-wavelength cones, some reds and greens can look alike, and reds can appear darker.

#000000

Deuteranopia

A red–green color vision deficiency. Without a distinct response from medium-wavelength cones, some greens can be difficult to distinguish from reds or browns.

#000000

Tritanopia

A blue–yellow color vision deficiency. Without a distinct response from short-wavelength cones, blue can resemble green, and yellow can resemble pink.

#000000

Protanomaly (50%)

An altered long-wavelength cone response can make reds appear dimmer and harder to distinguish from greens. This swatch shows the model’s halfway setting.

#000000

Deuteranomaly (50%)

An altered medium-wavelength cone response can reduce the visible difference between reds and greens. This swatch shows the model’s halfway setting.

#000000

Tritanomaly (50%)

An altered short-wavelength cone response can make blue harder to distinguish from green. This swatch shows the model’s halfway setting.

#000000

Grayscale (luminance)

This design check removes hue and preserves relative luminance so you can compare light and dark areas.

#000000

Partial grayscale (50% blend)

This design check mixes the original color halfway toward its grayscale equivalent in linear light. Use it to see how a design holds up as color fades.

#000000

Technical reference

CAM16 and CIECAM02 below assume D65 white, an average surround, background Y of 20 against white at 100, and adapting luminance of 4.07 cd/m².

Linear sRGB

These channels scale with emitted light. Use them for lighting calculations and physically meaningful blends.

R 0.00000 G 0.00000 B 0.00000

Display P3

P3 displays can reproduce a wider range of reds and greens. These coordinates reproduce this same sRGB swatch on a color-managed P3 display.

R 0.00000 G 0.00000 B 0.00000

Linear Display P3

These P3 channels are proportional to light, before display encoding.

R 0.00000 G 0.00000 B 0.00000

CIE xyY

The x and y coordinates locate chromaticity on a diagram. Y gives relative luminance on a scale where white is 100.

x undefined y undefined Y 0.000

CMY

Ideal cyan, magenta and yellow are the complements of the encoded red, green and blue channels.

C % 100.000 M % 100.000 Y % 100.000

Binary RGB

Each eight-bit group represents one channel. Together they store the 24-bit hex color.

00000000 00000000 00000000