757575 — RGB, HSL, CMYK and Contrast

Q: What text colour should sit on 757575?

Black gives 4.56:1 and white gives 4.61:1, so white wins at 4.61:1. That clears the 4.5:1 AA threshold for normal text, but not the 7:1 AAA threshold.

Every value recomputed from the hex code · WCAG 2.1 contrast ratios

A neutral at 46% lightness and 0% saturation, which puts it at 4.61:1 against white and 4.56:1 against black. The tables below give the notation conversions, the tints and shades that keep the hue intact, and the harmonies that pair with it.

757575

Notation conversions

Notation	Value
HEX	`757575`
RGB	rgb(117, 117, 117)
HSL	hsl(0, 0%, 46%)
CMYK	cmyk(0%, 0%, 0%, 54%)
Relative luminance	0.1779
Perceived brightness	45.9 / 100

R=117 G=117 B=117 · hue 0.0° · saturation 0.0% · lightness 45.9%

Contrast against pure white and pure black

Pair this colour with the two extremes to see which is the safer text partner. AA needs 4.5:1 for body text and 3:1 for large text; AAA raises that to 7:1 and 4.5:1.

Against	Hex	Ratio	AA text	AA large	AAA text
#FFFFFF	`white`	4.61:1	pass	pass	fail
#000000	`black`	4.56:1	pass	pass	fail

Tints and shades

Lightness moves in ten-point steps while hue and saturation stay fixed, which keeps the colour recognisable in a scale. The last column is the ratio against white text, useful for deciding where a scale stops working as a background.

Step	Hex	HSL	vs white text
shade -30	`#292929`	hsl(0, 0%, 16%)	14.55:1
shade -20	`#424242`	hsl(0, 0%, 26%)	10.05:1
shade -10	`#5c5c5c`	hsl(0, 0%, 36%)	6.69:1
tint +10	`#8f8f8f`	hsl(0, 0%, 56%)	3.23:1
tint +20	`#a8a8a8`	hsl(0, 0%, 66%)	2.38:1
tint +30	`#c2c2c2`	hsl(0, 0%, 76%)	1.78:1

Harmonies

Scheme	Hex
Complementary	`#757575`
Analogous −30	`#757575`
Analogous +30	`#757575`
Triadic −120	`#757575`
Triadic +120	`#757575`

Take the channels apart and the numbers hold together: 117, 117 and 117 average 117, the strongest channel is 117 and the weakest 117, and that span is what pushes saturation to 0.0% at hue 0.0° and lightness 45.9%. Luminance 0.1779 with perceived brightness 45.9 out of 100 is why the white ratio (4.61:1) and the black ratio (4.56:1) diverge by 0.05. Entry 61 of 69, it steps to #292929 at minus thirty and #c2c2c2 at plus thirty.

Nearby colours

212121 424242 616161 9E9E9E Grey 500 BDBDBD C0C0C0 silver

Frequently asked questions

What text colour should sit on 757575?
Black gives 4.56:1 and white gives 4.61:1, so white wins at 4.61:1. That clears the 4.5:1 AA threshold for normal text, but not the 7:1 AAA threshold.

Do the CMYK numbers match a print workflow?
They are the naive conversion from RGB, which assumes no ink limit, no colour profile and no black generation strategy. Real print work needs a profile-aware conversion; the values here are the ones the converter reports and are best used as a starting point for a designer rather than a press-ready separations file.

Convert any other colour, or test a pair against each other, in the ColrShift colour converter and contrast checker. The colour library groups every entry on this site by hue family.