EEEEEE — RGB, HSL, CMYK and Contrast

Q: What text colour should sit on EEEEEE?

Black gives 18.10:1 and white gives 1.16:1, so black wins at 18.10:1. That clears the 4.5:1 AA threshold for normal text and the 7:1 AAA threshold as well.

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

A neutral at 93% lightness and 0% saturation, which puts it at 1.16:1 against white and 18.10:1 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.

EEEEEE

Notation conversions

Notation	Value
HEX	`EEEEEE`
RGB	rgb(238, 238, 238)
HSL	hsl(0, 0%, 93%)
CMYK	cmyk(0%, 0%, 0%, 7%)
Relative luminance	0.8550
Perceived brightness	93.3 / 100

R=238 G=238 B=238 · hue 0.0° · saturation 0.0% · lightness 93.3%

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`	1.16:1	fail	fail	fail
#000000	`black`	18.10:1	pass	pass	pass

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	`#a2a2a2`	hsl(0, 0%, 63%)	2.55:1
shade -20	`#bbbbbb`	hsl(0, 0%, 73%)	1.92:1
shade -10	`#d4d4d4`	hsl(0, 0%, 83%)	1.48:1
tint +10	`#ffffff`	hsl(0, 0%, 100%)	1.00:1
tint +20	`#ffffff`	hsl(0, 0%, 100%)	1.00:1
tint +30	`#ffffff`	hsl(0, 0%, 100%)	1.00:1

Harmonies

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

Read back from the notation table, EEEEEE is rgb(238, 238, 238), which normalises to hue 0.0° at 0.0% saturation and 93.3% lightness. Its relative luminance of 0.8550 is what produces the two ratios above: 1.16:1 against white and 18.10:1 against black, a gap of 16.94. Position 66 of 69 in the colour library, it darkens to #a2a2a2 thirty points lower on the lightness axis and lifts to #ffffff thirty higher, while the complementary rotation lands on #eeeeee.

Nearby colours

BDBDBD C0C0C0 silver E0E0E0 F5F5F5 FAFAFA FFFFFF

Frequently asked questions

What text colour should sit on EEEEEE?
Black gives 18.10:1 and white gives 1.16:1, so black wins at 18.10:1. That clears the 4.5:1 AA threshold for normal text and the 7:1 AAA threshold as well.

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.