Tailwind CSS v3 color

Tailwind zinc-900 #18181B

Tailwind CSS v3's zinc-900 is #18181B. It is a near-black in the neutral family. In OKLCH it sits at lightness 0.210 with chroma 0.006, too low for hue to matter. The nearest CSS named color is black (#000000), ΔE2000 5.5 away.

Relative luminance: 0.0093
OKLCH L · C · h: 0.210 · 0.006 · 285.9
Best text: White 17.71:1
Hue family: Neutral

Inspect this color Check contrast

#18181B color codes

HEX: #18181B
RGB: rgb(24, 24, 27)
HSL: hsl(240, 6%, 10%)
OKLCH: oklch(0.210 0.006 285.9)
OKLab: oklab(0.210 0.002 -0.006)
CIELAB (D65): L* 8.36, a* 0.81, b* -2.10
XYZ (D65): X 0.90, Y 0.93, Z 1.17
CMYK (naive): cmyk(11%, 11%, 0%, 89%)

CIELAB and XYZ use the D65 white point; CSS lab() uses D50, so paste the OKLCH or HEX value into stylesheets. CMYK here is a plain formula with no press profile.

Legibility

Contrast: is #18181B accessible?

White text on it reaches 17.71:1, passing AAA. Black text fails at 1.18:1.

WCAG 2 gives the same ratio whichever color is the text; APCA does not, so its Lc changes sign and size with polarity.

Open the Contrast System

Black text on it

1.18:1
- AA fails
- AA large fails
- AAA fails
- APCA Lc 0
Text is here, unreadable at 1.18:1
White text on it

17.71:1
- AA passes
- AA large passes
- AAA passes
- APCA Lc −106
As text on black

1.18:1
- AA fails
- AA large fails
- AAA fails
- APCA Lc 0
Text is here, unreadable at 1.18:1
As text on white

17.71:1
- AA passes
- AA large passes
- AAA passes
- APCA Lc +104

Nearest versions that pass 4.5:1

For text on white

#18181B 17.71:1

It already reaches 17.71:1 on white, so no change is needed.
For text on black

#747478 4.51:1

Lightening its OKLCH lightness from 0.21 to 0.56 reaches 4.51:1 on black, keeping the hue.

Compare both in the Contrast System

Checking another pair? Use the Contrast Checker.

Studio

Adjust #18181B live

Move lightness, chroma and hue in OKLCH, or drag on the map. The map is every lightness and chroma at the current hue: sRGB inside the solid area, Display P3 out to the dashed line.

The studio needs JavaScript.

Scale

Shades and tints of #18181B

Eleven OKLCH lightness steps at this hue, each with its contrast against white and black. #18181B sits at step 950.

50#F5F5F8

White
1.08
Black
19.29
100#EBEBEE

White
1.18
Black
17.65
200#D7D7DB

White
1.43
Black
14.63
300#BDBDC1

White
1.87
Black
11.21
400#A1A1A5

White
2.57
Black
8.15
500#86868A

White
3.62
Black
5.79
600#6E6E72

White
5.07
Black
4.13
700#58585B

White
7.09
Black
2.96
800#3F3F42

White
10.49
Black
2.00
900#28292B

White
14.56
Black
1.44
950This color#18181B

White
17.71
Black
1.18

Under each step, white and black text on it; a bold figure passes 4.5:1.

Tailwind CSS v3 zinc scale

The real Tailwind palette, for comparison with the computed ramp above.

50#FAFAFA
White
1.04
Black
20.11
100#F4F4F5
White
1.09
Black
19.10
200#E4E4E7
White
1.26
Black
16.55
300#D4D4D8
White
1.47
Black
14.20
400#A1A1AA
White
2.56
Black
8.19
500#71717A
White
4.83
Black
4.34
600#52525B
White
7.72
Black
2.71
700#3F3F46
White
10.44
Black
2.01
800#27272A
White
14.89
Black
1.40
900This color#18181B

White
17.71
Black
1.18
950#09090B
White
19.89
Black
1.05

Gamut

How vivid #18181B can get

A gray has no hue, so no gamut holds a more vivid version of #18181B: more chroma would make it another color.

sRGB
Display P3
Rec. 2020
Dominant wavelength

OKLCH chroma: 0.006
sRGB edge: No hue
Display P3 edge: No hue
Rec. 2020 edge: No hue
Dominant wavelength: 464 nm
Excitation purity: 7%
Chromaticity: x 0.3008, y 0.3093

Mixing

Mixing #18181B

Each row is the same mix worked out in a different space, with the halfway color at its end. sRGB, which older CSS gradients use, can sag gray or dark in the middle; OKLab keeps the lightness steps even; OKLCH holds chroma and hue as it goes.

White #FFFFFF

sRGB50%#8C8C8D
OKLab50%#818183
OKLCH50%#818183

Black #000000

sRGB50%#0C0C0E
OKLab50%#040405
OKLCH50%#040405

In CSS

/* A gradient and a mix, worked out in OKLCH */
background: linear-gradient(in oklch, #18181b, white);
color: color-mix(in oklch, #18181b 50%, white);

In use

#18181B in an interface

A button, a link, a heading, a focused field, an icon and a chart line in this color, on a light page and a dark one. Each check is a WCAG 2 contrast minimum: 1.4.3 for text, 1.4.11 for the rest.

Light page

Button labelText, 4.5:117.71:1 Passes
Link and body-size textText, 4.5:117.71:1 Passes
Large headingLarge text, 3:117.71:1 Passes
Icons, borders and focus ringsNon-text, 3:117.71:1 Passes

Dark page

Button labelText, 4.5:117.71:1 Passes
Link and body-size textText, 4.5:11.05:1 Fails
Large headingLarge text, 3:11.05:1 Fails
Icons, borders and focus ringsNon-text, 3:11.05:1 Fails

For text on this page, the nearest shade that passes is #7D7D81 4.56:1

Color vision

How #18181B looks with color blindness

As a neutral it barely changes under any simulation, ΔE2000 2.3 at most.

Simulated with Machado et al. (2009) at full severity, in linear light.

Simulate a whole page What each type sees

Protanopia

No working red (long-wavelength) cones

#17181B ΔE2000 0.7

Imperceptible

Reads as near-black
Deuteranopia

No working green (medium-wavelength) cones

#17181B ΔE2000 0.7

Imperceptible

Reads as near-black
Tritanopia

No working blue (short-wavelength) cones

#171819 ΔE2000 1.9

Very close

Reads as near-black
Achromatopsia

No cone color vision; lightness only

#181818 ΔE2000 2.3

Close match

Reads as near-black

Pairing check

A near-neutral has no complementary hue to pair with, so tell it apart from neighboring grays by lightness contrast alone.

Harmony

Color harmonies for #18181B

A neutral has no hue to rotate, so every harmony collapses back to the same gray. Pair it with an accent color instead.

Or pair it by lightness: steps of its own scale as text on it, and what each can carry.

Build a lightness scale in Harmony Studio

Step 50 #F5F5F8 · 16.28:1

Body text, AAA
Step 300 #BDBDC1 · 9.45:1

Body text, AAA
Step 700 #58585B · 2.49:1

Decoration only, under 3:1

Code

Design tokens

Ready-to-paste tokens in six formats. Rename them to fit your system.

CSS custom property

:root {
  --color-zinc-900: #18181b;
}

Tailwind config

// tailwind.config.js — already built in as zinc-900;
// pin the v3 value explicitly like this:
module.exports = {
  theme: {
    extend: {
      colors: {
        zinc: { 900: '#18181b' },
      },
    },
  },
};

Tailwind v4 theme

/* app.css — Tailwind CSS v4 */
@import "tailwindcss";

@theme {
  /* v4 has its own zinc-900; this pins the v3 value. */
  --color-zinc-900: oklch(0.210 0.006 285.9);
}

Design token (W3C DTCG)

{
  "color": {
    "zinc-900": {
      "$type": "color",
      "$value": {
        "colorSpace": "srgb",
        "components": [0.0941, 0.0941, 0.1059],
        "hex": "#18181b"
      },
      "$description": "Tailwind CSS v3 zinc-900"
    }
  }
}

SwiftUI color

import SwiftUI

enum Palette {
    static let zinc900 = Color(.sRGB, red: 0.094, green: 0.094, blue: 0.106, opacity: 1)
}

Jetpack Compose color

import androidx.compose.ui.graphics.Color

object Palette {
    val Zinc900 = Color(0xFF18181B)
}

Matches

The nearest match in each system

The closest CSS name, Tailwind shade, RAL Classic paint and Crayola crayon by ΔE2000; under 2 is hard to tell apart side by side. RAL and Crayola values approximate physical colors.

Tools

Open #18181B in the tools

Each opens over this page. More colors live in the Color Library, and every color page is listed on the hub.