Seeking black hex codes?
Whatever your color palette, you want the right hex color codes to make your design sing.
Below you’ll find hex values for 20 black shades so you can pick the perfect one.
Plus answers to Frequently Asked Questions about the color black!
Let’s dive into the depths of black.
The blackest black has the hex code #000000.
In the RGB color space, black is 0, 0, 0. All the 0s mean that there is no red, green, or blue light. This deep black is the absence of light, so it’s the darkest color there is.
RGB color is subtractive, meaning that 0 is the darkest.
Black #000000 absorbs all light. Complete darkness.
Black in CMYK is 0, 0, 0, 100. However, for printing purposes this won’t give you the darkest black. For that I recommend Rich Black .
Since printing colors are additive, adding more colors (and more ink) actually makes your black blacker.
A good rich black is 60C, 50M, 50Y, 100K. For a cooler black, you can use 80C, 20M, 20Y, 100K. For a warmer black, go with 20C, 70M, 70Y, 100K.
All of these will give you greater than 200% ink coverage. Be sure to check with your printer to ensure the highest percentage allowable by their offset printing equipment and the paper stock you have chosen.
You might also want to learn the color meaning of black .
You can choose from so many shades of black! How many there actually are might depend on what you consider “black.”
Black is such a popular color – important in digital design as it gives strong color contrast, as well as the darling of the fashion industry. And one of the top-picked favorite colors .
Below are 19 additional black colors that aren’t quite as dark as pure black above, but are quite dark.
I’ve arranged them roughly from darkest to least dark.
I didn’t include colors that are actually dark brown, blue, purple, or green, as these shades are clearly not black.
Night is an almost-black with the hex code #0C090A.
Licorice is a shade of black with the hex code #1B1212 and the RGB values 27, 18, 18.
Here’s another Licorice with the hexadecimal color code #1A1110.
Eigengrau means “intrinsic gray” in German. It represents the uniform dark gray background color that many people report seeing in the absence of light. Eigengrau is almost black and its hex code is #16161D.
This Onyx is near black with the hex code #0F0F0F. The matched pairs mean equal amounts of red, green, and blue light, so it is neutral in tone.
Here’s another Onyx with the hex code #353935. It can also be represented in RGB color code as 53, 57, 53.
Just a hair off true black, the Smoky Black hex code is #100C08.
Another near black is Matte Black, with the hex code #28282B, or RGB 40, 40, 43.
Ebony is a cool black with the hex code #282C35.
Charcoal is a slightly lighter black with the hex code #34282C. It has a bit of extra red value for a warm black.
Here’s a cool Charcoal that leans towards the blue value with hex code #36454F. In the RGB color model, it is 54, 69, 79.
Oil is an interesting tone with the hex code #3B3131.
Dark Gray is a deep, almost black tint with a cool tones and the hex code #3A3B3C.
Jet Black is a neutral near black with 3 matching pairs in its hex code #343434. The RGB values are 52, 52, 52.
Light Black is a neutral deep tone with 3 matching pairs: hex code #454545.
Black Olive has the slightest extra green value to represent the color of black olives. The hex code is #3B3C36.
Iridium has the hex code #3D3C3A.
Black Cat has a bit extra red and a hex code of #413839.
Adding to our black animal color names, Black Eel has the hex code #463E3F.
Rounding up this group is Black Cow with the hex code #4C4646.
20 shown above, and even more choices I can add at a future date, like:
Well, you get the idea! There are more black color names than you can imagine.
Want more colors? Learn all about hex codes for colors and check out the full palette!